English Theater Apeldoorn’s project for 2024-2025 season is now known. We will bring a selection of stories from Het grote verhaal van Apeldoorn to life! Each story will make a short play which we will perform at a relevant location. But that’s not all. These will also be part of a full length play that not only looks into Apeldoorn’s past and present, but also to its future.
Voor de Nederlandse versie, klik hier.
What is Het Grote Verhaal van Apeldoorn?
Het grote verhaal van Apeldoorn is an initiative that puts the spotlight on people, places, and events from Apeldoorn’s past and present. These stories are organized into 10 time periods and 11 themes including Veluwe and Orange (House of Orange-Nassau) echoing Apeldoorn’s current nickname, the green and royal capital of the Veluwe. But of course Apeldoorn is so much more than just “green” and “royal”. And we want to touch on both the obvious and the not so well known sides of our city in this project.
Our member and one of our writers Tulya recently shared a list of her favourite stories in an article featured on Het grote verhaal van Apeldoorn website. Check out this article if you are interested in Tulya’s favourites.
Our Plan for “Meanwhile in Apeldoorn”
4 members from our group, Sanne, Max, Jasmijn, and Tulya volunteered to write Meanwhile in Apeldoorn. They each selected a story (or two) from Het grote verhaal van Apeldoorn and is going to create a short (10-15min) play based on it. Because we plan to perform each short play at a relevant location, we may incorporate different elements into our plays from these locations. These will be publicly accessible with free entrance. Here are the 4 stories our writers selected:
- De geheime telefoon van het verzet (The secret telephone of the resistance)
- Combined: Opening van het Bosbad (Opening of the Bosbad) and 1st Canadian Army headquarters in Apeldoorn
- Lydia eerste tieneridool van Nederland (Lydia first teen idol of the Netherlands)
- De kus onthuld (The kiss revealed)
These stories from Apeldoorn’s history will come to life with a new twist, influenced both by our group members and suggestions from the public. Taking a step further, a 5th short play will be taking place in Apeldoorn’s future. We don’t know yet whether this “future” is 10 years from now or 100. Probably something in between… All 5 short plays will also be embedded in a dialogue that creates our final piece of the puzzle. Where will we perform this full length play? We also do not know that yet. Our draft timeline in 2025 looks like this:
- 8 February – First short play performance – Location? – Free entrance
- 8 March – Second short play performance – Location? – Free entrance
- 5 April – Third short play performance – Location? – Free entrance
- 10 May– Fourth short play performance – Location? – Free entrance
- 21-22 June – Final full length play performance – Location?
Stay tuned for updates!
Making It Accessible
We are a diverse group, especially when it comes to the languages we speak. Currently, we have members from 7 different nationalities, including Dutch. Being an English speaking group puts us in a unique position while telling stories from Apeldoorn’s past. We want at least part of our project to be accessible for anyone whose English may not be so good.
Our solution is to create a short (about 1 minute) film that accompanies each short play! In these videos, we plan to use repetition of simple words in different languages, or use simple movements, sounds, or visuals to convey some key elements of the short plays. We hope to be able to screen these prior to each performance at the relevant locations, creating awareness both of the context of the stories and of our project.
Our Story Is Your Story and You Can Help Us
Because the basis of our plays are the collective history of Apeldoorn, we are more than happy to start a conversation with residents and relevant organizations. Please reach out to us if you have suggestions for example about where we can perform or if you have personal stories that are relevant to our selection. We can’t promise your input will end up in the play exactly as you share with us, but it for sure will inspire us!
Good to know: 3 of the 4 writers we have are Dutch native speakers! So if you prefer to communicate with us in Dutch, that is no problem!
Please feel free to reach out to us by sending us an email at hello@englishtheaeterapeldoorn.com.
Started During Orpheus Workshop
During Culturele pleinmarkt, we pitched our idea to representatives from Gemeente Apeldoorn, VSBfonds, and Frank van der Wal Fonds. This was the last day of a fundraising workshop organized by Orpheus. We received positive feedback and valuable advice from all representatives. The photo you see below taken during our pitch was in Orpheus director Mirjam Barendregt’s office, since all other rooms in Orpheus were used by Culturele pleinmarkt performers. We are grateful to Mirjam for sharing her time, knowledge, and even her office.
About English Theater Apeldoorn
We are the international amateur theater community of Apeldoorn with members from different countries, difference walks of life, and different experience levels in theater. We are a relatively new group. In the past two years, we stood out by creating original stories and bringing them onto the stage, mainly in GIGANT. You can check out our past projects here.