20
photo: Malla Koivula
Nukketeatteri 1/2012
Morning warm-up. Rene Baker and student Mila Nirhamo.
Rene Baker:
Discover the puppet Rene Baker has spent two years in Finland as a teacher of puppet theatre. What is on her mind after her period in Turku Arts Academy? What were your first thoughts when you were asked to come to teach in Finland? My first thought was that it will be a pleasure to teach in one place for a whole year after having spent the previous three years living out of a suitcase as an international freelance workshop leader. In the end I have been two years in Turku and I can see how my teaching has been positively influenced by the slow-cooking of weekly classes compared to the high-heat grill of intensive short courses. What made you come? I admire the work done by the teachers and students in the puppetry department of the Turku AMK. At international festivals the Turku students always stand out because of their personal expression and it is evident
that they are people who care about puppetry as an art form. When I received the invitation to teach in Turku I had been working too long in acting schools, always fighting for puppet theatre to be recognised, and so it was appealing to come to a place where people actually want to be puppeteers. What are the most important things you have to have to be a good teacher for adult people? Teaching adults is a collaboration. I propose the exercises but each person brings their own experience and ideas to the work and sometimes – as happened with the 3rd year students last year – the classroom becomes more like a laboratory where we pose questions as a group and search for the answers together.
You have a long career as a teacher of puppetry. How could you characterize students in Finland? Finnish students tend to be quiet, shy and even introverted because it is in the Finnish nature to be reserved in their physical expression but they are very free and happy expressing themselves through objects, colours, textures, images and music. Puppetry seems to suit the Finnish soul. Compared to students in other countries? Before Turku I was teaching for many years in Spain. Spanish students have vitality and love to communicate but they usually need to learn to be sensitive to the material and to give focus to the puppet. Finns are the opposite – they have a good touch for bringing objects to life but they need to be en-
