Tiit Ojasoo
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Tiit Ojasoo | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 28, 1977 Pärnu, Estonian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship | Estonian |
| Education | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (BA, MA) |
| Occupations | theatre director, stage pedagogue, academic |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Awards | Order of the White Star, 3rd Class |
Tiit Ojasoo (born 28 August 1977) is an Estonian theatre director, stage pedagogue and academic. He co-founded and served as an artistic leader of Theatre NO99, and since 2022 has been a professor of dramatic art at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.[1][2][3]
Working closely with the artist and director Ene-Liis Semper, Ojasoo became associated with politically engaged, postdramatic theatre that was influential in 21st-century Estonia.[4][5] Scholars of Estonian theatre have described NO99 as one of the country's most acclaimed theatre companies and as an important participant in Estonia's theatrical public sphere.[6][5] Its 2010 project Unified Estonia Assembly drew 7,200 people and has been described as one of the largest theatre events in modern European theatre history.[4]
Under the artistic leadership of Ojasoo and Semper, NO99 toured widely in Europe and appeared in the main programme of the Festival d'Avignon in 2015.[7][8] Ojasoo has received the Estonian state cultural award and the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class, and in 2024 shared the Estonian Theatre Union's directing award for Macbeth.[9][10][11]
Ojasoo was born in Pärnu.[1] He graduated from Pärnu Koidula Gymnasium in 1995.[12] He studied classical philology at the University of Tartu in 1995–1996 and then trained in stage direction at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, receiving a BA in 2000 and an MA in 2003.[2]
Career
After graduating, Ojasoo worked as a director at the Estonian Drama Theatre and taught acting at the academy's drama school.[2] In 2004 he and Semper took over the state-funded theatre Vanalinnastuudio and set about reorganising it as Theatre NO99, which formally operated from 2005 until 2018.[13][6][2]
According to Eva-Liisa Linder, NO99 under Ojasoo introduced a new style of postdramatic political theatre to Estonia, addressing subjects such as capitalism, civil society, racism, nationalism and energy politics.[4] Linder has also identified NO99 as a key institution in the development of Estonia's theatrical public sphere after 2005.[5]
In 2010 Ojasoo, Semper and the dramaturge Eero Epner created the NO99 project Unified Estonia Assembly, a staged political movement and mass meeting that received wide public attention.[4] In 2011 the three received the Estonian state cultural award for the project.[9]
NO99 developed a strong international profile under Ojasoo and Semper. The company appeared in the main programme of the Festival d'Avignon in 2015, at the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) in Brussels in 2016 and at Biennale Teatro in 2017, and won the Grand Prix at the Prague Quadrennial in 2015 and the Europe Theatre Prize for New Theatrical Realities in 2017.[7][8] NO99 announced its closure in 2018.[14]
After NO99, Ojasoo continued directing at the Estonian Drama Theatre and in academy-related projects. His later productions include Crime and Punishment (2020, with Semper), 72 days (2022), Macbeth (2023, with Semper and conductor Olari Elts), Vend Antigone, ema Oidipus (2023), and Eneseabiõpik (2025).[15][16][17][18][19] Since 2022 he has been professor of dramatic art at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.[2][3]
Public controversy
In June 2016, ERR reported that criminal proceedings had been opened earlier that year after Ojasoo assaulted an actress connected with NO99.[20] The proceedings ended in conciliation, and later that month Ojasoo resigned as head of NO99, while remaining with the theatre as a director.[21][22] In 2018 his involvement in the artistic programme for Estonia's centenary Independence Day reception led to an open letter signed by 104 people and renewed public debate.[23]