Kokoteatteri
KOKOTEATTERI
CONTACTS
Unioninkatu 45 (entrance at Siltavuorenranta 18)
00170 Helsinki
Tel. +358 50 321 9919
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HOW TO GET THERE
By tram: 1A, 3B, 6 and 9: the Hakaniemi or Varsapuistikko stops;
7A/7B: the Snellmaninkatu stop.
By metro: the Hakaniemi or Kaisaniemi station.
By bus: by buses 62, 64, 65A, 66A, 68, 71, 72, 75 and 77 the Kaisaniemi stop; if coming from the outskirts of Helsinki, you access KokoTeatteri by all the buses that come from the direction of Vantaa and that pass Hakaniemi on their way to Helsinki city centre.
THEATRE
The two extremes of KokoTeatteri's repertoire are drama and contemporary dance. In the middle, at the meeting point of these two, a new kind of multiartistic theatre is born, and that is typical of KokoTeatteri. The theatre offers a fusion between music, dance, acting and other forms of art, which all together melt into a holistic performance.
STARTING YEAR
1997. KokoTeatteri moved into its current premises in 2000. Previously, since 1927, there have been different cinemas in the premises.
AUDITORIUM
91 seats, rising auditorium.
STAFF
Theatre director and accountable producer:
Anna Veijalainen (founding member, who also writes plays, acts, sells tickets, takes care of the bookkeeping and from time to time puts on rubber gloves and mops floors.
Person responsible for the premises and guest dancers' visits:
Mikko Orpana (founding member, choreographer, who also designs and operates the lights, mixes sounds, acts, keeps the bar, and clears a path for anyone wishing to visit the KokoTeatteri's chaotic storage).
Production assistant:
Teemu Seppänen (responsible for briefing, updating webpages, answering the phone and e-mail, cleaning the toilets, mopping the floors, selling tickets and bookkeeping)
RESTAURANT/CAFETERIA
KokoTeatteri's cosy coffee bar has around 30 seats. The bar is open on show nights from 6pm to midnight. In addition to coffee and tea the bar also serves beers and ciders. For snacks we have salted peanuts and chocolate. In the evening the candlelit bar has a beautiful view over Pitkäsilta, the bridge to Hakaniemi. In the summertime we also have a small terrace which is bathed in sunlight from about 6.30pm onwards.
A GHOST STORY
A Creature from Another World: in the summer of 2008 KokoTeatteri's longtime producer and woman with nerves of steel, Isabel González came to work and bumped into a Creature from Another World crawling on the floor! According to her vague and abrupt descriptions the Creature resembled a creeping bat and moved very slowly on the foyer floor. Isabel was frightened and ran outside to call for a robust male actor. Such a man (who prefers to remain unnamed) then arrived and went inside to see what kind of creature there was to be found. After a moment he also came out as pale as a ghost. The Creature from Another World also defied his ideas of the fauna from this world.
When the choreographer Mikko Orpana arrived, they started a large quest, but despite all the traps and baits placed in the premises, the Creature was never again seen. It had returned to the Other World.