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Blood-soaked Macbeth fits festival theme perfectly but fails to touch #HF12

Imagine Arjan Robben. The much-troubled frontman of the Dutch national team has just seen a brilliant move rewarded with a penalty and he is ready to take it. Up comes a field hand with a new set of adhesive letters for his shirt because the numbers are no longer legible from the stands. Lots of lashing, shirt off, seconds glue. Circumstances, in short. After two minutes, the fielder is gone, the number readable and the referee's whistle sounds. Then try to hit the target.

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Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

 With enfant, choreographer Boris Charmatz broaches a difficult topic: how do we as adults deal with ourselves, and how do we deal with children? Charmatz draws on the French philosopher Lyotard, who pondered the "inhumanity" of adults and saw real people in children. The current image about physical contact with children is distorted and it is... 

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Micha Hamel's Requiem is beautifully spatial but lacks substantive urgency #hf12

In his Requiem for tenor, narrator and ensemble, Micha Hamel makes the most of the space of Amsterdam's De Duif church. Musicians play on the altar, from the balconies, mingle among the audience and push out a piano. - But what does Hamel really want to say? In front of a sold-out house, Micha Hamel's Requiem premiered last night. He ... 

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Actors' award for Theatre Institute threatened with dissolution

Mail from Actors' Interests, the actors' 'union'. Whether we want to abide by the embargo. Of course we do. We do. Butreh: so the Theatre Institute Netherlands, to be dissolved by Halbe Zijlstra together with the Netherlands Music Centre, is getting an award. And that seems to be a sculpture, which in turn makes us wonder where the thing should be after 1 January 2013.... 

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Opening Holland Festival on twitter and facebook: tenue de wtf, ns-#fail, sublime dance theatre and mozzarella sticks #hf12

[View the story "Opening Holland Festival 2012" on Storify] Opening Holland Festival 2012 On 1 June, the Holland Festival opened at Theater Carré. We were there, saw Platel's C(h)oeurs and tasted the atmosphere. Although it almost went wrong. This is what of it was witnessed on social media Storified by Cultureel Persbureau - Sat, Jun 02 2012 08:37:18... 

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EYE on the IJ - a spaceship with allure

Tonight the queen may officially open the new home of the EYE Film Institute Netherlands, last night director Sandra den Hamer did it herself in advance at an opening party for relations. In doing so, she spoke of a historic moment for film culture in the Netherlands. Seen from a distance, the building, conveniently referred to as "the new film museum", is most reminiscent of a... 

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Tjitske Reidinga launched as star of new summer programming Amsterdam's Delamartheater

Het grote publiek kent haar als de keiharde advocate Claire uit Gooise Vrouwen. Toneelliefhebbers kennen haar al langer als die actrice met die markante stem. Een diplomatendochter, geboren in Afrika, later opgegroeid in Bussum. Tjitske Reidinga durft er nu wel voor uit te komen:

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Increase in 'wish headlines' in arts news around grant applications

De laatste mogelijkheden voor subsidieaanvragen voor de periode van 2013 en verder zijn vandaag gesloten. Er zijn talloze fusies aangekondigd, nieuwe samenwerkingen, opvallende verhuizingen (vooral Amsterdam loopt leeg). Veel kunstmedia brengen inmiddels ook nieuws over die plannen. Nieuws dat vaak als feit wordt gepresenteerd, terwijl het in bijna alle gevallen gaat om wensen. De aanvragen zijn nog minder dan ooit… 

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Amsterdam takes Netherlands Symphony Orchestra to court

We already wrote extensively about the name change of the Orchestra of the East in the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (NSO). The curious opera grant application based on a business plan that carries huge risks had our full attention. Regular partner the National Travel Opera was not amused.

