Portfolio
An impression of my work as a theatre creator (or more specifically, as a director and actor).
GLACIAL WHISPERS
(2023)
“What ancient wisdom will this illusive ice creature reveal with its human audience?"
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An ancient ice creature full of ancient wisdom. If would put a glacier on a stage and give it a giant microphone, what would it say to us? Come listen to a miraculous symphony of ice.
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A real glacier has been yanked from the Arctic and brought to the halls of a local Institute for Performance Art. Why? The artists want to give the glacier a stage. To voice its opinions, to share its ancient wisdom, to argue for its rights - whatever it wants. The audience is cordially invited to join these innovative artists in discovering what exactly a glacier really wants to share with humankind. Will it live up to the sky-high expectations of the creators?
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* no real glacier has been harmed in the creation of this performance
Artistic development and director: Michelle Verheij
Actors: Marloes Blokland and Niels Nijs
@ Toneelacademie Maastricht 2023
VOORAVOND / THE LAST HURRAH
(2023)
“Cheers: to living like it's your last day on earth!"
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Welcome to the delightful party. Exclusive. Extraordinary. Extravagant. Exquisite. Yes, tonight is delightful. Just wonderful. Really lovely. Right? Tonight we need to have fun. Tonight, it HAS TO BE fun. And we're not going to talk about it. Not at all.
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During the performance VOORAVOND, nine wealthy people arrive at the same party. They are rich. They are privileged. They are happy. They are enjoying life. And they are together, tonight, at this delightful party. The best party they have been to in ages. Despite the... circumstances. Circumstances? What circumstances? Oh, yes. Those circumstances. Tomorrow everything will be different, and so tonight they are toasting: to living like it's your last day on earth.
Artistic development and director: Michelle Verheij
Actors: Catty, Foppe, Ginger, Julia, Lucas, Pearl, Sharon, Warre and Xiu-Bin
@ STV Cuculum 2023
IN DE BRANDING / ON THE SURGE
(2022 - 2023)
“What if I just don't care (enough)?"
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Protesting; quite a nice concept. You can yell for the things you believe in, there are banners with catchy slogans, and if you're lucky, there's beer in plastic cups. So why don't Michelle and Niels take part in it? After all, they have enough to fight for: culture, the climate, diversity and discrimination....
Two actors set out to understand why they don't participate in protests. They draw inspiration from those who do step up to the barricades: flower-power vegetarians, enthusiastic (but perhaps insecure) climate marchers, and well-seasoned pessimists. The performance presents a colorful parade of characters; the judge condemning the people who fail to protest, two insecure protesters who cannot seem to find their voice, and two enthusiastic (and slightly robotic) telemarketers presenting their revolutionary solution. Do the actors identify with these characters, believing they have something to fight for? Or will they gradually discover that they don't care (or don't care enough)?
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With "In the Branding," we explore why people choose to protest, and what that choice means - especially when you choose not to participate. Does that make you a bad person? Does it mean you do not care? The performance explores how people experience passion and questions what happens when that passion is absent: do we lose our humanity?
Artistic development, directors and actors: Niels Nijs & Michelle Verheij
@ Toneelacademie Maastricht 2022
@ Spots op West 2023
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Door jou / Because of you
Winner Leids Dialogen Festival, 2023
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Yes, that's what you think is very important: your opinion! That is the problem! You fear your own all-destroying gaze. You believe whatever you disapprove of, will shake to its foundations, fall apart at your feet. That one day, you will curse mankind, and all of mankind will fall to its knees, screaming: 'We are not worthy, woe to us, wither and die!'
'Because of You' is a fragment of the disruptive tragicomedy by Esther Gerritsen's, directed by Michelle Verheij for the Leiden Dialogue Festival. We follow Anne and Johan's kitchen table, where deep matters are discussed about the latest work of a young and aspiring playwriting student.
The performance received the first prize in the festival. The winner is decided upon by a jury of three established theatre professionals.
Actors: Joey and Dominique
Script: Esther Gerritsen
Director: Michelle Verheij
Fly like we used to (2023)
Two creatures are in a strange world. One of them, Ka, is obsessed by a memory. The last memory that he has of nature is slipping through his fingers. The ocean: white and blue, blue and wite, white and blue. In his obsession he is alone, but in the world, he is not. His friend, Ko, is there - always cheerful and happy, trying to convince his friend to spread his wings and fly - fly, together, like they used to before.
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They are like two birds locked in a cage, slowly losing their last memories of nature. Maybe they actually are birds. Or might they be two humans who chose their fate, hiding from what the world has become?
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This short performance was part of a compilation performance, presented by the second-year students (director and theatre teacher program) at the Maastricht Institute of Performing Arts. Each student chose a fragment and worked towards their own artistic vision.
Director: Michelle Verheij
Actors: Guy and Bertil
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@ Toneelacademie Maastricht 2023
La Mer de la Terre
(2022)
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Man's innovative nature has led him to create a world for himself that seems endlessly manufacturable. In this, man thinks he has detached himself from nature. He seems to think that man is a species in itself: one above all other species - one who can make anything. Yet it seems that the human desire for endless growth is beginning to contradict its own nature: now that man seems unable to stop taking from nature, it begins to reclaim what has been taken from her with the same violence. How can man relate to the sweeping and intangible forces of nature?
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Amber Rozema, graduating director at the Maastricht Drama Academy, and her dedicated team explore the facets of location theater. How do we make the sea, backdrop and opponent at the same time, part of the narrative? How do we deal with an environment that sets its own rules? Can we capture her or is that a hopeless struggle? We have found that precisely this investigation is also what we want to narrate with the performance. We would like to share this last part of the research with you: the performance La Mer de la Terre.
Director: Amber Rozema
Dance: Anne Marie Westerveen
Assistant Director: Michelle Verheij
Music: Maarten Emanuel Stok
Scenography: Loek de Jongh
Costume: Paula Gehrlein
Guidance: Arjan Gebraad
Thanks to: Dinda Provily, Anne Chris van Doesburg, An Hackselmans, Wieske van der Heijden en Ruud Boer
Older / misc. projects
BRUCE, 2022 (actor)
The place where the lost things go, 2023 (actor)
This is not A Streetcar Named Desire, 2023 (actor)
Cup of rut, 2021 (creator & actor)