ONGOING PROJECTS

2024

DRAMATIST RESIDENCY, LABBET/LABBETS RESIDENSDRAMATIKER

“During Labbet's six-month writing residency, I will explore the potential of multilingualism in a dramatic work. The aim is to write a new play where multilingualism not only reflects the multilingual society we live in, but also has a dramaturgical function where translanguaging and code-switching are used as a method. I myself am a Sweden Finn (a Finnish speaking national minority in Sweden), and the way I or other multilingual people speak and code-switches is not seen or heard on our theatre stages. The themes that motivate me are identity, home and alienation. Not a physical home that creates a feeling of home, but a community and a context. I want to look at what it is that creates this context.

The new play will be aimed at a young audience of middle/high school age. Young people carry a rich language where loanwords from other languages are becoming more and more common. Concepts such as third culture kid, in-betweenness and an intersectional perspective are keywords in my research. What about Finnish-Swedish young people who identify them selves as "third culture kids" in Finland? Can they relate to the feeling of in-betweenness? What is it like to be a minority within a minority? I believe that there is a need for more drama aimed at this target group in the Swedish-speaking community in Finland and I am very excited to work with reference groups, to create a work with themes that are relevant to them. By creating new stories, new identity formations are made visible. By providing space and including different experiences, I hope to increase the understanding of multilingual, cultural and social identities.

I am looking forward to my writing residency at Labbet, a place where I can dig down and write, face, try, fail and try again."

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