Otso Huopaniemi

Otso Huopaniemi, MA, MFA, is a Finnish playwright, director, performer and teacher who has shown work internationally including PS122 (NYC); 3LD Art & Technology Center (NYC); Kiasma Theater (Helsinki); ZKM Center for Art and Media (Karlsuhe, Germany); Theaterdiscounter (Berlin). He has received grants for artistic projects (e.g. love.abz and The Finnish Mafia in the Bronx) and academic studies in Finland, in the US, and in Germany (Berlin Senate, Fulbright, Wihuri, Thanks to Scandinavia, Finlandia Foundation, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Center Finland, Huber, Kone, among others). He has collaborated with various artists and companies including: Juha-Pekka Hotinen, Juha Hurme, Kimmo Kahra (Finland); Anna Brenner, Jess Smith, Kon Yi, Sheila Callaghan (USA); Josep Caballero Garcia, Lee Meir, and Ania Nowak (Germany).

He has taught dramaturgy and directing students at the Theater Academy Helsinki (part of University of the Arts Helsinki since 2013), and live writing at ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. He has also worked as teaching assistant in the Finnish Studies Program at Columbia University (NYC), as well as production assistant for American playwright Edward Albee. Otso has been writing plays, directing and creating performances in various capacities since 1997, gradually moving from the staging of written texts to writing-in-performance using the technique that he has developed in collaboration with performers from diverse artistic and geographic backgrounds. He received his MA in dramaturgy from the Theatre Academy Helsinki, studying under
Pirkko Saisio, Juha-Pekka Hotinen, and Kaisa Korhonen; and his MFA in playwriting from Columbia University, where he studied under Charles Mee, Kelly Stuart, and Anne Bogart. Currently, Otso is working on (love.abz)³, to be premiered in Berlin in 2015,
among other projects.

(source: ELO 2015 catalog)