#girl of frascati

[ghw-archive]

Girl from Frascati (detail), Adolf Henning

[eventiecoeventi]

Eccolo sta arrivando anche lui Pinocchio...nuovi arrivi... @eventi_e_co_roma_bomboniere @wedding_store_roma #pinocchio #geppetto #legno #burattini #cornice #kiss #favola #hashtags #happy #kisses #madeinitaly #girls #boys #comunione2023 #primacomunione #battesimo #eventi #happybirthday #ostia #original #profumatore #orologio #appiolatinotuscolano #quadraro #viatuscolana #sangiovanni #piazzadispagna #disneylandparis #harrystyles #frascati (presso Eventi e Co. Roma di Velia De Cristofaro Bomboniere e Addobbi Floreali) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpo2sefNZ_c/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Adolf Henning (German, 1809–1900) Girl of Frascati, Papal States, 1838

[si-cooper-hewitt-design-museum]

Two Girls from Frascati Visit a Hermit, Bartolomeo Pinelli, 1807, Smithsonian: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Medium: Paper

http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/view/objects/asitem/id/49008

[irina-norton]

Girl from Frascati by Adolf Henning 

[con-alas-de-angeles]

Art detail: Girl From Frascati by Adolf Henning

C. 1838

[loumargi]

Adolf Henning Girl from Frascati

[casaannabel]

Girl from Frascati detail, by Adolf Henning, 1838

[georgiawhitehornmethodacting]

Hagen and the Physical Senses with regards to Top Girls

Chapter six, the physical senses, is one of the most interesting techniques an actor can use in my opinion. Act one, Scene one in Top Girls takes place in a restaurant. Marlene is eagerly awaiting the arrival of all her friends. To create the naturalistic portrayal of this scene, as Marlene I can smell the food cooking. Particularly freshly baked bread and steak, this smell makes me hungry and my stomach rumbles. I can hear the kitchen staff laughing as the doors swing open and closed, this makes me comfortable in my surroundings, therefore I can relax resulting in my posture and body language altering. The restaurant is warm, bordering on uncomfortable. This also makes me feel slightly disgruntled and sweaty. These circumstances are creating physical adjustment in terms of how I view things as Marlene. I have a heightened sense of awareness as an actor about where my character is, how they are sitting and how they are viewed by others around her. These elements will affect how how Marlene interacts with others, for example “I’d like a bottle of Frascati straight away if you’ve got one really cold”. I believe that as the temperature in the restaurant is slightly warmer that Marlene is happy with, her physical senses have a domino affect with how she interacts with the waitress, this is construed by Marlene asking for a bottle of cold alcohol straight away without using manners towards the waitress. However to speculate, Marlene’s lack of manners could be coming from a new found self importance from her recent career progression. As an actor, I can still take the speculation into consideration and feed this into my characterisation further into the play, especially in Act one, Scene two at Marlene’s place of work.

[alessiophoto]

“Crossfit girl power.” 🏋🏻‍♀️ @_a.gnese 📷 @alessioluzi_photo 📍 @crossfitfrascati . #alessioluziphoto #health #fitness #fit #crossfitfrascati #crossfitlead #fititalia #crossfitleaderboard #training #italiancrossfitter #health #rebookcrossfit #crossfitgames #healthychoices #b_n_w_photography #crossfitpower #crossfitfoto #fotocrossfit #lifestyle #skillgetmore #cleaneating #bnw_greatshot #bnw_greatshots #hatlex #crossfitcommunity #crossfitfotografia #crossfititalia #bnw_greatshot #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #crossfitgirlpower (presso CrossFit Frascati) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFHIOVSnU8n/?igshid=9s1d27tuve3v

[rosariopaganophoto]

#glamour #fashion #style #love #beauty #model #makeup #portrait #photography #like #glam #instagood #art #moda #christmas #beautiful #photooftheday #mua #follow #girl #look #cute #instagram #hair #sexy #lifestyle #fashionblogger #xadv750 #honda (presso Frascati, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-Y4zeKLDK/?igshid=1ucaefvgbkzj4

