DodoFinance Breaking News Made For You!
Nijmegen Empire
NIJMEGEN – This is the latest play from the Kwatta theater group, Metamorfosen, which premiered on Saturday. But also the latter, because after twenty years the curtain falls for the Nijmegen theater troupe. And with that, Gelderland, together with Zeeland, will soon be the only province without a professional theater for young people.
Feelings were mixed during last week’s dress rehearsal, says Josée Hussaarts, artistic director of Kwatta: “Yes, it’s the end of time. We did it so you can laugh about it too, but there are a lot of things that also symbolize the end of Kwatta.
International fame
Josee Hussaarts started in 2002 with the Theatergroep Kwatta. Kwatta has become a household name in Gelderland and far beyond.
In 2006, the show Three old men who did not want to die was selected for the International Performance for Youth Theater showcase. In 2014, the performance even won the Victor Award. And the Jabber show is touring around the world, including China, the United States, Ireland and Great Britain. In short, the artistic qualities of Kwatta are beyond doubt.
Card castle
But the Culture Council recently issued a negative opinion on the government subsidy for the coming years. Kwatta had been going through a rough patch at the time of the application, and the supervisory board deemed the organization still too financially unstable in the turnaround phase at the time. As a result, other subsidies also disappeared. Josée Hussaarts: “It really collapsed like a house of cards in this sense. First the empire disappeared, then the province and then the municipality.
Kwatta Youth Theater will end
a little pain
“Yes, it hurts a bit,” responds Leendert de Ridder to Kwatta’s disappearance. The actor, known from Mees Kees films and series, praises Kwatta’s youth theater: “The things I can play here are always super playful, but they are about something.”
‘Shame!’
Thus ends 45 years of professional youth theater in Gelderland, which began in 1976 with Teneeter and continued in 2002 as Kwatta. Together with the province of Zeeland, Gelderland is now the only province in the Netherlands that no longer has a professional theater for young people. Josée Hussaarts: “I find it a shame! Teneeter was simply the first professional youth theater in the Netherlands. It is therefore the cradle of all youth theatre.
During the last years
Josée flips through the posters of the last few years again and looks at the photos of the participating actors, including Ilse Warringa, who rose to national fame for her role in The mother of lice† Hussaarts: “I always hoped I could pass Kwatta on to the next generation of makers. And I find it very sad that this is not happening because Nijmegen is a fantastic place to do theater for young people. There is a large audience. This audience will be missed in Kwatta, but I will also miss this audience in Nijmegen. »
