2015-2018 CELEBRATION OF STEREOTYPES & BURLESQUE
Celebration of STEREOtypes, a crazy cabaret series created and hosted by Agnes Kaszas and Lidia Bäck at Korjaamo and Vuotalo
"There was something missing in the art and party scene of Helsinki. So, we fixed it. We give you all in one: Live-music, stand-up, preaching, trash jokes, video art, DJ theatre, performance, burlesque, show-spectacle, and clubbing."
The club was a unique collaboration of several artists from different art fields. It played with the structure and the aesthetics of an old-school cabaret where different acts take place after each other. All acts are presented by a host who ties everything together.
Performers: Lady Laverna aka. Lidia Bäck, Ágnes Kaszás, Sara Melleri, Markku Haussila, Asta Honkamaa, Malin Nyqvist, Anna-Sofia Nylund, David Kozma, Ida&Jenny, and many others.
Sofi Oksanen-Norma's new novel launch party, by The Itty-Bitty Tease Cabaret -burlesque at Aleksanterin Teatteri
The Itty-Bitty Tease Cabaret performed three custom-created acts ordered for the release party of Sofi Oksanen’s then-new book Norma. The group got to read the final draft of the book earlier in the spring of that year. The whole event at the beautiful Aleksanterin teatteri in Helsinki with the show and panel discussions was streamed live via HS (the biggest newspaper in Finland). We got to meet Pekka Haavisto backstage and later we made a boob-related headline in the tabloids.
Performers: TurrrboCherry /Ulrika Bachér, Tinker Bell /Ruska Schönberg, Lady Laverna /Lidia Bäck, Vera Devil /Paula Laitinen, Amber Storm /Agnes Kaszas
Helsinki Burlesque Festival 2015 and 2016 at Gloria
2014-2024 MEMBER OF POST THEATRE COLLECTIVE
Since 2022 Board member of Post Theatre Collective
Drivers, European Theatre Collective, Director: David Kozma at Mad House
Drivers discussed the experiences and the societal positions of immigrants in Finland through documentary theatre and fictional storytelling. The piece searched for possibilities to normalize the lived experiences of culturally marginalized people in Finland. It focused on work and professional identity, which are considered important in Finnish society.
The first part of the performance happened on a bus. The bus departed from Kamppi Bus Station, platform 48, and drove the audience to Mad House in Teurastamo where the second part of the performance took place. Each seat was equipped with a pair of headphones through which the audience could listen to an audio piece based on Tuomas Martikainen’s book Suomi Remix.
Greetings from Zoongary, Zooropia, European Theatre Collective, Director: David Kozma at Mad House
Director/actor David Kozma took a camera and went to see the places of his childhood in Hungary and Transylvania. He felt this trip was necessary because he no longer recognized the world of Europe anymore. Kozma interviewed and filmed many people close to the border between Hungary and the rest of the world. Kozma, half Hungarian, half Romanian, now a Finn for ten years, asks himself ”What happened in Hungary, to Hungarians? Am I Hungarian?” and shows the sides and stories of divided Europe of the people living and breathing.
The show combined classical and electronic music with visual and live art. Pianist László Süle, electric kantele player Senni Eskelinen, electric violinist and computer expert Romulus Chiciuc, and actress-singer Ágnes Kaszás brought composer Béla Bartok’s classic ethno music into today’s world and helped to tell the stories and the situation of Hungary, in Tiivistämö, as the first performance of Mad House Season 4.
Finphonia Emigrantica, European Theatre Collective, director: David Kozma at Stoa and Caisa
What does Finland look and sound like in Luganda, French, Romanian or Russian? Finnphonia – Emigrantica is about getting to the essence of being Finnish. Is it crystallized in Kimi Räikkönen, Nokia, and ice hockey? Does it involve thousands of lakes? Does anyone outside Finland's borders recognize the Finnish ”sisu”? What happens when an immigrant talks about Finland and being Finnish in their own language? Can they convey the message? Is it recognizable? Does a Finn recognize themselves in it? Does an immigrant recognize Finland and being Finnish in the text? Are there confluences with their own country or native tongue? Does language really matter? In the end, is a look enough to convey an emotion, a situation, a scent – even a whole nation? The European Theatre Collective studied these questions with six multilingual and multicultural actors in Finnphonia – Emigrantica 10 images of Finland in 10 different languages.
Gasheart by Tristan Tzara, R.E.A.D. Festival, director: David Kozma at Madhouse
R.E.A.D. is a yearly festival established in 2014 by David Kozma. The festival is an arena that offers the opportunity to get acquainted with plays that have not been performed in Finland before. The festival brings together international theater makers living and working in Finland and abroad.
2013-2015 STANDUP! ONE WOMAN SHOW
STAND UP! one-woman show on identity and immigration
"Even a chameleon comedienne can have trouble finding the right color when her environment is foreign enough. STANDUP! is a one-woman riotous show produced and performed by Ágnes Kaszás about politics, womanhood, identity, fitting in, relationships, and homesickness, with a lot of music and provocation.
