Laura Pählapuu says sensitivity helps her create theatre

Estonian Drama Theatre scenographer Laura Pählapuu says creating a good work means experiencing it deeply, worrying over it and sometimes losing sleep, ERR reported.

“If I stopped worrying, perhaps such good works would no longer be born,” Pählapuu said on the cultural programme “OP”. She added that she cannot work on several projects at once and needs time to prepare and think things through.

Pählapuu said she has been interested in art since childhood, watching her grandfather paint, and has also long loved theatre and television productions. She never thought she would become an actor, despite attending an acting group. Scenography appealed to her because it brings together art and theatre.

Her favourite television production is Gunnar Kilgas’s “Rudolf and Irma”, which she watches about once every two weeks. She said she often puts on a television production while cooking after work.

Pählapuu said she prefers to create the visual world of a production rather than direct it. She usually draws costume designs by hand and makes models, saying the process helps her think through the work. She described herself as a sensitive person who takes criticism to heart, while noting that this sensitivity also helps her create.

An exhibition in the theatre’s corridors features photographs Pählapuu has taken of the company’s performers. The project is ongoing as new actors join; portraits are removed when performers leave. Pählapuu said she had not studied photography, but began taking the photographs after starting work at the theatre because she wanted to get to know the actors she did not meet through productions.