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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.

'Mogadishu' fits into zeitgeist of moral confusion

Once upon a time, subsidised theatre was a left-wing hobby. Now, two years on, subsidised theatre has effortlessly conformed to the prevailing, much more right-wing trend. Indeed, Toneelgroep Amsterdam has scheduled a stage adaptation of Ayn Rands rabidly anti-social novel and Tea Party bible The Fountainhead. And on Thursday 24 January, Utrecht-based city theatre company De Utrechtse Spelen announced a play in which for the content responsible for the...

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Writers Unlimited 2013: about writers and people with a story #wu13

Whether Tahmina Akefi is a good writer, I dare not say. The Afghan beauty can at least glue sentences together, and knows how to add an erotic layer on top. But whether this means she surpasses the average penny novel, or whether she has nothing to offer but oriental soft porn anyway? Tricky.

The fact is that she does have a story. After all, what she presented in terms of light erotica on the programme "Wanna Know A Secret?" on Writers Unlimited stemmed from ...

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Really free poetry can be learned #wu13

We spoke briefly at Writers Unlimited 2013 with the woman who has been giving workshops in poetry to schoolchildren for a few years now. And we wondered again if rap wasn't enough for them, those kids. No. So it turns out. And she explains it clearly. ... You can now log in to continue reading! Welcome to the archive of... 

Hassnae Bouazza's Thousand Shades of Arabia on #wu13

John de Mol is doing good business in the Arab world. He acts rather dismissively about this, according to Hassnae Bouazza. According to her, the television producer talks publicly mainly about the many restrictions on his formats because of Islam and the sentimentalism of TV in the Middle East in general. That De Mol's success number The Voice of Arabia during the final in

Does it luckily still involve sex on #wu13

How many male genitals Yasmine Allas had weighed in her hand. For a while, that was the question during Writers Unlimited's most shameless programme to date. This latenight talk show addressed the question of how shameless writers actually dare to be these days. Kristien Hemmerechts, always good for a few firm statements, met her peers in

Presenters can make a Winternight. And break it. #wu13

And then, just like that, you can miss the highlight of the first Winternacht because you don't pull it together with a presenter. Flemish author Bart van Loo, according to many twitterers, seems to have uttered beautiful sentences in the programme 'Daar geef ik mijn leven voor' (I'll give my life for that), but that was well after midnight and I had given up by then. The presenter on duty, the in itself excellent storyteller and very amiable Anousha Nzume, was too eager to attach in-depth interviews to...

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Heartfelt plea against Arab shame culture #wu13

Lebanese writer Hanaan as-Sjaikh (Beirut, Lebanon, 1945) opened Wrtiters Unlimited on Thursday 17 January with a blazing argument against Arab shame culture. This, according to the writer whose books Het verhaal van Zahra, Vrouwen tussen hemel en zand, Beiroet blues and Alleen in Londen have been translated into Dutch, is so deeply embedded in society that family relationships and friendships are constantly strained by it. She gives an example:

...'my brother's friend...'

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'Readers need to be approached in a different way'

Writers Unlimited Special - One of the important guests at Writers Unlimited is Roland Colastica. This Curaçao writer made his debut in 2012 with the children's book 'Fireworks in my head'. The book was enthusiastically received, and has since grown into a modest bestseller. Great strength of the story is the colourful and rhythmic style, but at least as important is the description of the life of children on Curaçao, which we see for the first time from an Antillean perspective.

Cola...

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Rotterdam Theatre: more music, more visitors

Everywhere, arts attendance is falling dramatically, except, for now, in Rotterdam. There, the Rotterdamnse Schouwburg managed to keep the number of paying visitors the same, or even increase slightly to over 147,500, in its first real cultural disaster year 2012. In its own press release, the management (currently in the hands of Jan Zoet) attributes this to sharper programming and revivals of successful productions, and an increase in the number of concerts:

"There has been critical scrutiny naa...

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Culture Press ratings: thick 300,000 minutes of attention

With paper, you never know ('0.3% of newspaper readers read the reviews on the art page'), and with TV it's always a bit of estimating and extrapolating too, but the internet is rock hard. We know how many times you read one of our pieces, and how long you lingered at our videos. Well: we were already proud last year, now we are well over 200,000

Rejected for a missed rule overturn?

