Born in Kuopio in 1960, Juha Laukkanen was one of Finland’s best-known puppeteers.
Puppet theatre artist Juha Laukkanen has died at the age of 62. Laukkanen died in hospital in Helsinki on Wednesday 8 February, according to people close to Laukkanen. The cause of death is not known.
The puppet theatre Sytkyt toured all over Finland, and Laukkanen performed in kindergartens and hospitals, among other places. The number of performances easily exceeded 200 in a year.
She appeared in Pikku Kakkonen (Yle) and in Uppo Nallen’s Christmas Calendar (MTV3).
Unlike many other puppet theater artists, Laukkanen rejected acting from behind a traditional screen and turned the table into a performance stage for the puppets. He himself was sitting next to the table.
Laukkanen was interested in the age-old tradition of puppetry, and the artist deepened his skills on Asian tours in the first decade of the 2000s. Among the destinations were Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Sytkyt was busy touring abroad, and Laukkanen was supposed to go to Morocco in May to perform.
Laukkanen has been Unicef’s Goodwill ambassador since 1994. He always wrote some moral lesson into his presentations.
Laukkanen was known as a companion. He was a Kulinaristi and the \”Savona casket thrower and entertainer\” at parties, as his circle of friends described him.