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.

Volksopera is a celebration of Ondiep, but what will be left when the cameras are gone?

by Wijbrand Schaap
24 May 201429 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, OPERA

Barely five months between first audition and first performance. That was all the time the makers and local residents had for the Volksopera Ondiep, which experienced the first of two performances on Friday 23 May. It was a warm May evening, touching at times, sometimes dreadful, but fun anyway: classics by Verdi (most of them), Bizet, Puccini and Offenbach, set to Dutch text and sung by complete amateurs. Accompanied, for once, by the Groot Omroepkoor.

'Less progress!" shouts the festival. DEAF finds the future a bit scary this time.

by Wijbrand Schaap
22 May 201411 July 2016
3 min read
IMAGING

We are all a little afraid of losing control. So we are reluctant to like 'Europe', we are frightened by the unprecedented world powers lurking in our mobile communication devices and we think the public transport chip card is an onion, all the while being motivated every day to want newer, better, higher, more.

Legendary director Peter Brook (89): Theatre is the field given to me

by Wijbrand Schaap
13 May 20143 July 2022
15 min read
ACTUAL, Holland Festival, SPECIALS, THEATER

The Valley of Astonishment. Titles don't come much prettier than that of 'The Valley of Astonishment'. Theatre legend Peter Brook's tentative last play is coming to Amsterdam. The Holland Festival gave me and two journalists from Parool and NRC, respectively, the opportunity to talk to the already legendary director when he was alive. Pretty special, because the man who enchanted an entire generation of theatre-makers and audiences with performances such as the nine-hour Mahabharata in Avignon, is considered a deity among theatre connoisseurs and enthusiasts.

Is Anne too big for reviews? 3 reasons why I find it hard to review Anne

by Wijbrand Schaap
10 May 201411 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL, THEATER

Someone commented on Facebook that it looked a bit odd for a newspaper to hand out stars for a play based on The Diary of Anne Frank. Although I myself shudder to give out stars this early for a Godwin make, surely there is something to The Play and The Review. Indeed, reviews of The Play to The Diary seem superfluous. For how do you review such a play, with such a history? Isn't fuss about layering or no layering, adventurousness or no adventurousness in the direction even a little irreverent? So these are three issues, which led me to consider that maybe it shouldn't be possible at all. Anne review.

Juliette Binoche plays at Toneelgroep Amsterdam

by Wijbrand Schaap
5 May 201411 July 2016
1 min read
ACTUAL, THEATER

Because Dutch culture the Dutch only notice when scoring abroad (also applies to football, by the way): Big news about the Netherlands' first company. National coach Ivo van Hove of Toneelgroep Amsterdam has appointed none other than Juliette Binoche snared for a lead role in a play.

You may ask 1 question to theatre legend Peter Brook, what will you ask?

by Wijbrand Schaap
25 April 201430 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, THEATER

I will be talking to Peter Brook in Paris on 7 May 2014. For people who have studied theatre, this is something very special. The man once wrote a very clear and manageable booklet that is on the shelf of all theatre people: The Empty Space. But he was also the director of performances where more people attended than there were ever seats. In other words.

Help! Vind de Lost Painters Vouwfiets!

by Wijbrand Schaap
25 April 201411 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL, IMAGING

In de categorie kunstroof is dit de laagste vorm: een oude vouwfiets stelen voor de deur van een dure kunstbeurs. Pak dan dat overbodige navigatiesysteem uit die Porsche Cayenne, het Guccitasje dat achteloos op de balie is neergezet, of schuif die driedubbelverzekerde, met diamant ingelegde iPhone van dat koffietafeltje onder je krant en geniet buiten verder van je geweten.

Johan Simons receives 150,000 euros: 'I thought, that must be for Elsie'

by Wijbrand Schaap
17 April 201411 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL, THEATER

This year's Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Prize goes to Johan Simons. At the announcement, in a meadow below Utrecht, the director was surprised: he suspected the prize was meant for his wife, Elsie de Brauw, widely regarded as one of the best actresses in the Netherlands and Belgium.

UPC in court: 'Writer is assembly line worker in peanut butter factory'

by Wijbrand Schaap
16 April 201430 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, FILM

The noble art of cable pulling is one of the most profitable activities in Dutch media land. This was evident on Tuesday 15 April in the Amsterdam court. There, Dutch writers, represented by Lira, versus the major cable companies and producers, represented by some very expensive lawyers, from the office towers on Amsterdam's nearby Zuidas.

