Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC), the first-ever Scandinavian-American theater company in New York, was founded in 2009 by a group of New York-based Scandinavian theater professionals with the wish to introduce a new generation of Scandinavian playwrights to an American audience. SATC’s mission is to present high-quality, cutting-edge productions of contemporary Scandinavian plays and fresh interpretations of the Scandinavian classics, as well as to foster the Scandinavian-American performing arts community in New York.

In their Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series, SATC presents five plays annually representing Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands).

Co-presented by the Consulate General of Finland in New York, the Consulate General of Denmark New York, the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, and Scandinavia House.

For Sheer Love of Me/Rakkaudesta minuun

Written by Anna Krogerus (Finland, 2005) & directed by Kathleen Amshoff. The Northcliff family is slowly falling apart in their large apartment in a wealthy neighborhood. Tina, an interior decorator, and Edward, a TV psychologist, are growing apart, while their ten year-old daughter, Sylvia (named after Sylvia Plath), becomes increasingly lonely and isolated.

All these suppressed feelings surface with the arrival of a new neighbor, Sally Peak. The entire family piles their hopes and desperation onto Sally, which leads to an inevitable collision. Starring Kaia Foss (Norway), Tullan Holmqvist (Sweden), Anette Norgaard (Denmark), Sean Kazarian (USA) and Eija Ranta (Finland), For Sheer Love of Me is a melancholy, perceptive, compassionate and subtly humorous examination of alienation within a family.

About the playwright:

Anna Krogerus (b. 1974, Kuopio, Finland) got her breakthrough as a playwright in 2006 with For Sheer Love of Me/Rakkaudesta minuun, first performed at the Finnish National Theatre. Both a critical and popular success, it also received the Finnish Critics’ Association Award for Best Play.

Krogerus studied literature at the University of Tampere and dramaturgy at the Theatre Academy of Finland (1996-2002). Since 2005, she has worked as resident writer and dramaturge at the Kajaani Municipal Theatre in Finland. Krogerus writes sensitive and complex plays, full of deeply introspective characters, balancing between anxiety and joy.

1287432000

1287432000

Photo by Tuukka Ervasti Millesgården

MON – 10-18-2010 – 8:00 PM
Pre-reception 7:30 pm/readings 8 pm
free