Browsing by Author "Turpeinen, Iida"

Since the creation of the current state aid system, five state subsidized theatres have quit their operations in Finland. Four of these theatres are children’s theatres and the aim of this work is to study the backgrounds of this development. The main question is do children’s theatres and their operational preconditions differ from other theatres and if so, how? What causes their differences and are there some factors that make children’s theatres more vulnerable as organizations? What kind of changes have taken place in the operations and operational environment of children’s theatres between the years 1995 and 2011? The study is carried out in the form of a case study. The work does not take any predetermined theoretical framework as its starting point but as is typical of case studies, it is based on the analysis of multiple sources of evidence. The work uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches like statistical analysis and interviews with children’s theatres’ representatives in order to gain as comprehensive and accurate description of the studied theatres and their situation as possible. In this work, children’s theatres are understood as institutions whose operations are influenced by other public institutions and regulations like culture- and municipal policies and wider societal changes. The first part discusses children’s theatres’ operational context and environment: the paradigms of Finnish culture policy, the formation of Finnish children’s culture policy and the contents of the Theatre and Orchestra law. The study then goes on to cover the history of Finnish children’s theatre and discuss children’s theatres that have been operational during the studied time frame, in 1995-2011. Next, the question of children’s theatres’ special characteristics and the changes that have taken place in their operation and operational environment is studied by means of statistical analysis. Children’s theatres’ special characteristics are identified by comparing them with other state subsidized theatres from the point of view of the amount of people working for them, their performance and touring activity and financial operations. In addition to recognizing differences between the theatres, the development of these variables between 1995-2011 is taken into account. The results demonstrate that children’s theatres and their operational environment differ from other professional theatres in many ways. The most prominent differences are the notably bigger share of prepaid performances of children’s theatres performances and their remarkably low ticket prices. The analysis also shows that the overall situation of children’s theatres has deteriorated during the studied time frame mainly due to the dramatic drop in the demand for prepaid performances and to the decline in the share of own income in children’s theatres overall revenue. Lastly the work discusses culture political means that could be made in order to improve children's theatres position and their operational preconditions