De toekomst van kunst en reizen is 3 dimensionaal en virtueel. Powered by Google.

by Wijbrand Schaap
14 April 201429 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, IMAGING

Even een korte tijdje vooruitdenken en je bent waar Google wil dat je bent. Alle kunst, overal ter wereld bereikbaar via je beeldscherm, je tablet. Zelfs de obscure kunst. Of sterker: mee te maken in je google glass of je Oculus VR bril. Je kunt nu al kunst in musea bekijken, maar dan zonder een rondleider die je vertelt wat je moet zien. En hoezeer we dat in het dagelijks leven ook niet op prijs stellen, soms is het best fijn om aan de hand van een gids door onbekend terrein te lopen. Zonder je vakantiegeld eraan te geven.

Tom Waits exists thanks to Partch. 7 reasons to go see Delusion of the Fury. And listen.

by Wijbrand Schaap
14 April 201411 July 2016
5 min read
ACTUAL, IMAGING, Holland Festival, OPERA, SPECIALS, THEATER

'Harry Partch knew exactly what he was doing. He chose very specific bourbon bottles to fill in those 43 steps in the octave. So he made music that is very accessible, but also very elusive. And that's what good art should do.'

'Already depressed when the sateh is finished.' Lineke Rijxman on 'The Freudjes' by Mugmetdegoudentand.

by Wijbrand Schaap
9 April 201430 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, THEATER

Update: performance The Freudjes has been postponed for now, until probably later this year.

'I think it's theatre. Psychoanalysis is theatrical.' Lineke Rijxman is fascinated by psychiatrists. Not because she walks through their doors herself, but because psychiatry is a rewarding subject for someone who makes theatre. That is why it had to happen: a play about Freud. But not about Sigmund himself, or his family. The play "The Freuds (No Family)' is about three sisters in today's busy life overflowing with pills and abbreviations. 'We talk about depression so easily. You already say you get depressed when you run out of chicken satay at the butcher's.'

Ziggo and UPC sued. Writers to court because cable billionaires won't pay up

by Wijbrand Schaap
3 April 201429 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Just imagine being a screenwriter. Or a journalist for a documentary programme. So you won't get a penny for your work in the Netherlands. Really. The broadcasters are already not generous. But then. Indeed, all the money that cable companies earn from the television viewers of the Netherlands disappears into the pockets of a few US companieswho in turn share it with a few broadcasting bosses, producers and some other big earners. All those bosses have nothing to spare for the people who think up and write all that. This makes it very easy to make a profit.

Read everything everywhere with 1 login. Book industry works on central ebook platform

by Wijbrand Schaap
3 April 201430 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

It's still kind of a secret, but the website is already online. Without reference to the people behind it, but then again, we know that. So we can break the news: it CPNB (that book week club) collaborates with the booksellers and publishers on a revolutionary platform for ebooks. This project, titled 'Leesid' should put an end to the chaos of DRM-shit, lots of different readers and tablets and bizarre ownership rules the Dutch electronic book reader still has to live with.

Sometimes a good story needs to be told, not just imagined.

by Wijbrand Schaap
21 March 201411 July 2016
4 min read
ACTUAL

Some art needs a story. Then a canvas on the wall with the caption 'Untitled' is not enough. The performance 'Laaroussa' (Bride) by French-Tunisian brother and sister Selma and Soufiane Ouissi falls into that category. As extraordinary as their physical presence on a dark stage is, without explanations beforehand and a Q&A afterwards, it all says precious little.

Is that bad?

Culture Council notes total destruction of amateur art. Minister worries.

by Wijbrand Schaap
6 March 201429 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Over 60 million has disappeared from the coffers of the Netherlands' amateur artists in recent years. That money from your daughter's dance class, the brass band and your son's hip-hop class has been spent by municipalities, which had to compensate for cuts elsewhere, and provinces that suddenly saw no point in amateurs. That the national government additionally took 200 million from professional arts institutions is added to that.

6 Reasons why Holland Festival 2014 will be the best ever. And War Horse.

by Wijbrand Schaap
4 March 201411 July 2016
4 min read
ACTUAL, Holland Festival

"The only one who still dares to go for the elite". On his way to the car park under the Passengers Terminal Amsterdam, the retired newspaper reviewer who once had a page on music sighed at the feeling of his part of society. It was after the press conference where the programme of Holland Festival 2014 was presented. He was talking, as we sank deeper and deeper, about Pierre Audi, the artistic director of that Holland Festival, who this year announced his last - and most glorious - programme ever.

