WORKING GROUP
Director and Adaptation: Jonna Wikström
Set and Costume Design: Paula Koivunen
Sound Design and Music Arrangement: Markus Bonsdorff
Choreographer: Soile Ojala
Lighting Design: Mia Jalerva
Video Design: Tytti Junna and Suvimarja Halmetoja
Performers: Nea Hokkanen, Edit Viljamaa, Zaher Husseini, Matias Löfberg, Myrsky Virmavirta, Javid Panahi, Iida Lampela, Masha Suhhareva, Saana Miettinen, Siru Summanen, Sara-Inari Pohjonen, Marie Vilkki, Jesse Gyllenbögel, Saggad Muhammed, Milana Novokmet, Janette Hirvonen, Anastassia Suhhareva, Anna Buzakova.
SHORT FILM, TAMPERE FILM FESTIVAL 2019
This is a short documentary about RyhmisYouth, which we made in collaboration with the Tampere Film Festival and the Pirkanmaa Film Center. The short documentary was shown at the Tampere Film Festival in 2019.
RyhmisYouth: Youth Theater Supporting Immigrants – Project Implemented in the 2018-2019 Academic Year
The RyhmisYouth project was part of Fingo’s Frame Voice Report! project.
The project aimed to integrate young people with immigrant backgrounds with native Finnish youths, thus facilitating the integration process for immigrant youths. The project also helped participants gain educational credits. Integration support was provided through functional and arts-based methods. The target group included young people with immigrant backgrounds and asylum seekers. Young people were recruited from Diakonia College, Eira High School for Adults, and Helsinki Upper Secondary School for Adults. The group consisted of immigrant youths and native Finnish youths, known as RyhmisYouth, mixed together. This way, these young immigrants would also gain exposure to Finnish youths and their lives, something that we, the “art aunties,” find challenging to fully comprehend.
From the outset, my principle was NOT to ask immigrants the question, “How did you come to Finland?” This question is always asked both at Migri (Finnish Immigration Service) and in all performances involving immigrants. Is it really the only thing we Finns know how to ask and are interested in? To me, this felt stale. Of course, speaking should not be prohibited, and in fact, during the project, the young people voluntarily shared their experiences with each other.
The project began with recruiting native Finnish youths to the group. It was important for them to understand the nature of the project they were joining. Although the performance was made wholeheartedly, this project was about much more. It was clear that they needed to be prepared for the particular demands on their patience, teamwork, and guiding skills. Alongside the performance preparation, there was an integration process, which we believed would lead to learning in both directions. We used the youth musical Hype as the backbone and inspiration for the performance, and it included a lot of material produced by the youths themselves. The young people wrote about crushes, bullying, and feelings of being an outsider. These were done in their own language because I thought it was important for the young people to express themselves in their own language about things important to them, rather than in an inadequate or weak foreign language. The performance FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out premiered at the Group Theater stage in May 2019 and was performed 10 times. Approximately 1,700 people attended during the performance season.