"We are not going to put the phonograph on because
se on epäkunnossa". Director Melvin Kangas is guiding actors on an old stage of
Hancock Middle School, which has not been in use for a while.
A group of
actors are training for their play, which is going to be performed at
midsummer, as part of various program of FinnFest 2013.
.JPG) | ||
| Hancock old Middle School has come to action again. The play group uses the stage every Wednesday and Thursday nights before FinnFest 2013 for training the play. |
"Yes, we
are practicing on a play for FinnFest. It is called Ten Scenes of Niskavuori,
which I have made the translation for from Finnish to English. The play is
compilation of three stories; Women of Niskavuori, Bread of Niskavuori and What’s
now, Niskavuori?.
Niskavuori
is a legendary old Finnish drama series, written by Hella Vuolijoki. The series
have had an important role to strengthen Finnish identity.
FinnFest
USA is an annual event for American Finns and their descendants which give a
chance for American Finns to meet each other over the USA and deepen their
knowledge about being Finn. This year the FinnFest will be held in city of
Hancock which has a remarkable Finnish heritage and immigration history. They
are expecting thousands of visitors to arrive to Hancock and all of the
accommodations of the nearby area will be fully booked.
The 16
person group of Niskavuori actors consists mainly of staff and faculty members
of Finlandia University and other community members. All of them are amateurs,
but the atmosphere there at the hall of Hancock Middle School feels like in any
professional play practice. The actors are flinging themselves in the practice
and director Melvin Kangas is pointing out some details if needed.
"We practice
two times per week, couple of hours each time. We’ll have three
performances: the first one is the evening before the opening the FinnFest, Melvin says.
 |
| Director Melvin Kangas has had a big amount of work by translating the Finnish play manuscripts to English. |