[alebattocchiobodymod]

Navel Fresh ! . . . Inverse Navel. Fresh Done ✅ . 💎 Info&booking: Ale.bodymod666@gmail.com www.alebodymod.com . . Booking: 🏠B-HILLS TATTOO STUDIO CITTADELLA (PADOVA) Info.bhills@gmail.com www.bhillstattoostudio.com . . 🏠ETERNAL TATTOO STUDIO BY SILVANO FIATO NERVI - GENOVA Info@silvanofiato.com www.silvanofiato.com . . New Opening: 🏠ETERNAL TATTOO STUDIO BY SILVANO FIATO Frascati - Roma Roma@silvanofiato.com www.silvanofiato.com . . Aseptic Tec. 🏥 . Free Hands Tec. 🖐🏻 . Katana Needle 💉 . . . . #piercerartist #bodymod #navelpiercings #navelpiercing #genitalpiercing #ombelicopiercing #piercingmodel #piercingstyle #piercing #eternaltattoostudio #bhillstattoocompany #piercing2me #piercingsworks #piercingjewelry #jewellery #professionalbodypiercer #conch #genova #roma #ready #cittadella #ombelico #model #girl #firstposts #bodymodification #piercinglove (presso Ale Battocchio - Body Piercing & Modification) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8BhHH3CTN5/?igshid=sxo7iebyu9xy

[leanstooneside]

Rudolph

dark Auser's rill; Fat are the stags

fortuitous coincidence it is also one of the most extraordinary

young Tarquins to the oracle at Delphi is just such a story

straight go down; For since Janiculum is lost Nought

ambiguous answer returned by Apollo is in the exact style

largest lamp is lit; When

cold north winds blow And the long howling of the wolves Is heard amidst the snow; When round

all folk to see; Horatius in his harness Halting upon one knee: And underneath is written In letters all

central battle For sore is there our need; There

great object of the warriors on both sides is as in the Iliad

oldest cask is opened And

close; When the girls are weaving baskets And

public right As much as two strong oxen Could plough from morn till night; And they made a molten image And set it up on high And there is stands unto

gold is red; and all the ladies are gay

near Cornufelle between Frascati and the Monte Porzio is at least plausible

national songs Douglas is almost always the doughty Douglas; England

purple With olive each is crowned

all streams Clitumnus Is to the herdsman dear; Best

nearer Doth the red whirlwind come; And louder still and still more loud From underneath that rolling cloud Is heard the trumpet's war

certain phrases come to be appropriated to certain men and things and are regularly applied to those men

false Etruscan Who lingers in his home When Porsena of Clusium Is on the march

public worship belonged; and it is probable

[si-cooper-hewitt-design-museum]

Two Girls from Frascati Visit a Hermit, Bartolomeo Pinelli, 1807, Smithsonian: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Medium: Paper

http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/view/objects/asitem/id/49008

[premiofabbriperlarte]

Vincitori 2018 - Alessia De Montis - LAYERS-Fabbri

Fotografia Giclée su carta baritata Giclée photograph on Baryta paper cm 86 x 123 2018

De Montis spazia dal linguaggio fotografico a quello audiovisivo e installativo. Sviluppa progetti multimediali tramite l’utilizzo di foto, video e installazioni. L’opera che presenta, LAYERS-Fabbri, è il primo di una serie che l’autrice sta portando avanti. È partita da una lunga riflessione sulla natura della fotografia digitale, rappresentazione numerica di un’immagine bidimensionale. Alessia ne interroga la massima risoluzione e compressione ed evoca, nel perfetto mondo digitale, l’imperfezione della superficie analogica, portando allo scoperto i diversi strati. Convinta che non tutto combaci perfettamente e che proprio nei diversi strati dell’immagine si annidi la vita. Nascosta nell’ombra alberga una sottile emozione. L’autrice ha voluto realizzare un’immagine distante dall’apparenza spettacolare, opta quindi per la sottile evocazione poetica dei ricordi. Sulla decorazione iconica del vaso Fabbri applica lettere di carta ritagliate. La scritta “Ricorda me da piccola” assume diversi significati: è un intervento manuale che allude al lavoro femminile ed è un’immagine metonimica. La decorazione, un’icona dal forte impatto estetico, simboleggia il prodotto. La scritta è uno spazio aperto, un messaggio nascosto, offerto allo spettatore indotto a interrogare l’emozione del proprio ricordo.

