Good going, over there in The Hague. After the company announced earlier this week that it would take a young creator into its artistic leadership before his death, today follows the announcement that Het Nationale Toneel wants to merge with the Koninklijke Schouwburg. This would mean that, for the first time in a long time in the Netherlands, the performer of a city theatre would again be...
Ten per cent fewer performances and ten per cent fewer visitors in Overijssel headlines RTV Oost. Bam! That chops it. Into the bin, that jubilant press release by Jet Bussemaker. And if there is one province that does not need to apologise to Halbe Zijlstra, it is Overijssel. Well, we reported earlier that apologies are not necessary anyway, but as a province...
The Speech Doctor reviews: The 3 Anti-Speakers of TEDX Amsterdam 2014: Duncan Stutterheim, Ton van Oostwaard and Henk Schiffmacher. What is TEdx Amsterdam? On Friday 27 November 2014, the Netherlands' most famous TEDx, TEDx Amsterdam took place again at the Stadsschouwburg. TED is a global organisation where people of name and fame (or before name and fame) show up to present their 'ideas...
First story. A naked king crawls at the feet of a woman. She is much taller than him, a goddess. High above him, she holds a bunch of grapes in her hand. Hungry he is! He wants those grapes, all of them. His body is vulnerable. It seems to shiver in the open air. But when it comes to the coveted food, he fetches...
On Monday 27 October, "The Culture Congress" took place. A cleverly chosen name that suggested that this congress was unique in its kind and that there was a big organisation behind it. All the more surprising that this was only the first edition. And that the initiative came from one person. During his opening speech, Job Gerlings took us through...
Wijbrand Schaap: 'Now on the role of cities. One of the reactions on our site is about the role of the randstad in cultural policy. Melle Daamen puts the primacy in the randstad, and goes further than the council in this.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'The council has no position yet.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'But there is something in the Culture Outlook. Cities form...
Declining visitor numbers, shrinking subsidies, impoverished programming: most Dutch theatres are struggling, research by NRC Handelsblad recently showed. Theatres welcomed 12 million visitors in 2012, according to NRC figures, a quarter less than in 2008. Festivals, on the other hand, are on the rise. More and more are being organised, and they are attracting more and more people - in total...
Suddenly they are gone: the Dutch Symphony Orchestra's twitter account and facebook page. Searching for the new ***** name also yields nothing. Must have something to do with all sorts of lawsuits. But if you type in nederlandssymfonieorkest.nl, you happily end up at symfonieorkest.nl. Incidentally, if you type in orkestvanhetoosten.nl, that's also where you end up.
The great theatre maker Johan Simons has made it known that he wants to come to Rotterdam, to set up a major European theatre. He sees his chance now that a spot will become available in two years' time in the artistic direction of the Maasstad's city theatre company, the ro theatre. When they appoint Simons, they can think big, Simons says. And.
In 2001, when Rotterdam was European Capital of Culture, a number of institutions joined forces and from this, in 2005, the Rotterdam Opera Days born. The aim is to programme innovative musical theatre in the opera house-less Maasstad after all, often in unusual locations. This year the ninth edition will take place, from 17 to 25 May, with the theme 'brotherhood'.
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.
How can a usually very ordinary, amiable theatre director suddenly come out with the notice That a few orchestras can go away and the National Ballet should be outsourced? We wondered so and headed to the car park at the Concertgebouw yesterday.
We kept a liveblog. Nice and old-fashioned, from the days when every month there was uproar somewhere about the government's handling of art. Now there is peace in the tent, as the PVV sardonically points out, because 'The Left' is now the bearer of policies devised by the PVV. The PVV predicts a black future for 'The Left' once the PVV comes to power.
Even before she graduated from mime school, Boukje Schweigman swore off language. She worked out a wordless philosophy in her performances. She seeks the mystery of life. However vast and elusive her starting points may be, her performances give the audience the most direct, immediate, skin-tight sensation imaginable in a theatre.
It would have been so nice: The National Ballet together with The National Opera at The National Theatre, like you have in the capital of any self-respecting country. But so that didn't happen. The home of our National Opera and Ballet clubs is now called 'Nationale Opera en Ballet'. The National Theatre made sure of that, which, like the Nederlands Dans Theater, is not in our capital Amsterdam, but in its residence in The Hague.
A joint press conference by two companies. In the post-Zijlstra era, that often does not bode well. A merger then seems obvious, especially when it involves the two largest opera companies in our country: De Nederlandse Opera and the Nationale Reisopera. Only now we have to turn that around: the Netherlands Opera will become the National Opera. And the building will be called National Opera and Ballet.
The Amsterdam City Theatre is looking for a manager for its restaurant. Happens more often, but this time it is news. You see, the Amsterdam City Theatre has a place to reclaim. On the restaurant. When that restaurant opened a few years ago after a major renovation of the 19th-century building on Leidseplein, the Stadsschouwburg had suddenly become sort of untraceable.
Not a cent more goes to the annual theatre awards and all other collective marketing activities, such as the performing arts congress, also go to 0 euros or very little. Says one chairman to another director, who is also chairman, and is actually the same. Because that's how it goes at the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors:
"That sounds different. A bit sad."
I just played F, B, D♯ and G♯. Better known as the Tristan chord. But on guitar. My audience consists of 15 toddlers.
The dissolution of the Performing Arts Promotion Office continues to stir minds. So another piece, although we are actually supposed to be walking around the Uitmarkt to expensive advertising leaflets to sell.
Enfin.
The Theatre Voucher has been more popular than its publisher suspected. Theatre-goers have certainly used this performing arts book voucher more than expected over the last decade. One and a half million euros more. As a result, the Foundation for the Promotion of Theatre and Concert Attendance SPTC has faced negative assets since 2011.
The Performing Arts Promotion Office which will be disbanded from 1 October, has not fallen victim to cultural cuts or the economic crisis. The Stichting Promotie Theater- en Concertbezoek (SPTC), the BPP's backer, has turned off the money tap for other, unclear reasons.
We are far from having all the info, but we have enough by now: the Bureau Promotie Podiumkunsten (BPP), funded by the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Managements, is quitting as of 1 October. Reason unknown, but surely the malaise in the cultural sector, and especially the performing arts, will have something to do with it.
Young choreographers Cecilia Moisio, Giulio d'Anna and Melissa Ellberger have been nominated for the Prize of the Netherlands Dance Days Maastricht 2013.
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