STANDUP! is a performance about a foreign woman's life and the difficulties of social and cultural integration in Finland. The topic is very important these days (in 2013), now that an unprecedented number of immigrants have started to move to northern European countries, where societies are becoming ever more diverse."
Working group: Sini Pesonen, Jussi Moila, Laura Dammert, Kristian Ekholm, Andrea Kovács, Pietari Kylmälä, Zsófia Purnhauser, Mara Jelinkó, Marcell Pető, Ada Halonen and Ajmo! Band.
The show was invited to Koko Teatteri-Rooli Festival, InterKult Kassandra festival, and Youth Against Racism Festival
Women In Society, Tribute to Cindy Sherman photo exhibition - concept, actor, and producer
Agnes created a photo exhibition as an homage to Cindy Sherman after seeing her exhibition in New York at MoMA. The idea was to make a collection of female types in society without using any digital effects, only makeup, costumes, and theatre tools.
Read more about Cindy Sherman here
This video was an homage to Die Antwoord made as a part of STANDUP! theatre show about politics, identity, racism, and feminism in Borat style by Ágnes Kaszás. It shows the prejudice of how Western cultures perceive Balkan and Eastern European people. A lot of exaggeration, drama, and provocation.
Video by: Ágnes Kaszás, AJMO!(Violeta Salonen, Ilja Salonen, Bratislav Toskovic, Markus Packalén ) Kristian Ekholm, Mara Jelinkó, Hedda Wallen, Jussi Moila, Teppo Salonen, Aleksis Meaney.
2014-2018 FREELANCE ACTING IN HELSINKI
Onneli Ja Anneli, director: Lija Fischer at Helsingin Kaupungin Teatteri
Based on the beloved children's classic, the original show included dance, the magic of puppet theater, and fast-paced actions.
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, a cooperation between Johannes Ekholm, Man Yau, and 111X, was a radio play/installation produced by Sinne and exhibited in Helsinki.
In an undefined but close future, Finland is at a breaking point. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, a civil war breaks out. Organised and violent riots are spreading nationwide. We are dropped into the very epicenter of the events and we follow the Task-rabbit courier Victoria (Agnes Kaszás) who during a job runs into Guy (Markus Riuttu), a small-time criminal who has unfinished business with the Baltic mafia. Together they decide to escape and during their journey, they meet many interesting and friendly people. In the midst of the catastrophe, everybody is helping each other out. When there is nothing more to lose there is room for dreaming.
Length: 90min, Language: English, Finnish, Swedish, Hungarian
Actors: Agnes Kaszas, Aura Nurmi, Harri Hertell, Iida Kuningas, Kasperi Laine, Markku Haussila, Markus Riuttu, Noora Dadu, Saara Vaniala, Sara Melleri, Stina Koistinen
Workshop in New York jointly organized by Circus Maximus & Hoi Polloi (USA) theatres
Vanhempainrakkaus/Rakkaus ja Laki, YLE Tv, director: Juha Lehtola
Dj Agitator- Dj performance at various events, like Hangö Teaterträff
Hungo Band- Hungarian tango hits in a new form -concept, singer, and producer
2010-2014 FREELANCE ACTING IN HELSINKI
Aniara by Harry Martinson, Teater 90, director: Aleksis Meaney at Kaapelitehdas
The performance was selected as part of the Finnish Theatre Museum's exhibition "Theatre in the 2000".
Harry Martinson won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1974 for this piece.
"The huge spaceship goldonder Aniara leaves the environmentally destroyed Earth and heads for Mars with eight thousand emigrants on board. On its journey, however, the craft veers off course and drifts uncontrollably into the boundless vacuum that exists between the worlds. In this void, the passengers of the Aniara are forced to create a new world for themselves, one in which they remain imprisoned forever."
Paratiisi by Jussi Moila, Teatteri Nirvana, director: Sini Pesonen, at Teatteri Takomo
The show was selected for Tampere Theatre Summer Festival and Stage Festival in 2011. In addition, the show received a special mention at the Thalia Gala as the best show of 2011.
Paradise” (2010) tells the story of a boy from war-torn Africa who arrives as a refugee in a cold, suspicious Finland. Despite violence and racism being core themes, the play maintains a hopeful, storybook quality to the end.
Eden by Mark Twain, Teater 90, director: Aleksis Meaney at Forumbox.
The show was selected both for Thalia Gala and Tampere Theatre Summer Festival in 2013.
Teater 90° dealt with the theme of couple relations, and how we find it increasingly difficult to communicate with each other. Based on the allegory of Adam and Eve, we looked into Finnish society, the economic upheavals, the changed values that prevail, and the consequences that these have had for the individual and for the couple's relationship.