Freelance Finnish theatre director Kristian Smeds (1970) has visited Homo Novus festival already three times – bringing the performance – rock ballad Voyczek in 2003, the Orthodox legend The Wanderer in 2005 and Finnish Estonian collaboration project Chekhov's Seagull two years ago. Now he is one of the leading and internationally most acknowledged Finnish theatre directors who has staged performances in Finland, as well as in Lithuania, Belgium and Estonia.
After studying directing and dramaturgy at the Theatre Academy of Finland in the early 1990s Smeds founded the Takomo Theatre in Helsinki in 1996 and was the highly acclaimed artistic director of the Kajaani City Theatre 2001-2004. Together with his friends – voice artist Juha Valkepää, graphic designer Tero Nauha and radio DJ and light designer Pietu Pietiainen – Kristian established an informal company Houkka Bros, which has produced three performances – the Orthodox legend The Wanderer, the lesser musical about the life of Francis of Assisi Children, Birds and Flowers and live radio broadcast Radio Doomsday dedicated to Martin Luther. The solo performance of Lithuanian actress Aldona Bendoriute Sad Songs from the Heart ofEurope staged by Kristian Smeds in 2006 after the famous novel by Dostoyevski Crime and Punishment has got an international recognition. Smeds has also collaborated with Von Krahl Theatre in Tallinn twice.
Be it multi-layered big stage productions as Voyczek or Three Sisters in Kajaani Theatre or intimate religious stories told for the small audience by Houkka Bros, Smeds’s performances accumulate sharp and deep thought and drastic Finnish temperament in the same time. He has a gift to discover a new content in usual things and conventional plots. And Smeds’s specific sense of humor is never missing.
Recently Kristian Smedss together with Ville Hyvönen and Eeva Bergroth have established a new international and networking theatre group – Smeds Ensemble . It is a production unit which functions as a meeting forum for Finnish and international artists.