Daria Bukvić holds up a mirror to theatres and companies on SPOT Live: 'I don't shy away from new forms of marketing.'

'With my performances, I always try to make people feel that they are really going to miss a happening. 'The first performance with personal stories of four Moroccan-Dutch actresses in the big theatres of the Netherlands, the newest this, the most surprising that.' Daria Bukvić is one of the most exciting creators to enter the theatre world in recent years. Not only is she hugely concerned with the content and social importance of her work, for her it also counts that as many people as possible see it. 'I grew up in a new era. I don't shy away from commercial marketing. That's really something is where many companies and theatres are still behind the times.'

SPOT-Live

She likes to tackle things differently. In the line-up of curators of the revamped Congress of Performing Arts, to be held on 13 May under the name SPOT-Live taking place in Leeuwarden, she is the only one not to introduce herself with a video. She has given up a reading list.

Question is: Why?

'I don't want much filmed material of myself on the internet. I still have a very long career ahead of me. Of course, there are already a lot of photos and films of me online, but I thought to myself: maybe it would be a good idea to avoid film and video images as much as possible and not fill the whole internet with them. Then the organisation asked if I had any viewing and reading tips, so that people can prepare themselves a bit for my programme parts anyway. Fortunately, I had already collected a lot of material for Othello. From that list, they picked a few things...'

The list includes a documentary on James Baldwin's I Am Not Your Negro, and the book Robber State, which presents our naval heroes in a somewhat less heroic light. Spicy fare. Will visitors be overheard?

'No, it's purely for inspiration.'

Future

The announcement also says you are bringing up someone from the future?

'I don't want to tell too much about that yet. After all, it has to be a surprise. It's about a future I don't know how far away it is from us. That's for the audience to decide. That's all I can say about it yet.'

Apart from bringing some, will you come and get some?

'I am of course very curious about the people who are going to be there. It will mainly be people from the business side of the theatre world. I want to know how they will relate to my themes. And whether they are going to get something out of it for their own daily practice.'

Region

For many performing arts organisations, that daily practice also means that 'the region' becomes more important. That's what the Culture Council wants. Is there anything to learn in that respect? Your last performance was Othello, with a black actor in the title role. In the performance, racism and white privilege were major themes. Was there a difference in reactions between the city and the province?

'There is often a very good response to the performance. I thought we would encounter the most criticism in the province. The interesting thing is that my worst post-performance was precisely in The Hague. The Hague is a pretty posh city with a largely old, white and posh audience. There we had an aftertalk where a club of elderly ladies who were reading Shakespeare really wanted me to be burned at the stake for my adaptation of Shakespeare. That was the nastiest aftertalk I have ever had in my life. What I had expected in a far corner of the country actually happened in the middle of our multicultural city.'

Bubble

'But a multicultural city doesn't say anything yet. When people live in their bubble they don't get out of it so quickly. If people think Shakespeare should only be performed in museums, that's what they think. Then it doesn't really matter where they live. It's about the question: in which reality do you move?'

'For example, how can you live in Amsterdam, the city with the most nationalities on earth, and still not see any of that? And not want to learn anything from that? It's often about the big gap between the city and the province, and of course it exists, but there are also people who live in the city and don't step outside their bubble at all. With my performances, I want to challenge people to look at the Dutch around them in a different way.'

Do you have any tips on how to get a wider audience in? Is it purely a question of the offer, or does more need to be done?

'I think the offer needs to diversify. There should be more room for new stories, for different stories. And more diverse casting. Fortunately, the tide is already starting to turn, but marketing is still relatively traditional. A kind of theatre terminology still dominates, by which you actually already exclude a certain audience. I think you should sell a theatre performance as a rock concert.'

Sexy

'I think theatre makers, marketers, everyone who works in theatre, is too modest. And by that I don't mean that you have to shout that you are the best all the time, but that we could do with a bit more charisma to our productions. I always try with my performance to make people feel that they are really going to miss a happening.'

'"The first show with personal stories of four Moroccan-Dutch actresses on stage", "the newest this", "the most surprising that". I grew up in a new era and don't shy away from new forms of marketing. I think that is really something where many companies and theatres are still behind the times.'

'Make theatre sexy again. An evening to theatre, you must have been there.'