Studying at KHiO 2021: Academy of Theatre

What has it been like at KHiO?

My time at KHiO has been mixed, but all in all it’s been really good. I mean, studying at the Academy of Theatre is completely time-consuming, but I’ve met loads of cool people who I really appreciate, and I’ve had a venue where I have had the opportunity to develop a lot, both as an actor and as a person. The final year at school has of course been strange, with all the restrictions and the ensuing challenges, but I feel that the school has handled it well, and I consider myself lucky to at least have been able to be at school in person.

What is your main takeaway from KHiO?

There’s so much I’m taking away with me that it is hard to identify the single most important thing. A large part of it is of course the specific knowledge from the teachers and the endless hours of feedback and rehearsing. In addition, I’ve learned so much about myself, about discipline and the importance of working and that every single process is different. Now I also know that acting is a discipline where you are never finished learning, so I’m happy to feel like I’m taking some important tools along with me in order to be able to develop and learn, even though I’ll no longer be attending the school.

And I’m also taking with me a network of people I know who are in the same industry as I am and who – perhaps even more importantly – have become new friends and really nice people I’m awfully fond of.

Tell us about your graduation project.

We played Penthesilea, as directed by Johannes Holmen Dahl. The play was written by Heinrich von Kleist in 1805 and is a tragedy about the Greek hero Achilles and the Amazon queen Penthesilea, who face each other on the field of battle, fall in love and are forced to deal with the consequences.

We spent a good deal of time collaborating with the director to work through the text and develop the roles and the overall theme, and I feel the solutions we arrived at were both challenging and exciting. This was also one of the few productions that all of us in the class were able to do together, and so it felt right to end our time here with this project.

Sadly, the restrictions meant that only a few people were able to see the play, which is strange to think of since it was our graduate production. But the performance was taped, so we hope more people will be able to see it later on.

And now what?

Now I’m about to start working at the National Theatre for a year, beginning with a production of Mother Courage on the Amfiscenen stage. I’ll be working with an absolutely fantastic bunch of actors, and with Runar Hodne as the director I can almost guarantee that this is going to be fabulous. Come down and see it!

I’m dreaming of being able to work with the people I admire the most and create things that people can both enjoy and learn from. As far as I’m concerned, the feeling that you’ve learned something new from a theatrical production is the best feeling there is!