Nasce nel 1976 a Livorno. Vive e lavora a Bologna. Mostre personali  2014 “To be apple, not to be apple”, a cura di / edited by E. Abbiatici, (galleria +) oltredimore, Bologna 2012 “Odissea Contemporanea”, a cura di / edited by D. Alonso, Galeria Rita Castellote, Madrid 2011 “ConcertAzione 4”, a cura di / edited by O. Spatola, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Bologna 2010 “ConcertAzione 3”, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia “Leonardo da Vinci”, Milano “ConcertAzione 2”, a cura di / edited by N.D. Angerame, ex chiesa Anglicana, Alassio “ConcertAzione”, a cura di / edited by O. Spatola, Contemporary Concept, Bologna 2007 Premio Internazionale di Pittura Scultura e Arte Elettronica “Guglielmo Marconi”, Bologna 2005 “Sirene”, Teatro Container Viabizzuno, Milano “Odissea Contemporanea”, a cura di / edited by D. Del Moro, Chiostro dell’Umanitaria, Milano “La Fotografia dentro”, a cura di / edited by D. Curti e A. Locatelli, Fabbrica Eos, Milano 2004 “Corpore”, a cura di / edited by D. Del Moro e F. Gallo, Galleria Paolo Nanni, Bologna. 

Mostre collettive / Group Exhibitions 2014 “Figura Aqua. La forma dell’Acqua”, a cura di / edited by P. Diecidue, A. Locatelli e M.R. Pividori, Spazio Ex Fornace, Milano 2013 “Ab Origine”, Z2O Galleria Sara Zanin, Roma “L’Arte del tempo di mezzo”, a cura di / edited by D. Del Moro, Galleria civica d’arte contemporanea Montevergini, Siracusa “Arte in terapia”, a cura di / edited by A. D’Attanasio e N. Miele, ex chiesa di Sant’Agata, Spoleto 2012 “#piccoledonneCRESCONO”, a cura di / edited by S. Raffaghello, Sabrina Raffaghello Arte Contemporanea, Alessandria “Natura Anfibia. Incontro tra Arte Magia e Scienza”, a cura di / edited by C. Composti e M. Rizzardini, mc2gallery, Milano “Thirteen light movies... di luce propria”, a cura di / edited by A. Trabucco, Nur Gallery di arsprima, Milano “EAT, emerging artists trans-mediterranean”, a cura di / edited by M. Meneguzzo e M. Corgnati, Palazzo Lombardia, Milano “Dalla parte delle donne. Tra azione e partecipazione”, a cura di / edited by F. Bianconi e C. Canali, Galleria Parmeggiani, Reggio Emilia “Cherchez la femme”, Costantini Art Gallery, Milano 2011 “Il Soggetto Sconosciuto”, a cura di / edited by E. Beluffi e M. Aion Mangani, BT’F Art Gallery, Bologna “La Casa di Ulisse”, a cura di / edited by C. Calicelli e Figure Blu, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano “(Un)dressed - La donna e il nudo nella fotografia d’autore dal ‘900 a oggi”, Palazzo Borromeo, Milano “AAM - Arte Accessibile Milano”, a cura di / edited by C. Canali, Spazio Eventiquattro - Gruppo 24 Ore, Milano “In corpo. Dalla performance al video”, a cura di / edited by E. Beluffi, BT’F Art Gallery, Bologna 2010 “Frames Italian Style in contemporary video art”, a cura di / edited by N.D. Angerame, Silpakorn University, Bangkok “Il filo del pensiero. L’arte sotto il segno della bellezza”, a cura di / edited by D. Del Moro, Palazzo del Governo, Siracusa “Still aLive”, a cura di / edited by U. Pastorini e G. Maraniello, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milano “Alla gloria Militar”, Aircraft Gallery, Bratislava “Bad Girls: good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere”, a cura di / edited by V. Conti, VisionQuesT gallery, Genova 2009 “Colleziona”, Forma - Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Milano “Box Shock - Mind Cube”, a cura di / edited by R. Facchinetti, Watt 13 Hotel, Milano “Interessi personali”, a cura di / edited by G. Marziani, Romberg Arte Contemporanea, Roma 2008 Biennale di Alessandria Videofotografia contemporanea, Alessandria 2007 “Acqua”, a cura di / edited by P. Donini e D. Del Moro, Palazzo Ducale, Pavullo nel Frignano “Viva 3”, a cura di / edited by M. Mojana, Arena Civica, Milano “Curve Pericolose”, a cura di / edited by M. Sciaccaluga, Casa del Pane, Milano 2006 “Oltre Lilith. Il femminino sacro”, a cura di / edited by R. Gozzini, Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati “Ars in fabula”, a cura di / edited by M. Sciaccaluga, Palazzo Pretorio, Certaldo 2005 “13X17: 1000 artisti per un’indagine eccentrica sull’arte in Italia”, a cura di / edited by P. Daverio e J. Blanchaert, chiesa di San Gallo, Venezia; Galleria Zaion - Lanificio Pria, Biella; Showroom Gruppo Franco Ziche, Milano 2004 “Dinamiche del volto”, a cura di / edited by P. Donini e D. Del Moro, Gallerie di Palazzo Ducale, Pavullo nel Frignano