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eerste lezing van verloren gewaand stuk O’Neill

Kenners weten het: vaak zijn acteurs twee maanden aan het repeteren op een toneelstuk met maar één doel voor ogen: de frisheid en verrassing van de ‘eerste lezing’ terugvinden. Bij die eerste lezing horen de acteurs immers de tekst voor het eerst van hun hun collega’s, lezen ze de woorden voor het eerst hardop en klinkt alles nieuw en onverwacht.… 

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Porno, beweging en politiek zoeken elkaar op tijdens festival Something Raw

Something Raw is al meer dan tien jaar een van de weinige plekken in Nederland, waar de vraag naar artistieke en maatschappelijke urgentie van het lichaam op de bühne wordt uitgezocht, met alle lol en risico van dien. Veel voorstellingen worstelden met de ‘impasse van het vertoon’: zijn mensen dan louter dingen geworden om naar te kijken? Porno is het… 

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5-hour marathon Roman Tragedies favourite with spectators Toneelgroep Amsterdam

We were somewhat mildly ironic about it, but hats off, meanwhile, to Toneelgroep Amsterdam's PR department and the audience, who responded remarkably well to the 'choose the reprise' campaign the company launched a few weeks back. We have the hard numbers we feared we would never see. And they are credible. We quote the press release: From 2 to... 

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'Ajax states' in sudden war between Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and National Travel Opera

This week, the National Travel Opera begins rehearsals of Mozart's Le nozze di figaro. In the bin, the brand-new Netherlands Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. Business as usual, as the two companies have been working closely together for years and are united in the National Music Quarter Enschede. Only: orchestra and opera company have not been talking to each other since last week.

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Fact-free journalism plunges into arts sector.

    According to the Volkskrant, Rick van der Ploeg was state secretary of culture in the early 1990s (in reality, he was at the end of those years), and in Het Parool columnist Gerard Mulder claims that the fact that he "fortunately knows nothing about art subsidies" need not deter him from some wild speculations... 

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Top or flop: audience picks repertoire first theatre company in the Netherlands

We got another press release, and wondered: top or flop? How does quirky artistry rhyme with audience-determined repertoire choice? Andne: do all those people who chose the winning piece also get a free-or at least discounted-ticket to the performance of their choice? Andne: who checks the results, as there is no notary. Enne:. 

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Henk Pröpper: 'Writers Unlimited has always opposed panting and short-term ambition.'

He is now a publisher, and the man who was director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature until last year will be quite happy with that. As director of the Bezige Bij, one of the country's largest publishing houses, he will surely never again have to submissively toast the sarcastic State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra. At least the relief was audible in Pröpper's... 

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Miraculeus spel met eeuwenoude technieken spiegelt Stravinky’s muziek in 50.000 liter water en 50 minuten

Thais en Vietnamees poppenspel. Acrobaten, Chinees schimmenspel en Japanse kostuums. Een Chinese dirigente voor een Nederlands orkest, een Canadees regieteam en als hoofdwerk een krap vijftig minuten durende opera van een Russische componist, gebaseerd op een sprookje van een Deense schrijver die zijn inspiratie uit China haalde. Losjes.

Read More "Miraculeus spel met eeuwenoude technieken spiegelt Stravinky’s muziek in 50.000 liter water en 50 minuten

Thunder or a minor storm in the Gouda Glasses? You may say

We received a letter on legs from Wim de Groot a while ago. Now we often get letters in paws, but here something seemed to be going on. Trouble of course because sorting it out takes time and money and that wasn't there for a while. (Look out for the donor campaign we are about to launch) But still. What's wrong with it? Wim de... 

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Theatre photography in the spotlight at small Amsterdam gallery

Theaterfoto’s zijn een vak apart. Uit een toch al in scene gezet onderwerp kiest de beroepsfotograaf het pakkendste beeld. Er zijn mensen die er daarom op neerkijken, er zijn mensen die de theaterfotograaf juist daarom bewonderen. Wij zijn uiteraard meer geneigd tot het laatste. Maar het vak staat onder druk. Van smartphones, van afnemers die geen plek en geen geld… 

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Austerity year review 2011. Or how the PVV cry 'Arts subsidies we abolish' was widely heard

While 2010 was still the year of PVV positions on culture that were suddenly shared by other parties ("we are abolishing art subsidies"), the year 2011 fell under their implementation. What was striking was the ease with which regional and local administrators also wielded this same machete, as PVV spokesperson Bosma did not fail to testify. For instance, in the municipality of Almelo, 30 % went àff from... 

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Europe wants to invest in culture. If it is allowed by the Netherlands.

It was Europe Day in cultural Amsterdam on Monday 12 December. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science officially opened the application procedure for cities wishing to become Europe's cultural capital in 2018. And the European commission presented and plan of 1.8 billion for culture. We reported via Twitter. And collected the results on 'storify'. View the story "Europe wants to invest in culture.... 

Read More "Europe wants to invest in culture. If it is allowed by the Netherlands.

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