An overview of the past
In 2017, Helga’s Speksi’s first production team began operations. The imprint of their work was admired in the spring of 2018, when the first performances of Speks called Meloni Oy started. In the autumn of 2018, the training of a new Speks called Rakkaudesta Vankilaan began. In December 2018, Speksi received his very own coveralls badge, which created a lot of joy for the students, because who wouldn’t love coveralls badges! The second most recent Kohtalon Sävelet Speksi experienced an unpleasant fate as it had to be canceled due to an ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
When I first became a part of Helga’s Speksi I had no idea what to expect. Then again – I don’t think anyone could have predicted a worldwide pandemic that would really put everyone’s strength and motivation through the wringer. That’s why the need for communities is more important than ever.
Maybe it’s due to the fact that we haven’t been able to properly go out for a year, but I never thought I’d find myself missing the thought of having a post-party sleepover with half of my class stuffed in the same tiny apartment. Maintaining those human connections also requires so much more work than what we’ve been used to, now that we can’t simply wave and hug each other in the campus hallway. Chances for effortlessly finding and maintaining our community are scarce these days and that’s why we have to create them ourselves.
It’s easy to forget that some of us have been doing so the entire time. For some of us, our own tribe isn’t found as easily as within our classmates or even in the same study program. That’s why projects such as Speksi are so important.
Helga’s Speksi is more than an interactive musical show produced entirely by students each year; it’s a community. It brings together like-minded people from different study programs and even different campuses. Helgan Speksi came to be so that all of us, even the ones whose own little gang couldn’t be found on the floor of the student apartment at 4 am, could have a community of their own. For me at least, Speksi has really succeeded in that.
Things don’t always work out the way we thought. It was hard having to cancel Speksi’s shows last year. It’s been hard to see new students missing out on the traditional freshman experience. Many of us feel lonelier than ever and that’s why the need for a community is also greater than ever. Even though having a remote game night while we should have originally performed our show was hard and unexpected, I can only be grateful that we got to do that together, too.
Thankfully the pandemic hasn’t been the only thing surprising me since I joined Helga’s Speksi. I never expected to meet many of my dearest friends there. I never thought being a part of a community such as Speksi would become more important to me than my studies. I certainly didn’t expect to find my own tribe that I had longed for in Speksi, but I couldn’t be more grateful that I did. And I firmly believe that the same could happen to anyone – as long as you’re brave enough to take the first step into the unknown. Just like we do in Speksi.
Helga’s Speksi is an annual musical play where the audience is able to participate interactively and influence the course of the play with “omstart” scream that can be shouted in the middle of the play. In an omstart shout, the screamer can decide on a theme, for example: backwards, accelerated, in Russian, or even rapbatle after this, the actors re-present the previous scene with the theme that the screamer has said. Read more about this on Helga’s website.
Former actress, current director and always a member of Speksi.
Elina Sivonen
20.03.2021 245 days left for Helga’s annual gala.
