“All community art is, at the very least, relational art.”

(Pascal Gielen)

applied theatre

creating communities and connections
via the socio-artistic theater

From the very start, my artistic work has also shown an interest in community. Its workings and breakdowns. Its possibilities and pitfalls. Its stories and its lies. I’ve always been curious about the modalities of our social behaviour: why do we do what we do, why do our actions rarely correspond with our thinking?

In my applied theatre work, those aspects of community and connection take centre stage. That is why it is also sometimes referred to as socio-artistic theatre. I have worked with adolescents in youth care and with incarcerated adults, with survivors of sexual abuse and with war veterans. In these projects, the focus is on the encounter. The meeting of minds and bodies is central to the power of applied theatre, and that goes for the performer as well as the spectator.

The theatre and the arts in general have always been used to depict and to describe the incomprehensible. Mental states and issues that are hard to grasp in conventional formats, become more tangible through the theatre.

In my applied theatre projects, I use the stage and performing to allow my non-professional performers to connect with their simmering mental issues (in a non-threatening way). Because of its physical aspects, acting and performing offer a more direct way of communication. As J.L. Moreno put it, “The body remembers what the mind forgets.”