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theatre festival boulevard

'Sender Boulevard': a small-scale summer programme of theatre and more, from the makers of Boulevard

Under the banner 'Sender Boulevard', 25 performances, performances and installations are popping up in 's-Hertogenbosch this summer, especially in the second week of August. Their shared motto is 'Approach the other'. Because after months of isolation, appropriate distance and avoidance, the desire to get [a little] closer glows. Boulevard celebrates the resilience of makers and audiences in 2020 with a programme... 

Read More "'Sender Boulevard': a small-scale summer programme of theatre and more, from the makers of Boulevard
photo by karin jonker

Minister van Engelshoven visits Brabant performing arts sector

Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven spoke today at the invitation of Theatre Festival Boulevard with organisations and individual creators from Brabant about the impact of COVID-19. In the presence of the culture aldermen of the big cities and the new deputy for Leisure, Culture and Sport, the impact of the virus on the performing arts sector was mapped out. AND there was... 

Read More "Minister van Engelshoven visits Brabant performing arts sector

Culture Press podcastcorona (21) - Oscar Kocken: 'Not being allowed to perform your work for six months is pretty gross.'

'Yes, of course it was something we already saw coming in every way. That made me mentally prepared. But then when you actually hear it... It's just SO sour. It's every time - I don't blame anyone, to be clear - but every time you get bad news, you try... 

Read More "Culture Press podcastcorona (21) - Oscar Kocken: 'Not being allowed to perform your work for six months is pretty gross.'

In times of Corona, do you really need to build a new theatre with a precorona design? Culture Press Corona podcast in times of Den Bosch (20)

80 million it should cost, and it should hold a lot of people, with three theatres, and it should all happen on the lot now occupied by the Theater aan de Parade in Den Bosch. That has proved so difficult that there has been fuss about it since 2006. Now there is a draft, approved and all, of... 

Read More "In times of Corona, do you really need to build a new theatre with a precorona design? Culture Press Corona podcast in times of Den Bosch (20)

Call by Wim Claessen, former director of Theatre Festival Boulevard: 'Are there any directors left who dare to turn the tide?'

This is a letter sent in by Wim Claessen, who founded Boulevard in 1984, and passed the baton to Geert Overdam in 2002, who was succeeded by Viktorien van Hulst in 2014. "It is a disgrace that we are still standing here," spoke Viktorien van Hulst at the opening of Theatre Festival Boulevard at the Theater aan de Parade. "How... 

Read More "Call by Wim Claessen, former director of Theatre Festival Boulevard: 'Are there any directors left who dare to turn the tide?'

Bring on that fair! 7 established facts that make an ever-younger festival Boulevard unique.

Theatre Festival Boulevard is a highlight of the festival summer every year. Because there are no barriers and because it carries the casual atmosphere of the city in every fibre. But it goes even further. Here are my seven learning moments: 1: Boulevard is more accessible than the city itself Some people find it verging on the hysterical, but... 

Read More "Bring on that fair! 7 established facts that make an ever-younger festival Boulevard unique.

Five quarters of an adolescent brain. Jetse Batelaan makes growing pains hilariously palpable at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

When you make theatre for children and young people, you tell stories to children and young people from your adult existence as an adult. You can do that. You can get funding for that. Artemis, previously named the second-best theatre company in the Netherlands here, is such a company. But, because this youth theatre company is led by Jetse Batelaan, Artemis likes to do things differently. Stronger... 

Read More "Five quarters of an adolescent brain. Jetse Batelaan makes growing pains hilariously palpable at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

Impressive Minaret shows at Theatre Festival Boulevard that art survives disasters. (And check out what Miet Warlop pulls off with Dervishes)

Miet Warlop has exciting ideas, and carries them out. Now she is not unique in that. More artists do that. What makes Miet Warlop special is that it invariably leads to really special work. Take her latest creation, to be seen at Theatre Festival Boulevard, 'Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Brake': she puts three people on stage and... 

