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It could be because of the weather, or my mood, but 2022 was one of the best editions of Theatre Festival Boulevard I have experienced in decades. From the interesting, and also a little disruptive opening to the final night, which I experienced yesterday, I saw guts, passion and pushed boundaries. Not everywhere all at once, but...
John Buijsman en Helmert Woudenberg vormen een heel grappig duo. Buijsman de oer-Rotterdammer, zeker ook qua tongval, maar ook de acteur die rolvast is, en duidelijke karakters speelt. In De Recreanten, een stuk dat hij voor en over zijn eigen vakantiecomplex in Hoek van Holland maakte, speelt hij samen met Helmert Woudenberg. De bedenker van het continue improviseren heeft een…
We maken halverwege deze editie van Theaterfestival Boulevard in Den Bosch de balans op. Host Wijbrand Schaap doet dat samen met Dana Kibbelaar, sinds dit jaar lid van de tweehoofdige directie (met Tessa Smeulers), schrijver en journalist Jowi Schmitz, danscriticus Helen Westerik, en de makers Oscar Kocken en Jellie Schippers. We hebben het over wat er zo bijzonder is aan…
Na bijna dertig edities heb ik eindelijk mijn Boulevard-vuurdoop gehad. En wat een verademing was het. Publiek van 2 tot 80, een festivalterrein waar je gewoon overheen kunt banjeren zonder kaartje. Sterker: een festivalterrein waar je ook op een buitenpodium naar acrobatiek en dans kunt kijken zonder kaartje! Ik zag mensen hun hondje uitlaten en even kijken of er nog…
Het was wel een beetje veel van het goede, maar de nabijheid van zoveel blije mensen in een kleine ruimte, zonder airco maar met enthousiast zwetende dansers, was fijn om mee te maken. Het heet ‘Out of the Box’ en wordt tijdens het Bossche Theaterfestival Boulevard bij elkaar gedanst en geacrobatiekt door The100hands uit Breda. Een voorstelling voor mensen vanaf…
Het leek er even op of we in een live versie waren terecht gekomen van The Square, maar het was gewoon de officiële openingsvoorstelling van Theaterfestival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Nu staat dat festival mijlenver van de inzichzelfgekeerde elitaire kunstwereld die in die Deense film wordt opgeschrikt door een menselijke gorilla-act die volledig uit de hand loopt, maar ongemakkelijk was…
In de serie In Perspectief kijkt Erik Akkermans terug en vooruit naar ontwikkelingen in cultuurbeleid en -praktijk. Vandaag: kunstenaarsbelangen. Boven het kindercircus Op de begane grond van het pand aan de Passeerdersgracht in Amsterdam huisde kindercircus Elleboog. Op de tweede verdieping zaten de schaakbonden: de nationale bond en de internationale federatie FIDE van Max Euwe die je soms in persoon…
‘We zijn gewend om in uitersten te denken. Het is nog de enige manier om gehoord te worden. Luide actie is het enige wat nog telt, lijkt het. We moeten er daarom op blijven letten dat we nieuwsgierig blijven naar waar die actie vandaan komt, welke wens er leeft. Die persoonlijke aandacht is nodig, om onder dat actievoeren te kruipen…
Let's start yesterday with a fundamental dialogue with the entire arts sector, using the vitality and creativity of the arts as inspiration, both for the sector itself and for society as a whole. Our sector talking, thinking, participating, deciding! in good times and in bad times. Never be silent again ...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: providence for artists. The office at Noordeinde in The Hague. At the meeting table, all board members had a fixed place. At that spot was a packet of cigarettes of the right brand ready for everyone. The meetings started at the stroke of two o'clock. Around half past...
A dance concert with a standing audience promises to be something new. Because how often does it happen that in the audience, whipped up by music and dance, you have to sit on your hands. This sounds like the outcome! We get to watch and move ourselves to Krautrock, mixed with trance-like repetitive parts. Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten van Cauwenberghe invite us...
