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History
The Finnish Dramatists’
Union (Suomen Näytelmäkirjailijaliitto - Finlands Dramatikerförbund)
was founded on the 3rd of February 1921 by a group of established Finnish
playwrights concerned about their professional and legal rights. The
Union’s objective was to oversee the collection of often neglected
performance rights, as well as to promote playwrights and Finnish drama in
general.
It did not take long for the newly established Union to
confirm its place within the Finnish cultural scene. The new copyright law
of 1927 made collecting performance fees more straightforward than before,
while the Dramatists’ Union proceeded to negotiate agreements with all the
major players in the Finnish performance arts scene, including the
national broadcasting company (YLE) which was established in 1926. The
hard work bore fruit, and partly as a reflection to this the Union
received its first state grant in 1931.
While doing its very best
to make the playwrights’ voice heard, the Union office also aimed to keep
up with the rapidly modernising world. A phone was installed in 1924, and
five years later the office invested in a brand new mechanical calculator.
Although
the war years (1939-1944) hampered the work of both the Union and Finnish
writers as a whole, the Union was able to recover relatively soon after
post-war normality returned. Indeed, already by 1948 had theatre firmly
re-established itself as one the nation’s favourite pastimes, with no less
than 328 Finnish plays being performed that year.
In 1952, the
Dramatists’ Union acquired a new property from central Helsinki to
accommodate the three-member staff of its office. The new office was in
fact desperately needed, for in the 1950s the Union’s work load grew
dramatically as the complexity of contract negotiations increased. The
launch of Finnish television broadcasts in 1955 further introduced new
avenues and challenges, and continued the Union’s openness towards new
mediums, a stance that has continued to this day – today, the Union
comprises of members who write professionally for stage, film, television,
radio and multimedia.
In the decades following the 1950s, the Union
has carried on its work to promote the interests of playwrights and drama
in Finland. Following the withdrawal of state grants directly given to
playwrights, the Union successfully negotiated to have a grant introduced
for new works performed in professional theatres. In 1975, the Union also
introduced a yearly tribute awarded to the professional theatre that has
staged most new Finnish plays during the year. This was followed by the
Lea Award, which since 1985 has been given to a Finnish playwright in
recognition of his or her work.
The new millennium has introduced
new challenges and directions for the Union to explore, not least in the
form of the Internet, which has become increasingly important as a tool
with which the Union carries out its mission. This is perhaps best
manifested in the online service Näytelmät.fi, which functions as an
electronic library of Finnish drama. The Internet has also bridged
communicational distances between the Union and its foreign partners,
making our work increasingly international in scope.
Despite of
these changes, the Union’s main purpose has over the years nevertheless
remained largely unchanged. Still today, more than 85 years after its
foundation, the goal of the Finnish Dramatists’ Union remains to promote
good writing and to look after the common interests of Finnish
playwrights. We carry out this mission by negotiating contracts for our
writers and by informing our members about grants and awards, as well as
by offering them judicial advice. The Union also maintains close ties to
the Finnish public administration, as well as other cultural organizations
in both Finland and abroad. We would like to think that it is at least
partly because of us that Finnish theatres and their audiences trust
Finnish writing, and that the position of theatre in the Finnish cultural
scene remains strong.
Based on a text by Arto Seppälä
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