[thissurroundingall]

Naomi Velissariou

Actor, and theatre maker, playing with pride and perspective

Nederlandstalige versie

Date of interview: June 7, 2017

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

Naomi Velissariou (°1984) grew up near Genk, city of Ford, in a Flemish-Greek family. After graduating from the Maastricht Academy of Performing Arts as an actor in 2012, Velissariou created for Frascati in Amsterdam and appeared in several plays, movies and a television show. For her last play Sontag, she dived in to the works of the American philosopher and author Susan Sontag and wrote down her own thoughts in the essay ‘Mens durf te falen!’ (Dare to fail!) for De Correspondent. Despite, or maybe thanks to, the acceptance of failure as a virtue, Velissariou got quite some attention and recognition for her theatre work, and is considered a voice of a new generation. Velissariou has ‘a personal signature that makes us curious for future development’, as the Charlotte Köller Award Jury put it, who rewarded her with an encouragement award. Drawing inspiration from Müller, Aristotle, Sartre and Sontag, her theatre work is clever, trying to link the philosophical to a rich inner world and challenge her audience.

We visit Velissariou on a rainy day in Amsterdam. After a journey across’t Ij by ferry and a windy walk through Amsterdam Noord we are warmly welcomed. As soon as the door opens, Velissariou is constantly moving around. She pours some tea and puts nuts and chocolates on the table, while her ginger tomcat Kevin cries for attention. Before we can start chatting about her life and work, we get a little tour of the ground floor apartment, complete with backyard and garden shed. On the living room walls some recently bought Athos Burez photographs grab our attention. Burez is also responsible for posters and campaign images of Velissarious plays. "I often find photoshoots very uncomfortable, but not with Athos. With him, you are building a world, often in one day, and live in his fairy tale. You play, as children would. "

Where did the need for theatre begin?

Acting or making?

Which came first?

