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Wijbrand Schaap

Cultural journalist since 1996. Worked as theatre critic, columnist and reporter for Algemeen Dagblad, Utrechts Nieuwsblad, Rotterdams Dagblad, Parool and regional newspapers through Associated Press Services. Interviews for TheaterMaker, Theatererkrant Magazine, Ons Erfdeel, Boekman. Podcast maker, likes to experiment with new media. Culture Press is called the brainchild I gave birth to in 2009. Life partner of Suzanne Brink roommate of Edje, Fonzie and Rufus. Search and find me on Mastodon.

Hamlet more in demand than Jay Z and Beyoncé. That can only happen in the UK

We are talking about the summer of 2015. Then Benedict Cumberbatch will play the title role in Hamlet, to be seen at the Barbican Centre in London. For the show, which plays for 12 weeks, 214% more tickets have already been sold in the first few hours after ticket sales opened yesterday than for Jay Z and Beyoncé's tour, which is on the same... 

"Earth? Don' t enjoy it too much." Robin Williams' mastery already evident in first minute of career

A lot has already been said about Robin Williams. And why it's bad that he's dead. Remains the view that the best humour cannot exist without an inky black background. Humour, then, is an ideal tool to master your dark side. The darker, the more humour, in other words. Stephen Fry talks about the extremities of... 

A performance that really makes you feel the futility of war. Demarrage by Charlotte Caeckaert on @tfboulevard

Flemish actors can speak. Flemish actors usually don't need microphones to make themselves understood over a storm, or from 100 metres away in the open air. Charlotte Caeckaert is one such actress who can do all that, and such technique is a joy to witness. She also writes lyrics, and that's where things go a little wrong.... 

Hearing stories of loss. And cry about it. But then? Separate from the Southern Theatre on @tfboulevard.

Two actors who, together with their director, want to create a performance about loss. Or rather: our fear of losing things, or people. The makers are not quite there yet, it turns out at Theatre Festival Boulevard. From numerous conversations with thinkers and (experiential) experts, they have distilled characters while improvising, which they - separated by a thick... 

God has no humour. And his name is Frank. Days by Studio Gebroed on @tfboulevard

Nerd theatre with electric dings and funny little mechanisms. I love it. Seen something on a construction scaffold in the last century with a starring role for taunting bench sanders and droning derricks. I was hoping for something like this with Studio Gebroed's 'Days', but was a little disappointed. The premise is fun, of course: we follow a creator who, in a few days like this, creates a very nice... 

What someone else's house does to you: Peeping by Lieke Benders on @tfboulevard

There were people who simply looked in the kitchen cupboards even though the guide expressly forbade it. That type of person, who probably also asks for ketchup at every meal, was one of the more interesting discoveries during the walk you could take in den Bosch, titled 'Peeping'. The performance is an example of 'experiential theatre': theatre without a clear storyline or message,... 

8 enticing words about Festival Boulevard.

It is the most ambitious summer festival in the Netherlands: Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch aims to showcase not only the finest theatre theatre theatre in the low countries, but also the fattest shows, and youngest new creators and the merriest bus drivers. And all in 10 days, in once tad where the local newspaper does its best to make culture as scary as possible. We sum it up for you in eight enticing words.
Louis
Like Louis van Gaal coming to coach the local FC for four years...

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O(h) that sea. OK. But which of the two?

The difference is just an 'h'. But confusing it is. This week, the rock opera 'Oh That Sea' premieres in Zeeland. In a month's time, the spherical location performance 'Oh Die Zee' will launch in The Hague, just as the Zeeland show is having its final weekend. The performances are both also about the Odyssey, the classic Greek epic about a Greek hero who, after destroying the city of Troy, takes ten years to return to his own city, where he then ...

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We are becoming more portable. Cultural press has a new design

Culture Press has a new site. The old site was over two years old. And that is very old, in Internet times. We couldn't be left behind by De Correspondent, Dutch Cowboys and Medium either. After all, who still reads the internet from a PC screen? Right. Nobody. Analysis of our visit data showed that the number of mobile readers of our site was growing hand over fist.... 

What you can learn from Culture Press. Already 4 unique offers for art lovers and culture writers.

Being able to write nicely is fine, but the journalists at Culture Press can do more. They have studied to be art experts, have spent thousands of hours in rooms and halls that even you did not know existed and possess enormous drive. How else could this website exist?

We want to share this knowledge with you. In more ways than just through this website, or with the newsletter that a select group of viewers receive. We offer a programme, consisting of webinars, li...

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Matthias Mooij (1976-2014): a career that should have been there.

He could have become an important director, but was at the wrong time, in the wrong place. In the end, his illness fatally bothered Matthias Mooij. Yesterday, this still young theatre-maker died of lung cancer, more than a year and a half after the premiere of his first large-venue production: Mogadishu. With that production, of a play written by the English writer Vivienne Franzmann, Mooij set a new tone in theatre: no longer did he seize back in theatre ...

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Meanwhile, the Manifesta continues as usual in Petersburg. Is that choice?

About the same time as the train from Donietsk to Kharkov, a press release arrived in my mailbox yesterday from the Manifesta. Our cultural pride in St Petersburg. This weeks Dutch festival is organising an audio tour of Rimini Protokoll, the renowned strong-political company from Germany. Oh. And, as a third item: there is a talk tonight on what the Biennale is capable of in times of political turmoil.

No word in that announcement about taking down 298 free world citizens

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Journalism has changed. Countless reasons why you as an arts journalist can be at the forefront.