Amare hosted for the first time the final performances of one of the new residents of The Hague's cultural colossus: the dance department of the Royal Conservatoire. What stands out. The pandemic over Last year, in the old conservatory, a maximum of 50 visitors could attend the final performance, with mouth caps on and with two chairs away from each other. The new dance theatre in Amare...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: media art. Aan het Haagse Spui It were tough negotiations. The battle for the meter cupboard symbolised that. The chairman of the Hague Filmhuis, a former alderman, went hard at it. And the board of the World Wide Video Centre & Festival...
Expectations are high for Stations, the latest work by dancer and choreographer Louise Lecavalier. She has been a household name in the dance world for decades, first as dancer and muse of Edouard Lockes La La La Human Steps, and since 2006 with her own Fou Glorieux. Her intensity and athletic abilities are impressive, she terrifies the limits of her body. Also.
Nice scoop from the Noord Hollands Dagblad today. Rick Engelkes, the perpetually wobbly soap opera actor who learnt the trade as a successful producer at Joop van den Ende, devised a musical that was never performed because of coronasteun. It earned him millions. Read the story here. Tl;dr: Engelkes announced in 2020 that he was working on a musical to...
There has been quite a lot going on around Rotterdam's Arts and Culture Council recently. For instance, based on a ramshackle investigation, to say the least, the alderman had rather bluntly decided to abolish the independent advisory body. It is too self-serving for his officials. His decision was debated at length at a City Council meeting in late June. Redundant debate...
Voguing and religion in Yishun is Burning at Julidans Joke: A policeman from the US says he once got three armed drug dealers in handcuffs at the same time. A firefighter from England brags that he rescued 10 people from a burning flat. A Singaporean says he lives in Yishun. Everyone claps for the Singaporean. Yishun is the dystopian suburb...
Seven new, very different animated films coming to cinemas this summer showcase the richness and power of this genre.
It was announced today that the great theatre innovator Peter Brook has died. He was 97 years old. In those years, he became one of the world's most influential directors and theatre innovators. He sought world-wide stories and told them through actors who were as diverse as the stories he told. I visited his theatre a few times,...
"Miss, please give me the minister!". Henk Vonhoff's voice sounded as commanding as it was eloquent as he addressed his secretary over the intercom. Vonhoff was commissioner of the Queen in Groningen, but also chairman of the supervisory committee of the Groningen State University of Applied Sciences, the only college still directly under the minister. We, faculty directors, were at... for the umpteenth time.
Actually, it was too bad to persevere. Perhaps I should indeed have followed my impulse to walk away hard, but I stayed with Kein Licht. Indeed, this play, written by Elfriede Jelinek, composed by Philippe Manoury and directed by Nicolas Stemann, was technically quite good. Only that little dog, I so did not like that. Animals and...
4 million Dutch people have a brain disorder. The Brain Foundation comes up with that figure in a campaign to make people more aware of the consequences of brain injury. Often that injury leads to extreme sensitivity to stimuli. Then loud noise, bright light or sharp smell is suddenly a big problem. People affected by these can find it difficult to go outside. That is why ...
When he was appointed chairman of Rotterdam's Arts and Culture Council in December 2021, nothing seemed wrong. But less than six months later, he is virtually on the street now that Arts alderman Said Kasmi (D66) has decided to disband the Rotterdam advisory council. After 17 years. Gonçalves is baffled, certainly...
There is at least one reason to go see Porca Miseria, Trajal Harrell's latest work. The Holland Festival hosts the American choreographer best known for his Vogueing work this weekend, and the soundtrack to his trilogy is nothing short of stunning. Starting with Willie Nelson and ending with the Lamento della Nimfa with which Claudio Monteverdi...
Moby Dick; or, The Whale is the latest gesammtkunstwerk by artist collective Moved By The Motion, Schauspielhaus Zürig and Wu Tsang. Her adaptation of the great American classic as layered as the book. Where Herman Melville uses accounts, scholarly sources and monologues, Tsang deploys film and music. In a collage of theatrical performance, dance, found footage, animation and documentation nature footage,...
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