JOHANNA: What I had in mind when I invited
you here to have this conversation was whether we – as the makers of DramAgora – could have… have…

PATE: A mission?

JOHANNA: Yes, a mission. Could we make this magazine our mission?

JUKKA: Well, what you once said to me in the lobby of the Q theatre, that this would mark the beginning of a kind of a forum for theatre makers, both as an information channel for the audience and as a discussion forum for the theatre makers themselves… To me, that sounds like a reasonable idea. Something worth having.

JOHANNA: Umm.

PATE: Yeah, now that people would still find it. And not only our own people.

JUKKA: That’s it.

JOHANNA: Maybe it’s more to do with how it’s publicised. But I think that, first of all, there are awfully many people, who can write about the theatre and “think in theatre”, but there isn’t really such a forum between the makers.

JUKKA: Umm.

JOHANNA: Those, who do write about the theatre, are often journalists or then there’s some odd writing by the artists, for example, in the Theatre Magazine. But the writing doesn’t originate in the makers themselves.

JUKKA: Umm.

PATE: The Theatre Magazine is currently trying to bring itself up to date. They have this big project going on. I have some inside knowledge on the matter!

JOHANNA: What’s going to happen there? Let’s not put this on the internet…

PATE: Why not? New points of view, I hear. Whether it originates in the writers or not, I do not know… But new columns and a new visual look. And a new logo! But if you could find something like…

JOHANNA: And of course the second point is that there are many available groups out there and some interesting theatre going on, but they don’t really attract awfully lot of attention in the mainstream media. It is just like I said to you, Jukka, back then in the lobby of the Q theatre, that you have to grab the attention yourself. You have to find the space yourself.

JUKKA: Umm.

JOHANNA: A couple of days ago, something happened to me… I was sitting in this café and on the table, there was lying this Vero Moda magazine. You know the shop that sells the clothes made by Vietnamese children really cheap. Anyway, they have a MAGAZINE of their own nowadays. It was no advertisement, but a real magazine, where all kinds of people were interviewed and make-up tips were given and everybody was wearing Vero Moda’s own gear. And they didn’t even have the prices there. So in other words, they had turned an advertisement into a women’s magazine.

PATE: Umm.

JOHANNA: So, I guess it’s typical of this time to think about brands.

JUKKA: Umm.

JOHANNA: So whether it is crap or not, you can’t just sit around and wait for someone to come along and give you the space. You have to do what Vero Moda did and create the forum yourself. Listen to me, Pate… This must be a tough question for you as the visual director…

PATE: So, now that the tape is rolling, could you please tell us, why it is that…? All the difficult questions now!

JOHANNA: Yes. Well, as we all know, we are planning on publishing a book in the summer of 2006, where all the conversations since the Baltic Circle festival of the year 2000 are collected.

JUKKA, PATE: Umm.

JOHANNA: And they are good conversations, too. And they won’t get old.

PATE: But it would be great if someone did visit the web pages, because, after all, it is possible that thousand times more people would read the pages as compared to the printed versions.

JOHANNA: How do you envisage this – as a visual thing? Do we even stand a chance of a visual mission?

PATE: What do you mean? Is it possible to make a book?

JOHANNA: No, no. Do you think there is an opportunity for you to do something that cannot be done elsewhere? Something to do with a book or a web magazine?

PATE: I don’t know. Books do have their own limitations and web magazines have their own. All along, we have taken this harsh approach that we assume people to be really interested in this thing. So, that we don’t have to compete with the Vero Moda magazine in that whether people grab the magazine or not. Or you might grab the magazine, but when you start reading it, it turns out to be heavy stuff…

JUKKA: What interests me about the web magazine is exactly the fact that it is an open forum. It is so easy to just go there… even by such makers who are in another town, or even another country. They can discuss things there. At least, I am not aware of such a thing existing. I think there is a need for this kind of a forum, even for the Finnish makers only. Some discussion about the theatre would do no harm.

JOHANNA: No, but the difference here is, of course, that these conversations have actually physically taken place on a festival. It is crucial that people have actually met and that the conversation has actually taken place. And then the conversation can continue online or it should at least be seen online later. That way, the conversations aren’t too virtual in nature.

JUKKA: Everybody knows that people talk a lot in pubs, so why not in internet forums.

JOHANNA: I’ve had this idea… You do know that I will be hosting a Women’s Corner discussion again – the same one we had back in the previous festival in 2003.

PATE: (giggling)

JOHANNA: I’m telling you, that Women’s Corner will go on for as long as this project goes on! Heads held high! Once again, there are no foreign female directors in the programme! So perhaps some real 70’s feminism is needed now.

JUKKA: I will hold a Men’s House!

JOHANNA: As if...

PATE: No, maybe a Men’s Basement!

JUKKA: Or maybe Men’s Building versus Women’s Corner!

PATE: Or the kind of a basement room that all American men have – a work shop -

JOHANNA: Oh, shut up! (Bangs the table with her fist)

PATE: - or a garage, where they can go and box a little… and have a porn mag stash…

JOHANNA: Yeah, right. It’s just like that. Women’s Corner is a parody, of course.

PATE: Yeah, you really were grinning back then… (bursts out laughing, Jukka joining in)

JOHANNA: Well, back then we weren’t. But now we are. And we will go and do some girly things like have our nails varnished while we talk about arts.

PATE: Yep, to a nail bar.

JOHANNA: So, the idea is that these discussions become more tied to the situation. Previously we’ve had the discussions so that we’ve just sat down around the table and started talking seriously.

PATE: Umm.

JOHANNA: And now my idea is that we start developing these discussions more into adventures.

PATE: So, we apply for a grant so that we can go to a nail bar in Riga? For we don’t have them in Finland?

JOHANNA: It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular. It’s not a money matter.

JUKKA: Just think about sending Kristian Smeds and Erik Söderblom to a forest to chop wood and talk about what it’s like being a Finn.

JOHANNA: And some Alvis Hermanis joins in. With a suit on.

PATE: Or to a sauna, or a whole in the ice…

JUKKA: We’d get some good pictures. X-rated but nice!

JOHANNA: And of course they can be edited.

(everybody giggling and tittering)

JOHANNA: So this is the development plan. For instance, towards visualisation.

PATE: I see.

JOHANNA: So that those conversations would be filmic, theatrical. Scenes.

PATE: And yet it would continue the unofficial line. The idea about these breakfast conversations was that they would not be so terribly formal. Although the mike does always affect them… That’s why wood chopping would be fun.


JOHANNA: So for the next meetings, we have to start developing this idea. And if we feel like it, we can always revert back to sitting around the table.

JUKKA: And you could also put sounds or videos on the net.

JOHANNA: The idea was that we’d put some video material but for now we have decided to stick to the word format. Let’s first see how this works out like this before we start broadening our views.

PATE: And one and a half hours of talking on a video, taped in some small café…

JOHANNA: Of course it would be edited. But later, when we have the discussions while playing some swamp football, maybe then we could make a video out of that.

JUKKA: And of course, it does have an effect on the content of the conversation, whether we go to a café to have a conversation or whether we go and do something completely different and then talk at the same time…

JOHANNA: That’s true. So, maybe that’s our future. So that we make sure that these topics don’t stay the same year after year. Particularly when we have the same people talking every year. It has to be fun in order for it to be interesting.

JUKKA, PATE: Umm.