Now that Dramatic Fields has come to an end, we wanted to give all of you who couldn’t join an insight into the mind of the workshop leader, Jarkko Lehmus. Jarkko works as the producer responsible for the artistic programme of Cirko – Center for New Circus in Helsinki (Fi), and as a freelance dramaturg, director, and choreographer specialising in non-verbal performative arts. He holds an MA in Dramaturgy & Writing for performance from Goldsmiths, University of London; and MA in Arts Policy & Management from Birkbeck, University of London; and a BA (Hons) Theatre from Guildford School of Acting. Over the past three decades, Jarkko has worked internationally in the performing arts. His professional experience ranges from physical theatre to neoclassical ballet and conceptual performance art to acting on the stage and in front of the camera. In his work, regardless of the professional title, he concentrates on the physical effects of imagination, emotions, and empathy and the collaboration between arts and sciences. Here are his thoughts on dramaturgy.

“In Dramatic Fields, the facilitators of the project, including myself, do not aim to teach the ‘correct’ contemporary circus dramaturgy. We facilitate the creation or the development of dramaturgical thinking in the participants, and they will produce something new.” Alise Bokaldere (AB): Jarkko, what’s exciting about circus right now for you? Jarkko Lehmus (JL): The physicality of it, the practicality, and the can-do attitude of circus. AB: Would you say it’s the discipline that creates it that way, or the people who are in the discipline? JL: I think it’s a little bit different depending on the disciplines because circus encompasses various different disciplines. If we look at object manipulation, where illusionism and juggling are parts of object manipulation; or acrobatics on the ground, or in the air, or somewhere in between; or physical comedy ...