Festivals in Scandinavia

This photograph from Køyr (Merge) by Gyrid Axe Øvsteng, festival 2000, photographer unknown

NORWAY

Norsk Dramatikkfestivalen   www.dramatikkfestivalen.no/
The Norwegian Drama Festival is owned and operated by Foreningen Norsk Samtidsdramatikk (The Association for Norwegian Contemporary Drama). Det Norske Teatret hosts the festival and is their closest collaborator. The aims of this organisation are:
To arrange Norsk Dramatikk Festivalen every second year.
To recruit new talents to playwriting
To promote the production of Norwegian plays also outside the context of the festival
To give playwrights professional theatre experience through various types of manuscript production
To create a meeting place and professional forum where playwrights, other theatre professionals and the audience can meet
To cooperate with other organisations pursuing similar objectives in order to further strengthen the developmental possibilities, production and performance of Norwegian dramatic writing.

Picture: Køyr (Merge) by Gyrid Axe Øvsteng, festival 2000 (photographer
unknown)

FINLAND

THE TAMPERE THEATRE FESTIVAL, www.teatterikesa.fi/in_english/

The Summer Theatre Festival in Tampere is the oldest, largest and most important professional theatre festival in the Nordic countries. International and domestic theatre of the highest quality is presented. Every year a selection of contemporary and engaging theatre productions fills the program, giving the festival visitor a good overview of the current state of the theatre, in Finland and around the world.
The Summer Theatre Festival always takes place in the beginning of August and extends for six days and nights. Performances for all ages are included in the program as are workshops, seminars, discussions and other meetings. It is a perfect meeting place for domestic and international theatre artists to meet and discuss.

Tampere Theatre Festival's future dates:

3-9 August 2009
2-8 August 2010
1-7 August 2011
6-12 August 2012

 

Hangö Theatre Meeting,  Hangö Teaterträff, www.hangoteatertraff.org/english.html

is a small-scaled and informal theatre festival on the southernmost point of Finland. It is an encounter for the professional Swedish-speaking theatres and free groups in Finland, with Finnish and international guests every year. About 30 shows are given during four days in garages, storehouses, parks, tents, and other unconventional theatre spaces. The audience can choose between children's theatre, drama, comedy, theatre for young people, music theatre, dance, improvisation and workshops.

Hangö Teaterträff is Finland's largest Swedish language theatre festival. In the beginning of June every year, audiences and theatre artists gather in the beautiful pre-summer Hangö environs to see the best performances of the year and to discuss and plan the development of Swedish language theatre arts in Finland. The Hangö Teaterträff is a vibrant encounter between independent groups and theatre institutions, academy students and established actors, critics, artistic directors, dramaturges and more. Above all, it is a unique meeting between the theatre and its audience in all forms. 

The 18th Hangö Teaterträff will take place 4-7.6.2009. The program is presented in Swedish on this site before the end of April.

 

SWEDEN

The Swedish Theatre Biennial in Borås,  www.boras.se/kultur/stadsteatern
3-7 June 2009
Every second year the Swedish Theatre Union, in collaboration with a host theatre / municipality somewhere in Sweden, arranges The Swedish Theatre Biennial. The first biennial was arranged in Stockholm in 1993, subsequent festivals in Malmö 1995, Luleå 1997, Norrköping/Linköping 1999, Växjö 2001, Uppsala 2003, Umeå 2005 and Örebro 2007. The Biennial has grown over the years and is today the largest theatre festival gathering of theatre artists in Sweden. The coming Biennial will be our ninth festival.
A dozen performances are selected by a jury of theatre critics and are performed during the festival. These performances are chosen from all the plays produced in Sweden during the preceding two years. It is a great honor for a production to be selected for performance at the Biennial.
The jury of critics for the 2009 Biennial is made up of the following persons:
Ingegärd Waaranperä, Dagens Nyheter; Anneli Dufva, Kulturnytt - Swedish National Radio; Ylva Lagercrantz, Internet theatre magazine Nummer.se; Nils Schwartz, Expressen; Karin Helander, Svenska Dagbladet; and Lis Hellström Sveningson, Göteborg.
In addition to the performances, a large number of seminars, workshops, master classes, school performances, breakfast conversations etc. are in the program and as well as an extensive program for international guests. Our last gathering, Teaterbiennalen in Örebro, 2007 broke all records with over 1500 theatre workers in attendance and over 80 international guests from 33 different countries!