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Afterword in TR8 foyer. Flnr: Brecht de Backer, Samuel D. Hunter and Erik Whien. photo: Wijbrand Schaap

Samuel D. Hunter's Proof of God at Theatre Rotterdam: "Since I'm a father, I have to be hopeful, I can't be cynical anymore."

"In America, when you put two guys on stage, the audience expects them to beat each other up, or fuck each other. In this play, neither happens, but in the theatre it's almost always about two men fighting or fucking." Legendary words from Samuel D. Hunter. He wrote the play 'A Case for the Existence... 

The sacred must of Andrea Voets: "I really am the most difficult client of my own work"

"I never thought just playing music was enough." Andrea Voets (34) is a rising star in the arts, but cannot be pigeonholed. She has now found a form she calls musical journalism. And next year she will come out with For Real, a live concert-cum-talk show that will generate dozens of new podcasts, as many as... 

Ann Eysermans at Dropa House, photo by Dropa House

Why Antwerp is ahead of Dutch culture: Dropa House

The recording studio and residency venue of Antwerp's Sound In Motion/SIM under construction is why the Belgian cultural sector is miles ahead of that of the Netherlands in one important respect. Magic word is: residency. Do It Yourself From Antwerp, the couple Christel and Koen, both marinated in the DIY ideology of punk, have long been bombarding city and world with concerts... 

scene photo by Sanne Peper

Reinout Bussemaker is the dream JP in Aluin's 'This is ours'

You must be a white man of a certain age. Some of us are so fed up with being blamed for everything that they voted PVV or worse in the last elections out of sheer desperation. That is why it is good that playwright Erik Snel, himself a white man of a certain age, has written a play about the archetype of the Dutch... 

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Premiere dance performance Tegenwind van de Stilte with Artvark saxophone quartet in Chassé theatre Breda

On Sunday 14 January at 3pm, the dance and music performance Tegenwind will premiere at the Chassé theatre in Breda, a family performance for everyone aged 7 and above. Tegenwind is the sequel to the successful collaboration of dance company de Stilte and Artvark saxophone quartet in the production Bosch in Bed. Anyone listening to Blowin' in the wind by Bob Dylan will hear a song... 

screenshot of committee meeting on 11 November 2013

Before we forget everything: this is how the new Chamber president thinks about culture

"In the short term, the threat comes from black-racial activists and their leftist slaves. A very small group of activists with an obsession with skin colour have opened the frontal attack on the symbols of Western culture. They claim to speak for all of black Holland. This must eventually end in reparations because of slavery and job quotas against whites, like in South Africa.... 

PR image ITA/NDT/HF

Festivals full of theatre, dance and music from the comfort of your own living room

ITA, HOLLAND FESTIVAL AND NDT PRESENT BIBERATING PROGRAMS ONLINE, IN DIGITAL THEATER International Theatre Amsterdam, Holland Festival and Nederlands Dans Theater will present groundbreaking programmes online, in the Digital Theatre, during the Christmas holidays. In order to connect makers, companies and (inter)national visitors, the initiators choose a programme during the Christmas holidays. The ideal period to be together, to feel... 

Amsterdam Museum visible on all fronts by 2023

In 2023, the Amsterdam Museum was visible physically and digitally in a variety of places, both at its locations on the Amstel and Huis Willet-Holthuysen and in the form of a multi-part documentary series, a new digital platform and programming with partners. The museum's exhibitions and public programmes attracted nearly 190,000 physical visitors at both locations, plus over 850,000 visitors on the... 

In Brabant, arts subsidies are already going under

In North Brabant, the annual provincial subsidy for professional art will go down by €629,000 a year from 2025. Whereas prestigious, and very vital, organisations such as Boulevard, Bosch parade and Matzer could count on an amount of 8.25 million until now, from the new culture plan period it will be only 7.6 million. The Brabant cultural institutions, united in The Art of... 

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Theatre group Alum creates show about Jan Pieterszoon Coen's legacy

Premiere: 23 December 2023, Theater Kikker, Utrecht Utrecht - After the success of 'Ik zeg toch Sorry' (selected for the Dutch Theatre Festival), Aluin will present a zeitgeist comedy this Christmas. In theatre group Aluin's new show Dit is van Ons, the deeds of J.P. Coen and all his influences are denounced again, anno 2023. This performance... 

pr image The Christmas Dinner by Wilmink Theatre

In Enschede, I realised again how important own actors are for a city theatre

It is one of my worst guilty pleasures. Egg salad from the better-filled mayonnaise manufacturer from Twente, with a close second to their tuna salad. I can't get enough of those. And now let them have both of those on the table at Het Kerstdiner in Theater Kleine Willem in Enschede. Chic is different, but in the... 

PR image The Utility

The NUT presents in collaboration with Podium Hoge Woerd: 12 Good intentions

12 grapes. 12 courses. 12 wishes for the new year. Utrecht, 6 December 2023 - It was a busy year for the NUT (Nieuw Utrechts Toneel), which included their already tenth summer performance on location in Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht. However, it is not the only tradition the NUT faithfully continues, as in January 2024 they will return... 

cover I Say Sorry Anyway

'I say sorry' is now a book. Go read it, together. 

"Listening, not always understanding, but trying to go along with (the black) voices ensured that, in my opinion, there was a beautiful text at the heart of the performance Ik zeg toch sorry." If a short preface to a play has as much meaning as this quote by Raymi Sambo, the text itself must offer much more.... 