Read More "Impressive Minaret shows at Theatre Festival Boulevard that art survives disasters. (And check out what Miet Warlop pulls off with Dervishes)

Why youth is the future and fake art does not lead to real art at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

Bossche Theatre Artemis is, after International Theatre Amsterdam, the best theatre company in the Netherlands. The company owes this to an illustrious past (Pauline Mol!!) and to Jetse Batelaan. This director recently received the prestigious Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for his disruptive oeuvre. This consists largely of performances in which children take power, without... 

Read More "Why youth is the future and fake art does not lead to real art at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

In search of pleasure and secret spots, you sometimes stumble upon very special things during Festival Boulevard

The central character in theatre-maker Marijn Graven's Lo Lie Taa was there early. At least, so he tells the mirrored floor and the audience in his monologue Lo Lie Taa. As a nine-year-old, he was already madly in love with his mother and not long after, his life was defined by pursuing as many splashy results of his... 

Read More "In search of pleasure and secret spots, you sometimes stumble upon very special things during Festival Boulevard

White wine and black pain at finely diverse Theatre Festival Boulevard

One of the benefits of advancing secularisation is that beautiful buildings are becoming vacant in more and more places. You can do things with those buildings. With art, for example. So this week, Studio Orka from Belgium did something beautiful in the Maria Church in Vught. They turned the empty neo-Romanesque building into, yes, an empty church.... 

Read More "White wine and black pain at finely diverse Theatre Festival Boulevard

Boulevard opens with great ambition. It will be exciting regardless.

The Theater aan de Parade is slowly but surely starting to become the blot of cultural politics in Den Bosch. The outdated theatre has too low ceilings, too much plush, asbestos and past to still be a credit to the Brabant provincial capital. Viktorien van Hulst, director of the now 35-year-old Theatre Festival Boulevard, made a point of saying during her opening speech on 1 August that the... 

Read More "Boulevard opens with great ambition. It will be exciting regardless.

The Netherlands' Flemishest festival. Theatre festival Boulevard sees artists searching for a way forward

'As programmers, we are more often in Ghent than in Amsterdam,' says Viktorien van Hulst, director of Theatre Festival Boulevard. The Bossche arts festival, which this year takes place from 1 to 11 August under the Sint Jan and at unexpected locations around the North Brabant capital, has for years stood out for its close ties with our southern neighbours. 'The Dionysian artists are sitting... 

Read More "The Netherlands' Flemishest festival. Theatre festival Boulevard sees artists searching for a way forward

Kind of a recovery in the performing arts, but pay particular attention to what's happening in the southern Netherlands

As part of "Hi, Figures!", Statistics Netherlands today released updated figures on the performing arts in the Netherlands. These show a cautious recovery, although the consequences of the 2011 interventions by the VVD and PVV are still painfully visible. The figures show that theatre in particular is struggling. There, the... 

Read More "Kind of a recovery in the performing arts, but pay particular attention to what's happening in the southern Netherlands

A plea for watching and guessing @tfboulevard

This edition, Theatre Festival Boulevard invited the audience to reflect on the two sides of identity: its immutability but especially its malleability. All this under the heading what you see is what you guess. If there is a performance to which this applies, it has to be Goat Song. A fascinating fifty-minute wordless performance by... 

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Gender gets Japanese touch at Theatre Festival Boulevard @tfboulevard

'Not a bad word about Lego or Knexx. But identity is the most exciting building kit.' So opens the preface to Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. What you see is what you guess is the motto this time. It refers to the gap between how other people see you and how you yourself feel. Identity in its broadest form: from gender... 

Read More "Gender gets Japanese touch at Theatre Festival Boulevard @tfboulevard

Why I suddenly missed the writers in Den Bosch @tfboulevard

Usually when I speak to someone who calls themselves a playwright, they say they are 'only' a supplier of a 'half-product'. I never get that answer from a young actor, and certainly never from a director. It is they who make theatre out of the half-products supplied by writers. Actors and directors prefer to be addressed as 'theatre-makers'. Nothing wrong with that.... 

