During the graduation exhibition of the AKV|St. Joost art school, Hendrik Driessen (Director/Head Curator at De Pont Tilburg) will be selecting the most interesting pieces by the latest generation of visual artists graduating in the disciplines illustration, animation, photography and film. Driessen will be completing the selection with works by a number of alumni. The exhibition can be visited at the Verkadefabriek throughout August.

A collaboration by Verkadefabriek, AKV|St. Joost, Avans and Theaterfestival Boulevard

A cosy miniature cinema featuring films made bij primary school children.

A tower, 20 metres tall, stands in the city centre. Inside it you can join a miraculous theatrical quest through a maze of corridors. Come and have a look!

Join the crowdsource project of WOLK. Buy a ticket en give this special experience as a gift to a fellow-townsman who deserves it. Ticketsales only happen via www.projectwolk.nl.

Headspace is the new project of Electric Circus. The project is the follow-up of the successful performances 'Dirk the homeless robot' and 'Mono the Monkey'. The installation consists of a number of large heads that can be put on like a big helmet. Each head harbours another spectacle to see Electric Circus uses their familiar technique: a combination of puppetry with mechanics and electronics, also called animatronics. After entering Headspace, a fully automatic and lifelike show begins. Inside the head it is calm. The sound of the outside world becomes muffled and the inside is sparsely illuminated. An optimal environment for concentration and intimacy. The cell phone cannot come in, the spectator is forced to watch with her or his own eyes.

Everything there to see is really present; no monitors, projections or recorded sounds are being used. The spectacles in the heads are described by the public as the first cartoon or animation that unfolds in real live, right 'here and now'. Some reactions are: incredible, confronting, disruptive and sometimes frightening.

The first presentation was in 2015 and after a lot of positive feedback, the project is now in full development. In 2016 Headspace will be ready to go on the road and give the public a new experience. Headspace provides room for new thoughts!

Headspace is created together with Rolf Meesters.

In this extraordinary restaurant children will be sitting in a bathtub filled with soup. To get their dinner, and to get dirty. Because getting dirty is good!

With his video installation Guilty Landscapes Dries Verhoeven is bringing the reality of uncomfortable news images dangerously close. His question: is there a personal connection between the supposed victim and its witness? Can the relationship be turned around?

Dries Verhoeven (1976 Oosterhout, the Netherlands) is a theatre maker and visual artist.

Dries Verhoeven creates installations, performances and happenings in museums, on location and in the public spaces of cities. On the boundary between performance and installation art, he critically evaluates the relationships between the spectators, performers, everyday reality and art. The spectator is directly involved in the work or given the opportunity to steer his or her own experiences.

In his work, Verhoeven highlights aspects of the common social reality in which we live. He is not concerned with conveying a statement about reality, but mainly about unbalancing the visitor in order to evoke a shared vulnerability between the viewer and the viewed work. With gestures, which radically affect the public order of everyday life, he hopes to sow the seeds of doubt about the systems that inconspicuously influence our thoughts and actions. In recent years, the current crisis mind-set and the influence of digital media on interpersonal relationships in particular have formed the basis for his projects.

Do you love Shakespeare? Machiavelli or Werewolves? Kaptka is a unique mix of live theatre and a party game.

It’s bigger on the inside. Cross the threshold of Infinity Box and enter a space where infinity, timelessness and space toy with the laws of physics.

Country, folk and Americana made in the Netherlands.

ZALF is a funny and loving show by a young stand-up comedian.

An intimate set by singer-songwriter and theatre maker Eva van Pelt, a native of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Immersive theatre centred on an exceptional duet between music and visual art.

The show that’s different every time it is performed. About politics and the everyday madness of those governing the Netherlands.

As you may have gathered from the title: Suzanne van der Horst is not performing a show.

A daily live show direct from festival square De Parade.

A couple that cannot be ignored: world famous pop star Chase Blackmore and It-girl Summer Love Goodwin. A romance novel for the stage.

A miniature musical featuring brand new songs in Dutch, about the fear of not living your life to the fullest.

A surprising and highly visual theatre show. Short but sweet, DIEP offers its audience a 9-minute look inside a surrealist well.

At this year’s Theaterfestival Boulevard you can spend the night at a very extraordinary hotel. To Many Places is a travelling hotel consisting of tents that can be set up anywhere. The guests sleep inside tents that have been set up in the authentic Kruithuis to create pop-up hotel rooms. Naturally your cosy little tent offers room to store your clothes and luggage. You can have breakfast wherever and whenever you want; in front of your tent or in bed.