At first I really wanted to be an actor. Even though I was not the kind of kid that really enjoyed putting on shows. I was just very interested in languages and spoken word. My parents sent me to evening school for diction and performance, a very Flemish thing to do if your child is good with words and languages. After high school I auditioned for Dora van der Groen right away. I became very insecure at that school. I didn’t make the second year in one go and had the chance to do it again, but I was afraid. My classmates were very talented and I really looked up to them. I thought: if I have to retake this year I am going to feel so stupid, and maybe grow too afraid of acting. So I started university, with the idea of taking a sabbatical year. One year turned into five years and eventually I earned my masters degree in theater and film studies. During the last year at university I realised I really wanted to act instead of getting a Ph.D. Otherwise I would never leave my desk and I have too many impulses to do so. So I went to the Academy of Performing Arts in Maastricht.

Those years at university became more then just a means to pass time, right?

Yes, I definitely got interested in the studies, but it took quite some time. In the beginning I was just delighted to be one of two hundred students in an auditorium. It was a very sobering experience after the very personal focus in a class of seven at the academy. I grew up in a very protective and loving environment in Limburg. After a Catholic all girl school with uniforms I went to a pretty rough theatre school in the centre of Antwerp. I was too young for that to be honest. It was too intense for me at the time. At the university your individuality doesn’t matter as much. If you want to get good grades, you just have to work hard. But only at the end of my masters did I aspire to an academic career. Even though it is not the path I chose, those years at uni… I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I learned so much there and gained a lot of life experience. Those were the wildest years of my life (laughs).

You wanted to be an actress, but now you are also a theatre maker.

Yes, I am, but I never really aspired to actually becoming a maker or a director. It turned out to be a natural combination. I switched so many times and in the end I graduated as an actor and as a dramaturge. In between the theory, the content of what you want to tell and the actual embodiment of it, lies the creation of theatre for me.

How do you determine the position you take, as an actor or director?

In the past few years I mostly directed and acted in my own productions. I did shoot for films or television. Next season, for the first time in a while, I am acting in someone else’s play, as Ophelia in Hamlet by Abattoir Fermé. In my own work it is less obvious what position I will take during the creative process. The first question always is: ‘Am I on stage or not?’. It determines the whole further process. The past five years I experimented with different models and there are pro’s and cons for each one.

A solo is the most distinct way of working. I am alone on stage and acting and creation are automatically one. In my last production, Sontag, it was also very clear that I was directing, not acting. By distancing myself as an actress, the whole creative process could take place outside myself. That way I had more control.

I found that directing, creating and acting at the same time is not ideal for me. Occasional collective work, for me, is neither fish nor fowl. On stage, in rehearsal, I am not entirely free, because I always have to keep an eye on the bigger picture. I am not really present with my fellow players, and I am constantly absent from my artistic team because I am on stage rehearsing. Making and acting at the same time is a duel between keeping distance and surrender. The distance you have to keep to control the course of the play and the complete surrender you need to forget in order to act on stage.

I am convinced art is a priori political.  Because an artist forces themselves to constantly think out loud.

How does your creative process begin?

It depends on what you mean by ‘begin’. Most of the time it is something that I’ve read or seen that made me excited. What happens next depends for a great deal on how much time and money you have to actually make a production. Right now, for instance, I am doing research for a play for next year. It is going to be a concert play, based on the work of Sarah Kane. Her work has become kind of a cliché, as a psycho-dramatic-erratic-womens theater. For me Kane’s writings are the perfect song lyrics. So I’ve been in the studio for two months already, with different musicians and producers, making ten tracks that will be the core of the play. When those tracks are finished it will become clearer what the course of the play will be. But in the meantime the premiere date is already set and the first promotional text is out the door.

Conceptualising, doing research, rehearsals, it is a gradual experience. It is a constant metamorphosis: from the first idea until the last performance. I never really know when the process begins or ends. But most of the time it starts with words, writing, and only then does it get thematic. I never see something of topical interest that makes me want to make a play about it. Journalistic theatre should not become the norm; I explicitly try to take a stand on that. Art needs to be relevant, but that is not the same as being topical. For instance, I think the self hate and suicide of Sara Kane is very relevant. But I do not feel the need to do sociological research on the current suicide rates of women in Europe.