De onwerkelijke rustpauze van Soesterberg is bijna voorbij. Ga er nu van genieten.

by Wijbrand Schaap
1 March 201411 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

Ook al breekt vandaag nog de oorlog uit, straaljagers zullen er niet meer landen. 200.000 bezoekers per jaar hebben ze nu minimaal nodig, op Soesterberg. De voormalige vliegbasis in het hart van Nederland, waar tot 2009 een squadron F15 straaljagers paraat stond om de toenmalige vijand, de communisten, een lesje te leren, komt in handen van het publiek. De projectontwikkelaar legt er de laatste hand aan het Militair Luchtvaartmuseum. Kleine delen van de vijf kilometer lange landingsbaan worden omgeploegd, en een paar hangars krijgen een bestemming als bergplaats van kunst.

‘Beperkte meting’: minister gooit rapport Berenschot in prullenbak

by Wijbrand Schaap
25 February 201430 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Minister Bussemaker vindt het nog veel te vroeg om alarm te slaan over de bezuinigingen die gemeentes nog gaan doorvoeren op cultuur. Onderzoeksbureau Berenschot had earlier this year berekend dat er nog vele procenten van het lokale cultuurbudget af zouden gaan. Onze eigen bronnen vertelden dat Berenschot nog aan de zonnige kant zat. Volgens de minister is het onderzoek echter te beperkt: er is maar onder 65 gemeentes gecheckt, en bovendien is het nog veel te vroeg.

Pascal Schut. Photo: Hans Gerritsen

The audience speaks: Pascal Schut and Davide Cocchiara best dancers of 2013

by Wijbrand Schaap
13 February 201430 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The winners of the Dans Publieksprijs 2013 have been announced. On Friday 14 February, the prizes, divided into seven categories, will be awarded at The Hague's Theater aan het Spui. Besides winners Pascal Schut (Introdans) and Davide Cocchiara (The Red Piece), they are choreographers Conny Jansen Danst for the performance 'How Long is Now' and Isabelle Beernaert for the performance 'Red, Yellow & Blue'.

4 reasons why the arts are going to lose a lot more. Municipal culture congress wrongly optimistic

by Wijbrand Schaap
31 January 201411 July 2016
6 min read
ACTUAL

It was ball in Rotterdam on Thursday, 30 January. At the Municipal Culture Congress, a few hundred officials, local politicians and arts organisations gathered to talk about where they could help each other. It was supposed to be a positive day. There had been long enough complaining and arguing: look ahead, hopeful into the future. Even if the worst is yet to come.

5 lessons from a Tilburg riot: superficial newspaper determines superficial cultural politics

by Wijbrand Schaap
29 January 201430 March 2022
21 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Regional newspapers hardly do any real cultural journalism anymore. We know this, because it was the reason why we Culture Press once founded have. How bad things are now, five years later, with art in the region and the way the newspaper handles it, was evident this month in Tilburg.

Municipalities pass on most cuts to the arts

by Wijbrand Schaap
29 January 201430 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Culture cuts have now reached 450 million euros. The Lower House earlier decided on cuts of 200 million. The cut in the municipal budget by the same House of Representatives now leads to a further cut of 250 million euros. This is calculated by research firm Berenschot in a report which will be presented on Thursday 30 January in Rotterdam.

Video: why women don't play a role in art history, and how to (not) fix it

by Wijbrand Schaap
24 January 201430 March 2022
1 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

A sitcom they already have. Women. Girls is a resounding success, so who better than slightly snobby Girls star Jemima Kirke to explain why women have been kept out of art? Indeed. No one, they thought at the rather innovative Tate, and so they had her explain in a cheerful but also aptly-named way where things went wrong between the art world...

Research shows: music taste is a matter of appointment and habituation

by Wijbrand Schaap
24 January 201411 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

That we have a scale the way we do, and that we perceive certain chords as beautiful, is because we have learned it. And what we have learned is the result of agreements. In music, as in fine art or theatre, there is no absolute ideal to which artists should aspire. No absolute beauty, no divine spark, no heaven to which we all long to return, just a set of agreements.

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