To Many Places uses a communal kitchen, as the social aspects of camping cannot be ignored when you sleep in a tent. But there is no need to go to the supermarket. In the kitchen you will find a crate with your tent number which is filled every morning with fresh and tasty ingredients and a recipe card based on them, so you can prepare your own breakfast without overthinking things. Happy camping!

Article Dezeen

Stop train stops more often than it is riding. Or so it seems. The train moves 3 cm and subsequently stops for 20 seconds. The camera in front of the train takes a photo, and again the train moves 3 cm, and so on. Children can create their fantasy landscapes surrounding the stop train.

A theatre monologue written for and performed by an 11-year old girl. Flemish novelist Griet Op de Beeck has written the text.

WENTEL is a journey that quite literally turns your current environment upside down. With one deceptively simple tool, I invite participants to take a walk on the ceiling or even outside, balacing on the branches of a tree. For those who cannot get enough of WENTEL, it can be easily placed on different locations.

Terrifying, mysterious and yet irresistibly beautiful 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' is Hieronymus Bosch’s most fascinating painting. Bosch visualizes his ideas about humankind: created in God’s image, expelled from paradise, inquisitive and hedonistic by nature and doomed to be swallowed up by the jaws of hell. A nightmarish vision designed to encourage man to lead a virtuous life. Vife hundred years later this painting is still very topical.

Piknik Horrifik is all about privation and abundance. About privation that leads to hunger and about the decadent superabundance that characterizes modern-day Western society. Whereas people used to gorge themselves when times were good to compensate for the lean years, these days we no longer know the meaning of scarcity. The abundance of food is seemingly endless and wasted with abandon. But when will our consciences begin to gnaw? And what if the tide turns? 

Laika transforms a desolate spot into one of supreme bliss where the spectator is tempted by heavenly pleasures. That idyll then transforms into a cornucopian garden, after which the visitor is carried off on an ‘apocalyptic picnic’. Piknik Horrifik confounds us with an exuberant abundance – the main characteristic of Bosch’s oeuvre: lots of characters, lots of action, lots of images and copious quantities of food and drink …

They could be characters from a Piaf song , this man and this woman meeting in a melody.

He is back from distant landscapes , she is waiting for departure on an imaginary platform.

They have nothing left but their suitcase in hand and their own intimate music in their heart.

Meeting for the length of a dance.

World famous Canadian choreographer Marie Chouinard drew on Hieronymus Bosch’ master piece ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ to create her latest. Sensuous, masterful and so beautiful.

"Here is a choreography in three acts from the famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Act 1: The Garden of Delights (central panel)

Act 2: Hell (right panel)

Act 3: Paradise (left panel)

Just as a choreographer can start with a piece of music in order to create, I am starting with the painting by Bosch. And just as a choreographer can choose to "stick" to the a musical score (or not), I have chosen to "stick" to Bosch's painting, its spirit. The joy of bowing before a masterpiece!"  (Marie Chouinard)

Choreography: Marie Chouinard. Original music: Louis Dufort. Set design and video: Marie Chouinard. Dancers: Sébastien Cossette-Masse, Paige Culley, Valeria Galluccio, Leon Kupferschmid, Morgane Le Tiec, Lucy M. May, Scott McCabe, Sacha Ouellette-Deguire, Carol Prieur, Megan Walbaum. Lights: Marie Chouinard. Costumes and props: Marie Chouinard. Make-up: Jacques-Lee Pelletier. Film crew (act 3): Scriptwriter and director: Marie Chouinard. Director of photography: Jean-François Gratton. Director assistant and editor: Miguel Raymond. Performer: Lucie Mongrai. Video Consultant: Jimmy Lakatos. Video Assistant: Sylvain Robert. Set design and props production: Josée Arès, Isabelle Gauthier, Cédric Lord. Costume production: Zdravka Tchakaloff

*Dancers for the world premiere: Sébastien Cossette-Masse, Paige Culley, Valeria Galluccio, Leon Kupferschmid, Morgane Le Tiec, Lucy M. May, Scott McCabe, Sacha Ouellette-Deguire, Carol Prieur, Megan Walbaum

A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production in coproduction with the Jheronimus Bosch 500 Foundation (The Netherlands), commemorating the 500th anniversary of the painter’s death.

