Age recommendation: 15+

Anna-Mari Laulumaa (concept, direction, and performer), Japo Granlund (lighting)

Jyväskylä-based theater maker Anna-Mari Laulumaa builds her performance around the condition of schools and the discussions surrounding this topic. Something is amiss at school. It doesn’t add up. There are disturbing noises coming from the school, like those from a bicycle’s noisemaker. Laulumaa is concerned and looks back. The feeling is even one of hopelessness.

“The State of the School” is serious stand-up and participatory performance where personal experiences, interviews, texts, and research information merge into one big question. Or rather, a cluster of questions. How did we get here? And to what end? Where are we going, and why?

“From yellow snow pants to the education minister’s high heels – Anna-Mari Laulumaa’s monologue ‘The State of the School’ illuminates what is being said about schools” -Keskisuomalainen, July 9, 2023

The legacy of the folk school, the spirit of the seminar, the idea of the comprehensive school, and new currents. Inclusion, self-direction, team teaching, PISA results. Authority, shared spaces, digitalization, and bullying. Laulumaa stirs and threshes all this in her new, updated performance, which blends fact and fiction.

Anna-Mari Laulumaa is visiting Jyväskylä Summer for the fourth time. Her previous directorial works have been seen in Laukaa Prison and at Hitonhauda.