Roy Kemmers by Michelle Muus

Sociologist Roy Kemmers: 'It is not the cultural institutions that should be protected, but the values they stand for.'

"The unease of the voters who gave Wilders 37 seats is not solved by the position of power the PVV has now achieved." Roy Kemmers (43) is an associate professor at the sociology faculty of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. On Tuesday 28 November, he wrote an opinion piece in De Volkskrant, commenting on the rise of populism. He obtained his PhD... 

pr image Closed Eyes

With Closed Eyes, Alida Dors unleashes a revolution

I used the word 'revolutionary' when a camera crew from Theatre Rotterdam asked me what I thought of Closed Eyes. I don't know if my otherwise extraordinarily enthusiastic response will make it to the final edit, but a day later, that feeling is not gone. What Alida Dors, artistic director of Theatre Rotterdam, has shown is a revolution in the world of... 

In Museum Arnhem, Wilders haunts the mind

Our intended prime minister wants to abolish almost all cultural subsidies. Only art that can be properly understood by 'real Dutch people' still deserves financial support. Wilders targets cultural subsidies from an ideological background. Anyone visiting the exhibition 'Art in the Third Reich - Temptation and Distraction' at Museum Arnhem cannot escape seeing disturbing comparisons. Wilders sees art as a... 

Farewell to Burny Bos, pacesetter of Dutch youth film

It may sound a bit dramatic, but fans of Dutch youth film may feel that this is the end of an era. I just read the mail with the sad press release that writer, radio producer and film and television producer Burny Bos (1944) died on 1 December. It was not entirely unexpected. Last year (and not before... 

DALL-E 2023-12-01 11.58.18 - A photorealistic image of an elephant rampaging through a china shop, with shelves of delicate porcelain items being knocked over and shattered. The e

The Arts and Culture discount can start as early as 13 December

On 6 December, the new House of Representatives will be sworn in. a week later, the deliberations on the budget tabled by the incumbent caretaker cabinet in September will begin. The then secretary of state for culture, Gunay Uslu, has since flown the coop and cannot be challenged on her budget. Someone else will now have to defend that budget. Those who wondered whether the peace... 

The Artists Are Present: Rebellious bodies, empowering moves, fluid identities, collective movement: 13 to 15 December theatre Frascati

The Artists Are Present is ICK Dance Amsterdam's festival in which a new generation of artists present themselves to the public and share the floor with each other. From 13 to 15 December, young dance and performance makers take you on an exciting voyage of discovery in a dynamic programme of performances, unexpected pop-up presentations and conversations. .The short December days... 

Partners Faces of North Holland. photo: Francoise Bolechowski

Amsterdam Museum presents programme for 2024

In 2024, the Amsterdam Museum has several exhibitions on the agenda, both in the building on the Amstel and in Huis Willet-Holthuysen. Among other things, 2024 will focus on the role of women in our collections, the significance of Piet van Eeghen for the history of Amsterdam and 400 years of the connection between Amsterdam and New York. New in... 

The Romeo - Orpheas_Emirzas

First performances Holland Festival 2024 announced

Ticket sales start on 28 November for the first four performances for the 77th edition of the Holland Festival. 11,000 Saiten ('11,000 strings') by composer Georg Friedrich Haas is a spectacular sound experience in Amsterdam's Gashouder, by fifty pianists and the ensemble Klangforum Wien. Choreographer Trajal Harrell returns with The Romeo, his new large-scale dance performance. The Bird of... 

photo by Jaïr Tchong

HOW I FOUND DUENDE IN RABAT

1. During 9/11, I was in Salamanca with two friends. The day Geert Wilders managed to amass 37 seats (thank you VVD and normalising media), I was in Rabat, attending the Visa for Music music conference, with which the European Jazz Network (one of the best-functioning networks within European cultural funding, I say as a new kid... 

scene photo rhapsody © Kurt Van der Elst,

Josse de Pauw and Asko|Schönberg bring heaven a little closer

It was 2000 and Wim Kayzer, of the VPRO, brought a series of television evenings that went against everything commercial. It was called 'Of Beauty and Consolation' and featured evening-long interviews with people like Jane Goodall, J.M. Coetzee, Karel Appel and George Steiner. Intellectuals, artists, thinkers. On 23 November 2023, the day after 22/11, when the Netherlands held an open... 

Overview of additional costs per sector (Source Kunsten92)

Research: fair pay in arts sector will cost an extra 180 million by 2025

The research is there, and the figures are not uplifting. In the arts sector, underpaying especially freelancers and not honouring overtime is standing policy. If this is to be made up from now on, with the existing budget, small institutions and festivals in particular will fall over immediately. The study on this was presented yesterday to outgoing Culture Secretary Uslu. Principal Arts... 

graph sales figures children's book week 2019-2023 (source: KVB Boekwerk)

Children's Book Week figures drop, but KVB Boekwerk likes to tell it otherwise.

"Sales of children's books during Children's Book Week edition 2023 are higher than in 2019, 2020 and 2021. This applies to both sales through physical shops and e-commerce." KVB-Boekwerk, the research institute of Dutch Booksellers, has been publishing trend reports on the book market for a few years now. This year, for the first time, these include figures on sales of children's books,... 

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