Glada Hudik-teatern

A man in Hudiksvall, a small town in the northern part of Sweden, took a job working with adults with special needs and had some interesting ideas about what they could do. The story of how they formed a theatre company, became famous all over Sweden, traveled to New York, performed on Broadway and got their own TV-show, is out of this world.

The group has handled their stardom with grace. I had the opportunity to hang out with them when they visited a K-7 school and I doubt Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt would have gotten a better welcome. The kids treated them like rock stars and they did their best to sign autographs for everybody.

A family friend worked with them in the beginning and told me about how they were invited to go on the Swedish equivalent to Good Morning America. Toralf, one of the cast members who is well known for hitting on almost every single woman he meets, and his handler were going to be on. While they are sitting in their chairs waiting for their turn, Toralf suddenly spots the gorgeous young weather anchor and he gets super excited. He starts tugging at the arm of his handler and says, “I want to ask her a question, I need to ask her a question”.

Oh no, thinks the handler, he is going to say something super inappropriate and we will not be able to go on the air. So he tries to calm Toralf down and says, “OK, OK, you can ask her a question later but not now. Just sit down and wait”. But Toralf will not give up and keeps repeating that he needs to ask her a question. When she is done with her segments he shouts at her and she walks over. “Hey you, hey you, I have a question for you!” says Toralf. She looks at him.

The handler hides his face in his hands and hopes for the best. “How many lingonberries are there in the world?”, asks Toralf.  That later became the name of a movie based on the Glada Hudik theater group.