| Meet Katriina Andrianov! I was introduced to Kati by my mentor and friend, John Bell. Kati is a Finnish scholar and puppeteer and we immediately connected over our shared interest in pauper statues (vaivaisukot) and community based theater. |  |
I had the chance to visit Kati in her hometown of Viiala in 2013 when I was in Finland for a family reunion. I was lucky enough to attend a street festival she directed and got to see her work in person. We met again in 2014, when Kati joined me in Turku to devise performance sequences with puppetry students and to share her doctoral thesis on the theatrical function and history of pauper statues on stage. Kati also invited me to speak about the SISU project and lead a story circle as part of a conference at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre in Tampere.
Kati has been a project partner for SISU is in the Heart from day one and has provided endless support and advice regarding Finnish funding and insight about the Finnish theater system. Now that the project is returning to Finland, Kati will come to Lapua to choreograph three dream sequences in the performance and teach teenagers how to manipulate the large hand carved pauper statue puppets. I couldn't be more thrilled that she will be able to join us!
Please take a moment to read more below and browse the photos.
-PC
Kati has been a project partner for SISU is in the Heart from day one and has provided endless support and advice regarding Finnish funding and insight about the Finnish theater system. Now that the project is returning to Finland, Kati will come to Lapua to choreograph three dream sequences in the performance and teach teenagers how to manipulate the large hand carved pauper statue puppets. I couldn't be more thrilled that she will be able to join us!
Please take a moment to read more below and browse the photos.
-PC
BIO
Katriina (Kati) Andrianov PhD is a director and researcher of stage animation, currently working as a regional artist in Arts Promotion Centre Finland. She has MA in Russian language and literature but also qualification for text adaptation and visualization for puppet theatre. She is one of the founder members of Theatre Group Stage & Fright (1997) and Cultural Co-op Kiito (2011), a multifaceted group of participatory arts practitioners. Since 2008, she has been a member of Research Commission in UNIMA - Union Internationale de la Marionnette.
FOUR QUESTIONS
Do you have any family that settled in America?
As far as I know, I don't have any family that settled in America. My father's family is well researched back to the 16th century but I don't know much from my mother's side . . .
If you could choose one ancestor to have dinner with who would it be?
I'd love to have dinner with my grandmother Ida (my mother's mother). She was born in 1905 in a small hut in the middle of a forest. Her family was so poor that the four children (Ida as the eldest) had to go and beg for bread. She never grew taller than 145 cm. She died in 1989, so I remember her well. She really got sisu... I miss her, I've so many questions to her.
Where do you feel most at home?
I feel most at home when I'm swimming with my son and my husband in the lake Arajärvi. It's an evening in July and the water is warm, clear and smooth. No wind, so I can swim silently towards the sun. No boats, not much people around - just the water and me. And my son's voice from the shore when he explains to his father what he just saw underwater.
What does "sisu" mean to you?
What does sisu mean to me, well - everything. It's impossible to live without it. I haven't gained anything easily but, on the other hand, I'm used to getting want I want, in one way or other. There have been times when I wished I could skip the sisu and just relax.
As far as I know, I don't have any family that settled in America. My father's family is well researched back to the 16th century but I don't know much from my mother's side . . .
If you could choose one ancestor to have dinner with who would it be?
I'd love to have dinner with my grandmother Ida (my mother's mother). She was born in 1905 in a small hut in the middle of a forest. Her family was so poor that the four children (Ida as the eldest) had to go and beg for bread. She never grew taller than 145 cm. She died in 1989, so I remember her well. She really got sisu... I miss her, I've so many questions to her.
Where do you feel most at home?
I feel most at home when I'm swimming with my son and my husband in the lake Arajärvi. It's an evening in July and the water is warm, clear and smooth. No wind, so I can swim silently towards the sun. No boats, not much people around - just the water and me. And my son's voice from the shore when he explains to his father what he just saw underwater.
What does "sisu" mean to you?
What does sisu mean to me, well - everything. It's impossible to live without it. I haven't gained anything easily but, on the other hand, I'm used to getting want I want, in one way or other. There have been times when I wished I could skip the sisu and just relax.
PHOTOS FROM PAST COLLABORATIONS
RSS Feed