Doesn’t politics automatically enter the work?

I am convinced art is a priori political. Because artists force themselves to constantly think out loud. The choice of expressing your thoughts is, a priori, a political choice. That’s also what scares me the most the night before a première, that I am going to share my thoughts on something with the world. It feels like one of the most vain things you can do: have people pay to watch you and listen to your thoughts. You have to take yourself quite seriously to assume that whatever you have to say can somehow be of added value for someone else’s life. However, if you don’t think that, you should not be making art. It is even more vain to let people pay to see your work if you don’t believe it is worth its while. No false modesty, but you should be able to put it all in perspective. It is a difficult balance.

That balance reminds me of the struggle the characters go through in Sontag.

Sontag indeed very much explored on that idea. Susan Sontag did not want to die, because she had the feeling she had much more to share with the world. You must have a fairly big ego to think something like that. On the other hand, she was ashamed for all her ideas that were accepted as a truth. Her essays frequently became successes by the time Sontag herself thought of them as out-dated because her philosophy was strongly related to the present and her own life. As an artist you experience that as well. You make about eighty per cent of the artistic choices because you are very tired that day, you just broke up with your boyfriend, or you drank too much coffee that morning. According to Sontag art is not good because all the separate components are well-considered choices, but because the entirety of the work has one drive, one that you cannot ignore.

How do you experience something losing its truth after its creation in theatre, a medium that is fleeting and at the same time can cover a tour of several months?

Sometimes I can experience that feeling… Especially with older work. One of my works A tragedy (simplified), had the opposite: it was endowed with more meaning after it premiered. It was a struggle to make and when it first premiered, not a big hit. Nevertheless it always returned, because the subject matters could be seen in a particular context: a Flemish girl of Greek decent, the immigrant story, Genk as an industrial city. I understand why it was revived. But it is a piece of work that I am a bit ashamed of, because the political message people wanted to see in that still hunts me. At the same time, I am proud of what I created.

Acting in your own play is one of the most embarrassing things to me. If you create it and act in it, you are responsible for everything. Up to and including the lights you stand in. There is nothing you can hide behind. It is my body, my story. If you don’t like it, it does sort of feel like you don’t like me. However, if people do like it, it feels like it’s your birthday everyday.

Theatre is not a talkshow. For me it is the medium of fictional relevance.

Your earlier work, A Tragedy (simplified) and Mr. Jones, seems to be much more direct personal stories. A play like Sontag seems to be more distant.

A tragedy was about my family, yes, but I played Electra. I turned myself into a character to make my story more universal. So it would be more open or recognisable for the audience. Because of the so-called political dimension everyone wanted to see in it, my story got a lot of attention in the media. Unfortunately, that is all that remains now. Mr. Jones dealt with my idea of love and my relationship, and I was on stage with my actual ex. But nobody knew that, so it wasn’t an issue. Those are the works you have to make first, about origin and love. But after A tragedy, I really had to fight hard for my work not to be labelled as personal-documentary-immigrant theatre. That is not my kind of theatre.

A Tragedy was an attempt to apply Aristotle’s poetics onto my own life. Mr. Jones was an adaptation of Cocteau’s Le Bel Indifférent and attempted a dramatic rendition of my own suffering. Every concept contains something that is at once personal and distant. To me, there is no rift between those earlier works and the rest. My work just naturally continues. Sontag was very personal to me. But some people missed ‘me’ because they did not see me on stage. With Sontag I could actually really share what I wanted to say. Thanks to that so-called distance from myself, because of the themes, as well as the fact that I did not act in it.

Your bookcase sure looks a lot like the one on stage in Sontag.

Yes, Sontag also always had her picture taken in front of her bookcase in her own home (laughs). There is even a special Sontag corner in my bookcase. I have read almost all of her work now. She is an inexhaustible source to me.

Sontag, Sartre, those are all quite intellectual sources for your theatre.