Touring Crew: Rehearsal Director on Tour: Gaby Baars. Tour Manager: Jean-Hugues Rochette. Technical Director and Sound Engineer: Maxime Lambert. Video Manager: Julien Brousseau. Lighting Manager: Benoît Dubord. Stage Manager: Jérémie Boucher

The COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD wishes to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

* The use of cameras, camcorders, tape recorders and cell phones is strictly forbidden during the performance.

About Marie Chouinard

In 1978, the Montreal choreographer Marie Chouinard presented her first dance work, Cristallisation, establishing her reputation as a highly original artist driven by the need for authentic communication. This first piece was followed by thirty solos performed on the international stage, including Marie Chien Noir (1982), S.T.A.B. (Space, Time and Beyond) (1986), and Afternoon of a Faun (1987), landmarks in contemporary dance of the past 30 years.

In 1990, the soloist and choreographer founded her own company, COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD.   From then on, the COMPAGNIE performs all over the world. In 2007, the COMPAGNIE moved into its own building, Espace Marie Chouinard in Montreal.

In 2009, after a twenty-year absence from the stage, Marie Chouinard returned with her solo gloires du matin :)-(:.  Since 2012, she dances the solo IN MUSEUM, a 3-hour performance-installation.

Also an author, a set and lighting designer, a photographer and a film maker, her opus includes multimedia pieces (the installations Cantique no 3, created with Louis Dufort, Icônes, created with Luc Courchesne and CORPS CÉLESTES, created with Louis Dufort and Luc Courchesne) films (bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLDBERG, MARIE CHOUINARD : THE RITE OF SPRING) and the music video Jamais by Serge Fiori. In 2008 her collection of poems entitled Chantier des extases was published by Éditions du passage. In 2011, her photo-installation Paradisi Gloria is exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In 2012, the exhibit DRAWINGS is displayed at the Galerie Donald Browne in Montreal and at the Toronto International Art Fair, then in 2014, in Prague, at the Festival Tanec Praha. Marie Chouinard designed, in 2015, a first application for iPad and iPhone, CANTIQUE, free on the App Store.

Over the years, Marie Chouinard has developed her own dance technique, now taught by herself or her dancers during workshops or master classes.

In 2011, she created LES PRIX DE LA DANSE DE MONTRÉAL to applaud the excellent work of dance artists and to reaffirm the dynamism of Montreal as a dance capital, as well as its artistic profile on the international stage.

Named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2007, Marie Chouinard has received several awards including the Bessie Award (New York, 2000), the Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal (2006), the title of Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2009), the Denise Pelletier Award (Quebec, 2010), the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Award for best choreography for LE NOMBRE D’OR (LIVE) (2012), the Samuel de Champlain Award (France, 2014), the Ordre national des arts et des lettres du Québec (2015), the Ordre national du Québec (2015) and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Canada, 2016). The name of Marie Chouinard became a dictionary entry in Le Petit Larousse illustré in 2010 and in Le Robert in 2011.

The B-movie Orchestra brings B-movie musical scores to life in a dazzling show for all ages.

Somewhere you won’t expect an interactive dance installation will take you by surprise.

End your day at the festival in a suitable atmosphere at the Josephkwartier! We will be lighting the  fires in our fire baskets, the bar will be opened.... Between twilight and the dark of night we will be enjoying music made by theatre makers (who appear in Boulevard shows) in our Night Sessions that start at 11.00 PM. The Josephkwartier closes at 0.45 AM.

For the names of the guests please check our website and the daily festival paper.

Soul, psychedelia, trancerock, worldfunk and African Grooves.

A theatrical, interactive installation for children from age 2, consisting of 52 cabinets that reveal contrasts and connections.

A theatre show that goes underground. For brave audiences only.

Pay Attention! This performance takes place in a converted sea container. You can only access the container by a narrow, steep step at the outside. Allow for clothes, acrophobia or disabilities.

A story about a special friendship between a girl and a stray dog, for everyone aged 6 and up.

Every day between 4.00 and 5.00 PM theatre maker Emke Idema is bringing together local residents, artists and festival visitors in the Josephkwartier. You are welcome to join the conversation.

A new type of talk especially for the festival and the city: the Time Loop. In the run-up to the festival there will be six talks, hosted by people from ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Street theatre artist Exoot is very much into recycling. For AMI 6 he has revamped an old French Citroën Ami 6, which has resulted in a funny, narrower version of the original car. One day, the cute little car drove away from the garage itself, looking for people to dance and flirt with. If you happen to run into AMI 6, pause for a moment and savour the encounter!