Once upon a time, people had a newspaper. In the newsroom, a few people knew why people had a newspaper. But it was a fact of life. People had a newspaper. Those who did not have a newspaper were not human beings. Nowadays, people don't have a newspaper. They have the internet. Those who don't have the internet are retarded.

Deventer seeks one boss for not a museum, but a story

Who can tell the story of Deventer? Apply. And if you manage to convince the committee, you can touch a nice salary for three years. As director of the world's first museum production house.

You read it right. Shortly after the VVD, together with the PVV, killed its own patriotic culture by, among other things, cutting all theatre and music production houses from the budget, Deventer comes up with a 'museum production house'. Because, this city says: ambitions to create a grand e...

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Working for free has become commonplace in the arts. 4 bare facts by festival director Meulman

'The practice of paying with a book voucher does not belong in a professional sector with considerable economic importance.' Jeffrey Meulman, director of the Netherlands Theatre Festival, has learned to live with it. Against his will. As host of the annual Gala of Dutch Theatre, he has managed to organise that festival again. Without money.

On his website, Meulman explains: 'Since the liquidation of the Performing Arts Promotion Office in October 2013, there has been for...

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One and a half million for art. Provided it is directly demonstrably useful

One and a half million euros sounds quite a lot. So a cry of joy will be heard here and there now that Jet Bussemaker is allocating that extra amount to culture. After all, this is yet another make up after the almost 300 million her ministry took from the sector earlier. However, the conditions the culture minister attaches to the money tell a different story: the money is only for art that is demonstrably useful.

Ayn Rand was haunting Dutch theatre as early as 2006.

Ivo van Hove did not just create a play based on Ayn Rand's novel of ideas The Fountainhead. In 2006, the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam even wanted to base a whole new design of the theatre system on it. Eight years later, we can see that only the negative aspects of Van Hove's vision have been realised.

"The book is a whirlwind and doesn't let you go. It juxtaposes the thinking of the artist with that of the opportunist. And then I thought, let mi...

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Spaghetti 'Thyestes': classic roots work fiercely in a new preparation

In Rome, they have known what good food is for 20 centuries or so. Bloodletting is everything. Seneca, a Roman of the better sort, wrote plays in which bloodshed was elevated to an art. Audiences feasted on them, just as they feasted on Seneca's recipes in Shakespeare's time, 1,500 years later, and as we feast on Game of Thrones on TV now. It can't be gory, can't be cruel enough. We like that.

Simon Stone is an Australian wonderboy, at least in theatre. He mixes the casu...

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'Fix it yourself.' Culture minister puts fate of amateur arts in hands of municipalities and citizens

In March this year, the Council for Culture sounded the alarm. Unique under the new leadership, which is usually extremely docile when it comes to culture cuts. But what happens to the music schools, children's drama schools, libraries and amateur orchestras is otherwise entirely up to the citizens themselves, and their local councils. This is the minister's response to the chamber.

In the letter, which landed in MPs' inboxes this weekend, the minister states, "I will maintain my commitment to the terrei...

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Isabella Rosselini is endearing with her animal stuff. 4 missed opportunities in Bestiaire d'amour at @hollandfestival

Every Holland Festival there is at least 1 performance which a lot of people wonder why it is programmed. This year, that honour falls to 'Bestiaire d'Amour' by and starring Isabella Rosselini. We take a moment to look for answers.

7 confusing reasons why the stage version of The Fountainhead rattles, but you should still go.

Topical again, now that Toneelgroep Amsterdam is reviving the play, my review from 2014. This week, the stage adaptation of The Fountainhead premiered. The book is terrible, the performance rattles, the actors win only narrowly. The content, however, creates even more confusion, which is why I won't stop you from going to see it. And Hans Kesting, of course. I put it this way.

Disappointed dinner guests get money back. Yummy gesture from the Holland Festival

Visitors to the film Napoleon, last Sunday at Ziggo Dome, who had thought of booking dinner at one of the intervals, will get their money back. This was decided by the Holland Festival after a commotion arose on the internet, and beyond, about the caterer's lousy service, and the rather poor quality of what was on offer. Visitor Marc Veerkamp said the following on facebook:

Alain Platel deals firm death blow to traditionalists in #hollandfestival

Talent alone won't get you there. You also need a bit of luck. That luck happened to Alain Platel so often by now that you almost start doubting your own wickedness. Still. Those who not only count a composer like Fabrizio Cassol among their friends, but who also gave singing prodigy Serge Kakudji a chance, deserve a bit of luck. What the trio has now achieved with 13 musicians from Kinshasa is downright revolutionary. And a death knell for those who believe d...

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Tis Pity! Holland Festival brings the best show to the smallest audience.

Language is music. Sometimes we forget that. Then we think language is a way of conveying objective meanings. Kind of silly. Language is food for all the senses. No strumming is needed under that. That's pure opera without embellishments. The English-language performance 'tis Pity she's a whore' I saw at the Holland Festival yesterday proves that. Even if you don't understand the seventeenth-century phrases, it is a joy to listen to.

Warhorse is almost perfect: 6 reasons to go. Or stay away.

Saturday, June 14, went off in a flood of evening gowns, dinner jackets, Dutch celebrities and Gooische Tanks War Horse premiered. A play about a war in which the Netherlands was neutral, and of which there are memorial stones in every village in the rest of the world. You can go and see it. Or not. We have listed six arguments.

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