The Pyynik summer theater, which has fallen into financial trouble, will become a limited company. The owners will be the Tampere Theatre, the Tampere Tyvvae Theater and the Eino Salmelainen Foundation.
The Pyynik summer theater, which has operated as a foundation since 2001 and has run into financial problems in recent years, will turn into a limited company on the first of April.
The change ensures the operation and future of the summer theater. The newly established Pyyniki käsäteatteri oy is owned in equal shares by the Tampere Theatre, the Tampere Työväe Theater and the Eino Salmelainen Foundation.
It is a non-profit public utility company. If there is a profit, it will be used to develop the operation of the summer theater. The shareholders have no return expectations.
The city of Tampere has blessed the change of ownership and promoted it.
Soikkeli has previously worked, among other things, as a producer of the Tampere Theater and in the administrative management of Teatteri Telaka as a project and project producer, director of the artistic management team and chairman of the board.
– I’ve had a strong thirst to return to jobs where I’m responsible for bigger entities. I have come home, Soikkeli laughs in an interview with Yle.
Big losses due to corona
Pyynik’s summer theater had to cancel all theater performances in 2020 for its 65th anniversary summer due to the corona virus, which led to major financial difficulties.
Momentary relief for the summer theater, which laid off almost its entire staff, came from the Ministry of Education and Culture, which gave the theater 250,000 euros in corona support.
The pandemic damaged the theater’s operations for two summers.
However, in Mikko Kanninen’s opinion, financial difficulties cannot be blamed solely on the crown.
– Without a doubt, this is a rescue operation. It has been quite a catastrophic few years here. Even before the corona, Pyynik’s summer theater had a bad summer, after which the hole only got deeper, Kanninen tells Yle.
*The matter was corrected on 30.3. 9:55 a.m.: Corrected Mikko Kanninen’s title from Tampere City Theater Director to Tampere Theater Director.*
*The story was edited on 30.3. 12:11 p.m.: Corrected the section that talks about using possible winnings. Contrary to what was said earlier in the story, the profits are not used for the development of Tampere Teatterikesä, but for the development of Pyynik’s summer theatre.*