None of the candidates for the next director of the Paide Music and Theater House were well-known cultural organizers on a national level. The position went to Külliki Aasa, who has a background in cultural bureaucracy and currently works as a folk culture specialist for Järva County.  

"I'm going to start from the beginning," Aasa said when asked where she would begin in her new position as Paide's culture chief.

"I'm going to go through all the paperwork," she continued. "The development plan is outdated; I'll review job descriptions; I'll go over workplace procedures — in short, I'll review all the administrative paperwork."

Aasa has no plans to revive Paide Theater, which had been operating under the theater house's authority before going quiet for the past three months. She acknowledged she doesn't even consider the Jan Teevet- and Mariliis Peterson-led theater to have been a real theater.

"A little of this and a little of that hasn't actually added up to [being] a theater — that's my assessment," she said. "But I definitely wouldn't dare try to relaunch it right now, because there are so many new theaters on Estonia's theater landscape that supply today exceeds demand at least threefold. So I don't think there's even room on the market for yet another theater at this point."

Paide Mayor Kaido Ivask (Isamaa) believes it is only right that the decision on whether to continue the operation of Paide Theater should be left to the new politicians who will take office this fall.

"And I believe that whatever happens will be up to the next city government and city council to decide," Ivask said. "That's because these decisions will have very long-term impacts. There are also obligations to take into account, because certain conditions must be ensured for a theater, and that also involves financial commitments. So it makes sense to leave this decision to the next city government and council.

Paide's new culture chief will start work on April 1.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!