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Indien je een mens bent, laat dit veld leeg:.

ITA

Incubators we already had, but where was the incubator? Is Art-up Incubator the salvation for cultural Holland?

by Wijbrand Schaap
4 November 20196 November 2019
3 min read
ACTUAL, PERSONAL, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Fifty years ago, some tomatoes and smoke bombs flew through Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. This will be commemorated on 4 November at ITA, the former Stadsschouwburg, with a gathering for which, according to the many e-mails I receive, not all tickets have been sold yet. Meanwhile, voluminous essays are appearing in the trade magazine and many are wondering whether there might not be another tomato...

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If no one comes up with a Plan B...

by Wijbrand Schaap
25 October 201925 October 2019
8 min read
ACTUAL, PODIUM ART, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

On 23 October, website Theaterkrant.nl wrote a piece on the future of the performing arts. A future that is black and gloomy when you, as a creator, count on growth, or even survival at all. In short: so much money is going away from the Performing Arts Fund, that from next year only between 50 and 60 applications can be honoured, in...

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Ivo van Hove directed a top-notch broadcast of Zomergasten, with a wonderful lead role for Janine Abbring.

by Wijbrand Schaap
2 September 20192 September 2019
5 min read
MEDIA, PODIUM ART, THEATER, BECOME A MEMBER

Janine Abbring has managed to pull the somewhat ramshackle institution Zomergasten out of the doldrums. She has fun, is excellently prepared, is genuinely interested in her guests and has managed to push the eternal battle element into the background without making the broadcasts less exciting. That battle element was always: does the interviewer succeed in 'breaking' the guest? Because.

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Homage to Robert Mapplethorpe: slideshow with moderate music #HF19

by Thea Derks
20 June 201919 August 2019
4 min read
Holland Festival, MUSIC, PODIUM ART, SPECIALS, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

A black man sits on the edge of the stage of Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg, pardon ITA. He observes us with intense gaze as we walk into the auditorium. - As the incarnate subtitle of the performance Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) dedicated to Robert Mapplethorpe. Behind a gauze screen are the instruments of Asko|Schönberg, which, together with Roomful of Teeth, signs for...

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ITA's Cherry Garden delivers neat play in theatrical no man's land

by Wijbrand Schaap
17 June 201930 March 2022
3 min read
Holland Festival, PODIUM ART, SPECIALS, THEATER, BECOME A MEMBER

It must have started with a big plan in Simon McBurney's head. The Brit, a master of mathematically precise text theatre full of technical gadgets, saw the amazing floor of the Rabozaal of Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg and his brain started working. Something about a backcloth covering the full width of the hall, something about a doll's house, something about...

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Los Incontados: a bizarre terrarium of small-human suffering in a cloud of cocaine and confetti.

by Wijbrand Schaap
1 June 20191 June 2019
3 min read
Holland Festival, PODIUM ART, SPECIALS, THEATER

Colombia's biggest export not only allows Urk fishermen to work long hours, or Amsterdam Zuidas lawyers to keep up with the global 24-hour economy. The white gold also dissolves the nasal septum of the cream of world culture, and costs thousands of lives in the country itself. That had to lead to a theatrical performance, and it did

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The Book Ball. Everything you must have done once in your life

by Wijbrand Schaap
23 March 201913 April 2019
3 min read
LITERARY, MEDIA, TELEVISION

There I stood. Next to THE RED LOPER. In THE PRESS box. Everything you must have done once in your life and this was MY MOMENT. THE BOOKBALL at THE CITY BURY which was renamed ITA because of the boss' career. To my left TEAM VOLKSKRANT, to my right a cute KRULLENBOL from the LINDA and in between them a journalist....

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Lower House gets less say on arts subsidies. (If the minister gets her way)

by Wijbrand Schaap
28 December 201830 March 2022
5 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Some people read Christmas stories over Christmas, others the interview supplements of newspapers, and a few do so with policy documents. So, quite a few people have read our Culture Minister's 'Advice Request' in the past few days. I, at least. Those who 'officially' cannot have done so are the members of the Culture Council, because the whole package came...

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Without memory, our theatre continues to innovate mindlessly, it turns out at the @theatrefestival

by Wijbrand Schaap
9 September 201812 September 2018
4 min read
ACTUAL, PODIUM ART, THEATER

Dutch theatre is remembering less and less. This was evident last Friday during two meetings at ITA, the building that once housed the Stadsschouwburg. During Nieuwe Grond, part of the Dutch Theatre Festival, the topic was heritage. One meeting will possibly be remembered by the six attendees: the two guests plus presenter, and their three audience members. The other...

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PODCAST: Theatre Festival 2018 opens with punishment.

by Wijbrand Schaap
September 7, 201829 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, PODCAST, PODIUM ART, THEATER

1On 6 September 2018, Chokri Ben Chika left his sense of humour behind in Belgium. He trekked to the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg with a filled jerry can and committed a criminal offence. He threatened a Rabo Hall filled to the brim with an indistinguishable fake weapon. He said he admired the anonymous Tunisian who, with his self-immolation ...

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Amsterdam has the @HollandFestival. Ask yourself why that is. And whether that's ok.

by Wijbrand Schaap
2 July 201830 March 2022
6 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, DANS, Holland Festival, MUSIC, OPERA, PODIUM ART, SPECIALS, THEATER

Last week, while walking the dog, my neighbour Stefanie asked, "What is that anyway, this Holland Festival?", and I almost caught myself wearily going to explain that it was the most important performing arts festival the Netherlands and its environs and that everyone with a bit of education should know it. But I held back. And wondered: how...

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ITA is a hopeless name for an art house. But there is no alternative for Amsterdam's city theatre

by Wijbrand Schaap
1 February 201816 May 2018
3 min read
ACTUAL, PODIUM ART, THEATER

Toneelgroep Amsterdam and Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam will continue together as 'Internationa(a)l Theater Amsterdam' (ITA). Not to be confused with the just-removed Internationaal Danstheater Amsterdam. I find the name 'ITA' rather chilly. Maybe as cold as Toneelgroep, but at least that still contained the word 'group'. That has something cosy about it. ITA is something like ING. Great ambition and no roots. For a moment...

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