Unrest in poetry land. Due to an error 'unclear' in the website of the National Turing Poem Competition, several hundred poems have disappeared from the competition probably for the wrong reasons. Alexis de Roode, himself a multiple prize winner, raised the issue on facebook. His poem 'Monday Morning' turned out - once in the system - not to be a poem anymore, but a piece of prose, without the line breaks associated with a poem.

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Spuiforum: copy of 181 million?

While the city has to make huge cuts in music schools, libraries, a few drama clubs and other nice things for the people, like public transport and healthcare, The Hague does build a new art building. Rather, the municipality is putting 181 million into demolishing and renovating the theatres on the Spui, because the architect who built the complex 20 years ago apparently did not do his job properly.

Jeroen Willems (1962 - 2012)

The Netherlands' greatest artist is dead. Can happen. But can I then also curse heartily? Because Jeroen Willems is irreplaceable. As a journalist, you know the drill: of actors over 60, or of otherwise fragile stature, you have a necrootje ready. If you are well-known and meet the requirements, count on your friends and acquaintances to... 

Jet's letter: 'alas, peanut butter'

The previous secretary of state for culture, Halbe Zijlstra, cast his draconian cuts in concrete. Cuts of 35 to 40 per cent on the budgets of orchestras, theatre companies and some museums have become law. The new culture minister, PvdA star Jet Bussemaker, cannot change that at all an iota. And if she even wanted to: the architect of the cuts she has to authorise sits in the chamber as the ruling party's group leader. No chance he will to...

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Ivo van Hove is God. According to New Yorkers.

Anyway: while Amsterdam's city newspaper Parool was embarking on a campaign against the Dutch capital's city company at the behest of the Flemish publishing board, the same Toneelgroep Amsterdam was winning the hearts of New York audiences with a production of the already years-old 'Roman Tragedies', which a few here did not even like overall: http://www.wijbrandschaap.nl/2007/06/romeinse-tragedies-hf2007ta/

No sour sounds in America so far. This sam...

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Are we saying 'No' to EU culture money again?

If the Netherlands consistently sticks to previously adopted PVV positions, the second chamber will say 'No' to a European investment in culture, innovation and media on 21 November 2012. However, if the current Rutte government sticks to the pro-European stance included in the coalition agreement, the Netherlands will cease its opposition to the 1.8 billion euro contribution to strengthening culture, which has now been approved by all other European member states.

Interest groups do via a letter...

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Germany investing in culture? Not really.

We too retweeted it: "Germany increases culture subsidy by 100 million". And we thus fed a half-truth. That half-truth is, that Germany is a heaven for culture lovers, a haven for people fed up with the chilly austerity measures of the Rutte governments. Germany may seem nice, but, as Volkskrant correspondent Merlijn Schoonenboom noted in March this year, there are at least as many cuts there as here.

What went wrong?

H...

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Art for all: €3 per person, per month

The discussion was and is endless, but now we have figures. Thanks to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science's new 'key figures', we now know how much the state (all of us) are spending for the opportunity to experience art: per inhabitant, the state spends 38.90 per year on subsidies for dance, theatre, museums, youth theatre, opera and orchestras. So that's just over 3 euros a month. Indeed something to get into each other's hair about, we think.

In this climate, where this 3 euro pe...

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If you don't have Twitter in Egypt. Community Arts 'Mahatat' works from the bottom up. #vvu

The government has made little effort in recent decades to create a cultural scene  getting off the ground. There are no workspaces. No galleries. Only a very large library and a "cultural palace". Both of which opened only five years ago. There are also a few small independent initiatives. In public spaces.

Internet users can comment on plan to abolish CKV

Minister Bijsterveld of OCW is going to ask the country for advice. A so-called internet consultation was launched this week on her ministry's intention to abolish Cultural and Artistic Education for Havo and VWO pupils. 'The Field' can now respond, so we suggest you make your views, and especially your substantive arguments known to the ministry, via this link: http://internetconsultatie.nl/bovenbouwhavovwo.

We ourselves are already doing a quick foray, which natuurli...

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Netherlands closes a special embassy

This week, the curtain officially fell on Theatre Emabassy, a club of inspired people who had Dutch artists collaborate with artists in developing countries such as Honduras, Bhutan and Congo. The performances that resulted were only sporadically seen in the Netherlands, but every now and then a project made a broad impression here too, such as 'Op Hoop van Zegen', played by real fishermen, but from Mali.

It was one of the first of the many funeral ceremonies on Wednesday (October 3),...

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