Theatre researchers have regularly organised train seminars which serve the combined function of seeing theatre outside the greater Helsinki area, doing group work focused on a specific theme, and keeping costs as low as possible. The department could not really afford study trips, but we used to reserve space in a first-class carriage, which we used as a seminar room.

Students bought student discount first-class tickets and the department reimbursed them the difference between first and second class. The cheapest possible accommodation was chosen, since everyone was paying their way.

The theatres we visited on these trips offered us free coffee and theatre tickets. When we stopped in Lahti on our way to Kuopio and in Seinäjoki on our way to Oulu, we were offered theatre tickets and coffee twice. On the way there, students gave presentations on the theatres or performances we were about to see, which we then discussed, pausing occasionally to listen to train announcements.  At our destination we attended several theatre performances, interviewed people working in the theatre, and also sometimes attended and/or gave lectures at the local university. If we had international exchange students or teachers with us, the discussions were held at least partly in English.

In spring 2014, we developed this idea further by organising a train congress called Theatre and the Nomadic Subject: A Mobile Train Conference, where we travelled from Helsinki to Rovaniemi in a conference car. The congress was surprisingly popular, and attracted participants from as far away as the United States and India.

Translated as coursework by Sara Jormakka, Saana Kallioinen, Tanja Koski, Suvi Lehikoinen, Tuomas Mäenpää, Emilia Mäkinen, Emma Niemi, Eerika Norja, Anu Piippo, Riina Vepsä, Saara Viitanen, Marilena Constantinou, Liisa Eloranta, Teemu Heikman, Marika Holmberg, Cecilia Ihatsu, Juliette Lempinen, Elviira Mattila, Sinimarja Niironen, Milla Rautio, Riikka-Liisa Salomaa, Sebastian Wandao & Elina Virros.

Revised by Nely Keinänen & John Calton