Spex as part of student culture has expanded from Universities to Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). Metka, the student union of Metropolia UAS, was the first on to make their own spex few years ago and this year Helga the student union of Haaga-Helia UAS is the second one to introduce their own spex.
Helga started planning their own spex about one year ago and it will finally premiere this Sunday. The director, Joni Härkönen, has been part of the team from the beginning. When he joined the team he had never seen a spex.
“I knew what the concept was and of course when I joined I had to go see my first spex”, he says.
One of the actors, Eevi Turunen, had a better idea of what she was getting into.
“I had seen one spex before, so I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. I also applied to the production team a year ago, but because I was out of town when the team was put together I didn’t get it. I joined the team just before Christmas as an actor.”
Having never produced a spex before the team had to start from nothing. That gave them free hands to do pretty much whatever they wanted, but it also meant they had to figure out everything from scratch.
“We started with some research about other spexes. Then we started looking for venues, putting together a script writing team and recruiting people for the roles, band, dancers, building the sets and all that is included. We put together an amazing team and started building the whole thing piece by piece. You could say it was kind of like making a puzzle”, Joni describes the beginning of the production process.
Joni says the biggest challenge in the production has been that it has never been done before in Haaga-Helia.
“Something so simple as ok, we have the venue, now what. No one gave us a time frame in which certain things should be done. We had to figure it out. So there were some leap of faith moments, where we just thought ok, this sounds smart, let’s try it and see what happens.”
For Eevi, the most challenging part has been the lines.
“There are couple scenes where I have very similar lines, so in rehearsals there have been times when I have mixed up the scenes. And that could possibly happen during a show too”, she says.
Joni and Eevi both agree that moments of confusion are also a part of any spex. The audience can participate in she show by yelling omstart and adding something after it, such as omstart, switch roles or omstart, it’s a romantic comedy. And then the actors on stage perform the last couple lines with given instructions.
“If there are many back to back omstarts it can take a couple seconds to get back on track and remember what comes next in the script. So there will probably be some moments of confusion on stage, but we’ll do our best to play them out well,” Eevi says.
“It’s at least equally amusing when the actors make a mistake on stage or realize that they are doing the wrong scene, as to when they follow the script”, Joni adds.
Spexes are student made theater that can include anything and everything. There’s acting, singing, dancing, improvising, live music, all the elements are there. A lot of the improvised scenes come from the audience yelling omstart and then specifying it. Every show is different, and if every show is different, they’re all kind of a premier.
Rehearsing a play where you can’t know what exactly is going to happen on stage in front of a live audience is a little different than a traditional theater piece.
“We started by learning the script as well as possible and then escalated it more and more”, Joni says.
“When a scene felt like it was going well we started adding omstarts to it”, Eevi explains. “It’s been good that in practice we’ve been able to do pretty much whatever with the omstarts. That has made all of us more relaxed and it makes it easier to throw yourself into any scene also on stage. Of course we have to keep in mind what we can do in front of an audience.”
As a director Joni has given the actors a lot of space to develop their characters and bring up their own ideas. And Eevi agrees that it has been a good way to work.
“Throughout the whole process we have had this attitude of not being too hard on ourselves. And we’ve kept in mind that this is the first time something like this is done in our school and we’re doing our own thing. If we make a mistake, that alright. We’ve done our best. And we know that we don’t have the same experience as many universities since they have been producing spexes for years and years,” Eevi says.
“But it’s still really really good!” Joni continues.
It’s easy to tell they are both very excited to bring the spex out on stage and show people what they have been working on for the past year. But they are also nervous. Eevi who has experience from other theater productions gets butterflies in her stomatch.
“It’s like a little tickle on the bottom of my stomach. I get it usually a couple days before premier and just before going on stage. It’s been a while since my last theater performance and I have kind of missed this feeling.”
Joni admits to not having slept in last few days.
“I’m not nervous at all,” he says ironically. “I actually just realized that when the show starts on Sunday I lose all control over it. Then it’s out of my hands. Of course I trust these guys who are going on stage, so it will be alright.”
The next spex is already on the books and recruiting a team will start immediately after the final show. Joni and Eevi both think they will somehow be involved in that too.
“Maybe not in the eye of the storm, but somehow there guiding the new team,” Joni says.
“I’ve been acting a lot and already in high school I started thinking it would be nice to maybe try directing. So now that idea has emerged again, so we will see. But I have also very much enjoyed acting again,” Eevi continues.
Helga’s spex Meloni Oy will premier this coming Sunday at Gloria. Other showtimes are Tuesday the 15th and Wednesday the 16th at 17.30. Tickets are available at bailataan.fi. This spex is held only in Finnish (unless someone calls out “omstart in English”), but look out for more spexes that are also held in English.
First picture of director Joni Härkönen by Janna Nousiainen, second of Eevi Turunen as her character Camilla by Julia Falck and last picture from practice by Alma Zanella.