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de utrechtse spelen

Let zzp'ers keep the supervisory boards of cultural companies on their toes!

by Giep Hagoort
23 August 201529 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

How next for boards in the cultural sector? Supervisory boards are under considerable pressure following publications about possible failures of supervision at Rotterdam's Wereldmuseum, Grand Theatre in Groningen and recently again from Rotterdam's Het Nieuwe Instituut. Previously, similar reports appeared about De Utrecht Games and the Groninger Museum, among others. In practically all cases, the cases involved a Council...

City of the Blind is ethical research and sensory experience in one

by Hannah Roelofs
28 May 201529 May 2015
5 min read
THEATER

An old man strolls into the hospital ward with a transistor radio. 'Where did you go blind?' the blind people already present ask the newcomer. 'In a museum,' he replies. A moving conversation then unfolds about what was the last painting he saw, and the possibilities are projected onto the wafer-thin canvas that separates the audience from the sick room. This tot...

DUS is now called Theatre Utrecht. Not to be confused with Stadsschouwburg Utrecht

by Wijbrand Schaap
11 January 201529 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, THEATER

Toneelgroep Centrum, Utrechtse Theater Inititatieven, Jeugdtheaterplatform Utrecht, Theaterplatform Utrecht, De Paardenkathedraal, De Nieuwe Paardenkathedraal, De Utrechtse Spelen. The ostentatious names for Utrecht theatre companies had run out of steam over the past 30 years. Not entirely unexpected, then, that the city theatre company of the Netherlands' fourth city opts for sobriety and clarity. Since Sunday 11 January, 5pm, De Utrechtse Spelen has been called...

Matthias Mooij (1976-2014): a career that should have been there.

by Wijbrand Schaap
25 July 201429 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, OPERA, THEATER

He could have become an important director, but was at the wrong time, in the wrong place. In the end, his illness fatally bothered Matthias Mooij. Yesterday, this still young theatre-maker died of lung cancer, more than a year and a half after the premiere of his first large-venue production: Mogadishu. With that performance, of a play written by the English writer Vivienne Franzmann, Mooij put a new tone in the theatre: no longer did he fall back on theatre-familiar, mainly German and Austrian repertoire, opting instead for British authors.

Dream team comes to save Utrecht Games

by Wijbrand Schaap
6 September 20138 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

Thibaud Delpeut, up-and-coming talent in theatre land, has been appointed artistic director of The Utrecht Games. Jacques van Veen has been appointed as managing director to exude sufficient confidence in the business field as well. He previously won his spurs at the Holland Festival and Groningen City Theatre.

'Mogadishu' fits into zeitgeist of moral confusion

by Wijbrand Schaap
27 January 201329 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

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.

Arthur Japin makes theatre out of his novel Vaslav

by one of our members
15 January 20138 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

'Everseller' author Arthur Japin is to make a stage adaptation of his novel Vaslav, about the legendary Russian dancer Nijinksi. He is making the adaptation at the request of theatre patron Joop van den Ende, who is a big fan of the book. The theatre production goes into

DUS retains grant, leadership leaves

by one of our members
25 October 201230 March 2022
1 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The Netherlands' most remarkable company when it comes to handling grant money has been saved. The Theatre newspaper reports that the central government has agreed to the new adjusted budget, which had to be prepared after earlier this year a loss of over 2 million euros had arisen. So the company keeps the one and a half million euros and artistic director Jos Thie and his business partner Jelle Snijder are chased out of the city with pitch and feathers, where they can join the Supervisory Board that had already turned a little too blind eye. After all, putting in an overpriced production to make up for the deficit from an earlier run of that same overpriced production: no entrepreneur would ever allow that.

Art for all: €3 per person, per month

by Wijbrand Schaap
22 October 201230 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

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.

Culture Council knew about 'Hole of DUS'

by Wijbrand Schaap
14 September 20128 July 2016
6 min read
ACTUAL

Theatre company the Utrecht Games, city company of the Netherlands' fourth largest city, is on the brink of bankruptcy. It was recently revealed that the company led by artistic and business director Jos Thie has a deficit of €2.1 million. Correspondence that has since surfaced shows that it was already clear in May this year that the problems were getting out of hand. That was a month after the Utrecht subsidy advisory committee issued its laudatory opinion, and a few weeks before the Council for Culture issued its very thrifty advice.

Theatre on demand offers British quality

by Wijbrand Schaap
21 August 201230 March 2022
2 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Lots of bobbing on boards. That's what drama on television is mostly. And actors with weird reverberations in intimate scenes. That too. It is easy to shoot at attempts to bring successful performances to the TV or cinema screen. They almost always make viewers feel that their medium is shooting back 80 years in development. This is also why every attempt by the Dutch Public Broadcasting Corporation to make our fairly highly regarded stage art attractive to a wider audience via TV fails. Theatre or opera on screen is especially suitable for

'I have all of Shakespeare's records in my cupboard'

by one of our members
11 June 201230 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The press presentation of the open-air opera Orfeo ed Eurydice at Soestdijk at the time attracted just under a hundred people press and sponsors. At the presentation of the performance 'Much ado about nothing', The Utrecht Games attracted only a handful: someone from weblog cultuurpodium.nl, two people from the Stadsblad Utrecht and an indeterminate camera crew who had come exclusively for Suzan Visser....

Too full or not too full at subsidy theatre

by one of our members
3 April 201229 March 2022
10 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Hein Janssen (Volkskrant) wrote a column in response to a couple of performances with BN stars in the subsidised circuit in which he argued that subsidy was not meant for that. The association for actors thought this was reason enough for a debate. We made a short film to go with it. We formatted it in storify, a feature that allows you to put tweets and other social media messages together and...

'No shit, everybody rich', but also: 'alarm, alarm, all poor'

by Wijbrand Schaap
30 March 201230 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Art subsidies are better abolished if artists have to reach large audiences. Because then, after all, you distort the market. Logical. You could also decide to subsidise everyone. And that sounds stranger than

Read More "'No shit, everybody rich', but also: 'alarm, alarm, all poor'

Jacob Derwig and Elsie de Brauw receive 2011's top drama awards

by one of our members
11 September 20118 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

On Sunday evening 11 September, the VSCD Drama Awards, the VSCD Mime Prize, the VSCD Youth Theatre Awards and the AVRO Toneel Publieksprijs 2011 were presented at the Gala van het Nederlands Theater. And that you then know that VSCD stands for the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors and AVRO for General Free Radio Broadcasting. The award for the best male lead of the past...

Photo: Jochem Jurgens

The Kiss and DUS in final stage award nominations

by one of our members
23 June 201130 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The Utrecht Games (DUS), with its successful production August Oklahoma, immediately wins three nominations for the theatre awards to be handed out in September: Ria Eimers for best female lead, and Peter Bolhuis and Tjitsjke Reidinga compete for the prizes for best supporting actress. Percentage-wise, however, much more successful than DUS is De Kus, a production by Hummelinck Stuurman, because there the...

Rascals and heroes battle for power at Utrecht Festival a/d Werf

by one of our members
23 May 201130 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

There is no such thing as the perfect human being. We are all crooks. Or is there a way to get it right? Ilay den Boer and the actors of De Utrechtse Spelen / De Warme Winkel each explore in their own way at the 26th edition of Festival aan de Werf. Wasn't my grandfather just an asshole? That...

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