Yes, I guess so, but then again, who cares (laughs). But I do not want to make it elitist. I think a work of art is best when it works on many different levels. I always try to make sure one can enjoy my work without any knowledge of all the underlying philosophies. With Sontag I sometimes got the feeling people came to get a summary of Susan Sontag, a speed course in her philosophy. It was nice, but I did not expect it. Sometimes it felt like they came to see my show as an extra to the additional programme the theatres organised. People like to have a useful evening and like to think they learned something. This behaviour is also somewhat the side effect of the explicit politically engaged theatre popularity. The audience wants to see what they saw on the news, or what they read in the paper, translated into a personal, fun, manageable story That is not the essence of theatre. Theatre is not a talkshow. For me it is the medium of fictional relevance.

To me theatre is a place where pain is allowed to exist; you are allowed to feel pain and to look at it. I think that is something really valuable.

What is the purpose of theater then? Solely art?

Theater can be whatever, but it has no direct purpose. Theatre can tell us something about the human condition. I realise that sounds very cliché. For me, theatre is a way of life, of survival, but that probably sounds romantic or heavy too. To me theatre is a place where pain is allowed to exist; you are allowed to feel pain and to look at it. I think that is something really valuable. It is different from a theatre of solace. Put bluntly, I can relate myself to the world in two ways: either a sober, scientific way, or in a melodramatic, personal way (laughs). Theatre lies somewhere in the middle.

I do not want to make frumpy, bourgeois plays, but uncompromising work next to having a loving life with friends and family. That’s a huge prerogative if you ask me.

Do you need an environment that is direct and straightforward?

I do need an environment in which I can switch off my cynicism and hyper-awareness. Although it can sometimes be a virtue, most of the time it’s actually works numbing. Right now, for instance, I see myself talking about that hyper-awareness. I should’t  go “meta” all the time, let alone talking meta about meta like I’m doing now, or there’s no end to it.  (laughs). Then I will literally have no idea what I am doing. I find it one of the most striking things of this time: all those narrative constructs we grow up with, that makes us so aware of everything. I could just cry thinking about it because it doesn’t solve any of all that self-awareness. If you are sad, you are sad.

Do you feel the need to retreat?

My job entails being around people, all of the time. Every three months you start a project with new people and every time you establish these intense connections. Therefore I more and more do feel a need for peace and quiet. If you’re rehearsing or when you’re on tour, you end up at the bar almost every night. So, on my nights off, I like to be at home with my boyfriend. Sometimes it can feel a bit isolated, because after a while it is hard to separate your friends from your colleagues. Now I have to learn to surround myself with people on those days off as well. Really invest in my social life, host spontaneous barbecues and attend birthday parties.

I do not strive for something specific. I just have to create theatre. That is my ambition.

What  are your hopes for the future?

I would like to find a balance in work and private life. After graduating you fear you won’t get any work, or if you do find a job, you fear it is not enough to provide for yourself. If you find out that you actually can, then you can afford to only take on interesting work. Now I just hope to continue what I have done for the past years, to create pieces I really want to create. That is truly fantastic. But the past five years it has been at the expense of everything else. I hope to have a real home and family life aside from work. Without having to make great artistic sacrifices. I do not want to make frumpy, bourgeois plays, but uncompromising work next to having a loving life with friends and family. That’s a huge prerogative if you ask me.

What are you artistic ambitions?

To be strict with myself, not making any compromises. As an actress, I do not want to take on a role just because it is glamorous. I only want to do parts in which I can stay true to my own poetics. Sometimes I wonder if I don’t have enough ambition as a theatre maker. I do not strive for something specific. I just have to create theatre. That is my ambition. I hope that when I am sixty-five, I’ll still be lying in my bed trembling and vomiting when I have a premiere the next day, because I don’t know if my ideas are worth an entry ticket. Hopefully people will be convinced it is indeed worth it. Maybe that is my artistic ambition: to make myself go through all of that, over and over. That’s enough challenge for a lifetime.

Interview & translation: Lynn Elshof

English editor: Hendrik Wittock

Photographer: Tom Peeters