Middle Eastern Bloc Season 2. Episode 7:
For me... by Heli Sirviö

Performer: Cécile Orblin
Sound design and music: Saku Kämäräinen
Concept: David Kozma and Bita Razavi

In Spring 2020, when the first wave of the global pandemic hit the world, we were wondering how people residing outside their country of birth experienced the situation. How people living away from their families coped with the difficulties. We asked ten writers to reflect on their experiences and published the stories in the form of a podcast.
Now, towards the end of 2021, the situation has continued way longer than most of us could imagine. Different countries have dealt with the latter waves of pandemic with different strategies.The vaccination entered the scene but not all countries have access to it equally. Global economy and political relations came into play. All of these have created different experiences of the situation in different parts of the world. Some people deal with the disappointment of cancelled theatre performances and closed bars, some bury friends or family members on a regular basis.
We decided to reflect on the situation again in another season of our podcast. We asked writers and playwrights from different corners of the world to reflect on their experiences and their surroundings with the hope to draw a wider image of the situation and put things into perspective.

Heli Sirviö (b. Helsinki) is a Finnish actor, producer and teacher. She starred in the second season of the TV series Heaven's Fire as Päivikki Korkea-aho. In addition, she has starred in the show series Testosterile as well as visited television series Salatut elämät and Sykes. She has performed at the Finnish National Theater and Kuopio City Theater.

Sirviö graduated from the Theater Academy in 2001. In addition to acting, she has volunteered for Barack Obama.
From 2017 she lives in New York and works as a Finnish language teacher at Columbia University.