Why Theatre?! – The hybrid artistic practice of Marjolijn Heemstra

Marjolijn van Heemstra is a Dutch poet, novelist, theatre maker, program maker and occasionally journalist, and preferably all of those things at the same time. She is also a big fan of horses and astronauts. Her work for the theatre might be best described as a fruitful mix of journalism, poetry and activism. She brings real lives and issues of real people to the stage. Reality, imagination and fiction meet each other in a theatrical setting.

On Friday, October 5th Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink (Theatre Studies Utrecht) will talk with Marjolijn about her hybrid practice. How did her practice develop? How do all these different forms of making, creating, narrating relate to each other? What limitations do they have or what possibilities do they offer? And how does she decide which form to choose for what story?

Time and date: October 5th, 15.30 – 17.00
Location: Utrecht, Kromme Nieuwe Gracht 20/Muntstraat 2a, Theatre Hall

Marjolijn van Heemstra is Writer-in-Residence at the Centre for the Humanities (Utrecht University) in 2018. She has just finished a podcast SØR, a story about her and her former history teacher Ronald Sørensen. One became a ‘left’ writer, the other a ‘right’ politician. She is the founder of the Rotterdamse Akademie voor Stadsastronauten, an initiative to teach earth dwellers how to become cosmonauts. For her most recent performance Kruistocht she was inspired by Thea Beckman’s Kruistocht in spijkerbroek. In 2017 she published a novel En we noemen hem. Also in 2017 she created the performance Zohre. Een Afghaans-Nederlandse soap, together with an Afghan refugee. She shared the stage with a priest in Als ik de liefde niet heb.

Why Theatre?! is a lecture series organised by Theatre Studies (Department of Media and Culture Studies, UU)