Who are we?
Viikki-speksi ry is an organization founded on the Viikki campus of the University of Helsinki in 2016, with the primary purpose of producing annual musical theater productions. Speksi is an all-student produced form of musical theater in which spectators participate in the play by asking for improvisation. Viewers can shout “omstart!” at the point they want, in which case the scene they just saw will be replayed and improvised in a different way.
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The member organizations of Viikki-speksi ry are all student organizations on the Viikki campus. In addition to the annual production, Viikki-speksi organizes both events for its members and events open to all. In this way, Viikki-speksi carries its cards into the pile of interdisciplinary collaboration.
The board of the association is responsible for the operations of Viikki-speksi. The board is elected at the association's meeting every spring.
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Viikki-speksi spec will welcome all students of Viikki campus to their ranks, but other people who are enthusiastic about doing theater will also be welcomed with open arms. The speksi performances will be held in April, and rehearsals will begin as early as fall.
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Participating in the activities is a good way to get to know students other than your own home organization. Intense exercises and work through the academic year bring people closely together and have cemented many friendships through time. With other words, if this introduction woke your interest you should definitely come along to taste the student theater vibe at our events, even if you do not have a clear vision of whether you want to join the production or not. Of course, you can also become a member of Viikki-speksi ry even if you do not wish to participate in the production itself. In this way, you can get involved in the events we organize for all our members, including excursions to watch speksi shows of other campuses.
So, take a tour on our website and find out what we are all about! You can also find us on social media including Facebook and Instagram .
What is speksi?
Speksi is a form of interactive musical theater, entirely produced by students. Thus, on stage or in the immediate vicinity of the stage, a scripted play and associated music and dance performances can be seen, but in addition to this, viewers get to participate in the fun with special “Omstart!” -shouts. When this phrase is heard the actors, and often also the band and the dancers, improvise and present the scene they have just performed, in a different way or add something to it. More interactivity comes from the ability to add some attribute to the omstart, for example “Omstart, in gibberish!” or "Omstart, soap opera!"
The speksi tradition originates from Sweden, Uppsala, in the 16th century, but it was not brought to Finland until the early 20th century. Viikki-speksi, founded in 2016, is therefore a newborn chick among many other Finnish speksi-organizations. In our production, we strive to respect the traditions of speksi-culture, participate in its promotion and bring our own Viikki'ish nuance to the production.
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You can contact the production by e-mail at tuottajat.viikkispeksi(at)gmail.com.
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