Reflections on the Theatre Academy in Sweden

Written by Milena Stanojevic

August 26, 2024, the day I travelled from Sofia to Stockholm, together with my colleague Desislava Stoyanova. Our flight was before sunrise that day, so we arrived in the early hours of the morning in sunny Stockholm. It was my first visit to Sweden in my life. We were quite tired, but also very excited and curious about everything that lies ahead. I liked the city almost immediately, it felt welcoming and charming in a way I hadn’t felt before. With each passing day of my stay, the people, the city, and the events will prove more and more strongly that what I felt when I arrived was absolutely true. For me it’s very meaningful that the theater brought me here.

Our late afternoon and evening was reserved for the STOCKHOLM FRINGE FESTIVAL INAUGURATION at Stadsgardsterminalen – an architecturally, spatially and conceptually extremely interesting venue. Stadsgardsterminalen is a cultural center run by Livet Collective, an artistic group and cultural agency active since the early 2000s, which took over the old Birka Terminal in the spring of 2022 and transformed it into Stadsgårds Terminal – an innovative and accessible place for all kinds of culture, in the middle of Slussen. The atmosphere was absolutely festive with a varied program of the opening – DJ sets, mini-concerts, pop -up performances, meetings with artists and our hosts – INTERCULT team, short presentations of theater teams and performances that we will be able to see during the festival and more. As much as we wanted to, lack of sleep and tiredness from travelling the same day got the better of us, so we didn’t manage to stay until the end of the event and unfortunately missed out on a group photo of all the participants. On the other hand, we had the pleasure of being photographed entering the event and for us it remains one of our special memories.

The opening night was very special for me also because of meeting several of the theater artists I had the pleasure of meeting in 2023 during the Theater Academy in Portugal. During our stay in Stockholm, we had the opportunity to share with each other our work experience from then  until now, new ideas and opportunities, as well as to strengthen our professional relationship.

I consider all this very important and deeply meaningful.

During the Theater Academy I participated in three great theater workshops led by amazing fellow theater professionals: “FROM SCRATCH TO A PIECE IN THREE HOURS”, led by MINNA HAAPASALO, Senior Lecturer in Theater at the Academy of Arts, University of Applied Sciences in Turku, Finland; “MAKING YOUR OWN SOLO PERFORMANCE”, led by: KAROLINA SPAIC, director and artistic director of ZID Theater, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and “ANKOKU SUBBODY METHOD”, led By TANA MANEVA, performance artist and director Teater Giljotin, Stockholm, Sweden. I have great respect for their personalities, their professionalism, their work and all the things they shared with us during their workshops. From each of them, I took something that is very valuable for me and my future work. I feel very happy, creatively charged and inspired by all this. 

Minna Haapasalo workshop – “From a scratch to a piece in three hours”, the way she guided the process and her professional generosity helped me enrich my professional skills and restructure my previous knowledge and experience related to my work with objects in the context of immersive and devised theater until now. This process and she herself inspired me to share further my accumulated knowledge and professional experience so far.  

Karolina Spaic workshop – “Creating my own solo performance” helped me focus on what I really want in and with my future solo performance, such as clarifying the topic, clarity about the important collaborators for me in this process, the needs of the project. Her ease and at the same time great professionalism easily put us in a situation of creative exchange of ideas and individual presentation of our future projects with complete freedom of our creative expression, which for me was extremely inspiring and valuable. It would be great and I would love to see at least a few of these projects of my international fellow theater artists realized in the future. Fingers crossed for everyone for sure. 

Tana Maneva workshop – “Ankoku subbody method”,  brought a whole new and liberating feeling to my physical and performing body. An absolute delight for me as an artist – performer, movement and dance lover. This was not my first encounter with Butoh, but it was certainly one of my most valuable. As it is written, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears…” I will be very happy if my professional path meets me again with Tana Maneva, for me, exquisite artist and person.

I highly appreciate the opportunity to visit different theater spaces in Stockholm during the Academy and Festival where different workshops and performances took place. Places with a history and/or concepts important to a local independent theater scene, such as: Teater Giljotin, Konträr , Teater Tre… On the other hand, the place and event that impressed me in a completely different way was the visit to the City Hall and the VIP reception. Extremely beautiful and at the same time very earthy, humane. I really appreciate everything that we saw in the City Hall, that we heard during the reception, namely the speech of the founders of the festival, the speech of the deputy mayor about their mutual support and cooperation, the history of the building and its halls. Unique and unforgettable.

A special place in my heart is occupied by the performance “General Public” by the theater company “Poste Restante”, which I had the opportunity to visit and experience as part of the program of the Stockholm Fringe Festival. For me, highly inspirational, funny and meaningful at the same time – my cup of tea – as they say. Unique and unforgettable. I wish for myself, one day to work together with them in a joint project.

On the evening flight of August 30, Desi and I leave Stockholm and as we send air kisses to the city and all the wonderful people it has connected us with, we whisper – we will see you again!