BERNADETTE STOKVIS LEAVES END OF SUMMER AS BUSINESS DIRECTOR OF MAAS THEATRE AND DANCE

Bernadette Stokvis is leaving after 11 years of service as business director of Maas theatre and dance. Her successor will be recruited soon.

Stokvis has been business director at Maas since 2013. Before that, she was initiator, artistic coordinator and later business director of Korzo The Hague. Thanks in part to her leadership, Maas has become a BIS company and also the largest theatre and dance company for youth in the Netherlands. As of the policy period 2025 - 2028, Maas is three arts plans old. During that period, Maas has developed its own signature in physical theatre and dance for young people and has thus managed to build a loyal following in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and beyond.

Stokvis: "Although I know I will also miss it tremendously, I recently made the decision to quit as business director/manager at Maas. Together with an inspired team, we started building a large and high-profile national company for youth and young people with a welcoming home and stage in Rotterdam 11 years ago. That was a great adventure. We made fantasy worlds with and for children, we developed programmes with and for young people on all kinds of social themes and worked on imagination in schools.

This provided a wealth of moving, amazing and inspiring experiences that I cherish and wouldn't have missed for anything. With an enormous sense of pride and love for Maas and for this sector, I am now making way for a successor who, together with the current team, will make the company and the stage even more relevant and beautiful in the years to come."

Fred Wartna thanked Stokvis on behalf of the Supervisory Board:

"The Supervisory Board is extremely grateful to Bernadette Stokvis for her unbridled commitment to Maas. First and foremost on the business and financial front, she created the conditions under which the artistic ambitions could be realised. In addition, she led Maas with Moniek Merkx from the beginning and forged MAX, Siberia and Meekers into a leading youth theatre company.

Bernadette skilfully managed the change of artistic leadership to René Geerlings and the corona period, while also helping Maas grow considerably. Kind, interested, consistent and always focused on cooperation, she also represented Maas to the outside world. Bernadette thus contributed constructively to the cultural network of Rotterdam and the national youth theatre field."