Read More "Why I suddenly missed the writers in Den Bosch @tfboulevard

Discomfort delivers little, so look for vulnerability on @tfboulevard. There is plenty of that.

Speaking of bubbles. In the middle of Den Bosch, on the parade square, there are three mega-play blocks you can enter. They are mini theatres, brainchildren of designer Theun Mosk. In one of them, you come across a very large plastic bubble in which young, mostly naked, people move. The audience stands on either side of the bubble feeling uncomfortable. Partly because the naked young people... 

Read More "Discomfort delivers little, so look for vulnerability on @tfboulevard. There is plenty of that.

Come watch world freestyle champion Nasser El Jackson transform into a dancer on @tfboulevard.

It started three years ago. Guilherme Miotto, working as a dance maker in Tilburg, was asked by a good friend of his. Whether he wanted to come and have a look in Noord. There, in that rather notorious slum, there were some fantastic freestyle footballers running around. YouTube runs with them, and the best one, Nasser El Jackson, is even world champion. A ball wizard. That is. 

Read More "Come watch world freestyle champion Nasser El Jackson transform into a dancer on @tfboulevard.

The uncomfortable truth of the paraglider. What I took away from the opening performance of @tfboulevard

About 18 years ago, while on holiday in the Auvergne region, my wife and I picked up a paraglider that had ended up rather unhappily in a meadow full of indignant cows. We were happy to do something. The paraglider looked grateful, although he was a little worried about the car in which we were going to take him back to... 

Read More "The uncomfortable truth of the paraglider. What I took away from the opening performance of @tfboulevard

Podcast: Theatre Festival Boulevard (@tfboulevard) is sweltering, and it's not just because of the weather.

We have sound from the opening. A speech, interviews with three of the four guides and lots of fine sound from a busy festival square in Den Bosch. Listen in, and above all, come and see for yourself. With your family, on an adventure or as a pearl diver. Or all at once. There is water for everyone, and air conditioning where needed.

Just a few reasons to come to @tfboulevard in Den Bosch in early August.

If the weather holds up a bit, the upcoming edition of Theatre Festival Boulevard will be the most tropical in history. The smart ones among us, who opted for a staycation in West Balkonia this year, can indulge their cultural heart in Den Bosch. Not for nothing regularly called 'The Avignon of the Netherlands'. Theatre festival Boulevard is unpacking 2018 with a truly overwhelming... 

Read More "Just a few reasons to come to @tfboulevard in Den Bosch in early August.

Choreographer Arno Schuitemaker outdoes himself with gossamer The Way You Sound Tonight at @HollandFestival 2018

It is the spatial arrangement that immediately impresses in The Way You Sound Tonight, choreographer Arno Schuitemaker's ninth performance. There are roughly 25 seats too few. The last Holland Festival visitors to walk onto the Rabozaal stage during the premiere have to find their own place on the still-scented wooden floor. Pijpela Schuitemaker has, to my... 

Read More "Choreographer Arno Schuitemaker outdoes himself with gossamer The Way You Sound Tonight at @HollandFestival 2018

The Netherlands is festivalised. And why that is a very good thing. Collaborating festivals come out with a pamphlet (and ask for money)

Grandpa tells. In 1989, a committee of experts chose a different theatre course in my city, Utrecht. The just-risen festival Theater aan de Werf would get more money, the marching theatre would disappear from 't Hoogt and the rest would have to take care of the newcomer with fewer days of programming. Then we took to the streets against the so-called 'festivalisation',... 

Read More "The Netherlands is festivalised. And why that is a very good thing. Collaborating festivals come out with a pamphlet (and ask for money)

Our readers' list. What we should all never forget from 2017.

Well, we're not big on hypes and traditions here, but still. The dark days around Christmas are very dark this year, so why not something with lists. This year, no list of toppers from the editors, but random entries from random readers, in random, if slightly alphabetical order. Motto of the readers' question was: which things... 

Read More "Our readers' list. What we should all never forget from 2017.

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