The family moved to the village of Maarala in Pälpänsalmi when Anja was 6 years old. Marriage took the young woman to Puumala, where she still lives as a mother of two children and the owner of three cats.
Härkönen worked in Puumala, among other things, as a campsite manager and was a well-respected and respected hostess at the Virranhovi restaurant for 20 years. Härkönen was forced to retire from her job on sick leave in 1993.
Amateur theatre has been Anja Härkönen’s great passion and love. The theatre fly bit Härkönen in the 1960s, when theatre enthusiasts from Puumala sometimes acted as their own group, sometimes as part of the community college district or as part of the Boating Society’s drama group.
Yrjö Sutinen was an important theatre influencer as director. In 1978, six enthusiastic theatre makers held a founding meeting of the theatre association in the restaurant’s office. One of the founding members was Anja Härkönen.
Anja has served as the chairwoman
and director-actress of the Jalkapuuteatteri ry. Since its founding, Jalkapuuteatteri has produced at least one full-length play each year, as well as several small-scale poetry, song and sketch performances for various occasions. The theatre’s guiding idea has been to take theatre to where people are.
The group has performed in pubs, campsites, overseas data retirement homes, libraries and even prisons. Performances have been held at birthday parties, weddings, elk parties, graduation parties, Christmas parties and openings. The group built its own summer theatre on the
Puumala waterfront in 2007. In 2010, the theatre also got its own stage for its winter activities in the premises of the former tax office. The group received the South Savo Art Prize in 2003.
As a director
Anja Härkönen trained at her own expense in the 1970s and 1980s at courses offered by the Finnish Amateur Theatre Association, the Drama Studio of the University of Tampere and the Theatre Academy. The Jalkapuuteatteri’s repertoire has been ambitious and diverse.
The group has not fallen into the hunt for box office magnets, but has made performances that have something to say. The group’s selection has included Finnish classics, digital marketing case studies premieres and contemporary plays. Among the repertoire are Arto Paasilinna’s “The Year of the Rabbit” (1988),
Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” (1991), Reko Lundan’s “Someone Always Gets Lost” (2000) and Maria Jotun’s “It’s Okay to Say Love”, which gained fame and glory at the Mikkeli Workers’ Day in 1986. The performance was directed by Jarmo Siltaoja.
Anja directed theatre enthusiasts
From Juva in Koikkala from 1992 to 1999 and in Härkälä from 1994 to 2004 as groups of the community college. The driving forces of the Koikkala theatre circle have been, family moved to the village among others, Tuomo Hämäläinen, Albin Kettunen, Anneli Varjus and Lasse Mahlberg. The stars of Härkälä have included, among others,
Irene Ruotsalainen, Erkki Laitinen and Alba Tervonen. Anja Härkönen has also directed performances for the Sulkahatut group and the Lava ja laari group. In her directing fax database in Juva, Anja Härkönen has interpreted the pain points of
the countryside and Finnishness through humor, and power and municipal decision-making have also been themes. Härkönen directed her last Juvala play, Härkälä Drama Circle’s Paljon onnea vaan, in 2004.
Anja is a founding member of the Finnish Amateur Theatre Directors’
Association and the Mikkeli County Amateur Theatre Association. She served as the chairwoman of the latter for the first three years. Härkönen has served as the vice-chairman of the Puumala Municipality’s
Culture Committee and the chair and vice-chairman of the family moved to the villageEducation Committee. She has also been Puumala’s theatre agent.
“If a gift has been given, it should be used as long as possible. And if it makes someone happy or makes someone think about things in a new way, or if that new way could help someone close to her, then great, then it has a purpose,” she reflects in an interview with Yle.