From 2011 until 2015 the Antwerp-based company BERLIN tracked an elderly couple from Zvizdal that refused to evacuate after the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl. 

There is no electricity, no gas, and they exist by farming with their animals, a cat, a dog, a horse, a cow and some chickens and their own company. 

Through this intimate documentary we get a glimpse into the elderly couple’s lives which is as heart-warming as it heart-breaking. 

"Zvizdal is Berlin’s portrait of a chasteningly stubborn couple 

Changing the world starts with meeting the individuals who embody that change. That seems to be the starting point from which Yves Degryse and Bart Baele have been travelling the world since 2003.

Their backpack is filled with curiosity and commitment, their eyes brim with admiration and their lorry holds a treasure trove of film equipment.

Encounters in Jerusalem (2003 and 2013), Iqaluit (2005), Bonanza (2006) and Moscow (2009) have become moving portraits of survival in places where surviving is hard, or made hard, by fellow humans. The portraits, as a whole, form the Holocene series. Berlin shows them in a theatrical setting, in such a way that you invariably feel like you are briefly in situ yourself.

They’ve done it again with Zvizdal, their sixth Holocene portrait. It was French journalist Cathy Blisson who told them about this old couple that has been living in a huge area riddled with radiation since 1986. Every year on April 26th, the day the nuclear disaster is remembered, they stand at their gate to welcome those who have come to remember their loved ones.

Berlin has recorded their encounters, but also the hard toil it takes to last in an environment that is becoming more of a wilderness every the day. " (by Els Van Steenberghe, published in Knack Focus, translated by Nadine Malfait) 

Review The Arts Desk

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Guilty Landscapes.

Daily between 6.00 and 10.00 PM playwright Anna van der Kruis welcomes you into her open-air study to discuss a personal experience with art, collect and share words.

Dance performance by Igor and Moreno that uses jumping – both literally and metaphorically – to explore our capacity to persevere, care and hope. It is both playful and serious in how it welcomes audiences, whilst gently demanding that they too are responsible for noticing change and difference.

"One of the most stunning, innovative, bold, daring, clever, funny and sexy shows I have seen in years"
(✭✭✭✭✭ THE QUOTIDIAN TIMES)

"Idiot-Syncrasy is a warm, fabulous and funny show, but it also makes us vividly and unsettlingly aware of the altered states that we and the dancers can undergo during the course of a performance." (✭✭✭✭ THE GUARDIAN)

Review A Younger Theatre
Review London Dance

VUIL KIND (Ugly Child) is the story of Lieve, a bargeman’s daughter who has trouble standing straight in a stormy world. Her parents divorce and the boat is sold. Luckily, Lieve has a friend, Jessica, who takes Lieve under her wing with aunt Odilia. But then she is duped by the boy she has fallen in love with. Her darkest side surfaces. Lieve betrays everything she once loved. Her friendship with Jessica seems doomed. Aunt Odilia’s secret is out on the street. Where can she hide?

VUIL KIND is a poignant musical theatre story for everyone age 10 and up!

Directed by: Hilde van Uden
Written by: Hans van den Boom
Performed by: Bibian Smit, Jan de Vries, Jennifer Lee, Tijl van Abbe, Fiona Elfering en Frederieke Woudstra
Music by: T-Sing! en Frederieke Woudstra
Made with support from: Hetpaarddatvliegt, T-Sing!, Marian Overdijk en CKE

Original and energetic Bollywood dancing. ‘Feelgood’ with lots of glamour & glitter.

In addition to the graduation shows, you can see a range of short performances daily at the Muzerije (which has been dubbed the Fontystheater for the duration of the festival). Also on display: an exhibition featuring work by students form a range of courses at the Fontys art school. An opportunity to meet tomorrow’s talents!

Portrait of the province of Noord-Brabant that brings together its inhabitants on the big stage. A social experiment, workshop and performanc in one, that intertwines choreography, film and stories from everyday life.

On this particular research occasion artist Rodrigo Sobarzo will focus on the cultivation of flies. Twinning art production with the chemical process of decompose; Prins of Ne†works is a visual manifesto probing new ecologies, that blends the digital and the analogue as one.

Working with Babette Ploegmakers and directed by Lotte de Krom, Elise Doorn is performing a her own, completely new adaptation of the musical The Last Five Years (Jason Robert Brown). A wonderful story which everyone will recognise about unbreakable love that breaks anyway.

"If I have to fall in love, then I’d want to fall in love with someone like you."

Performed by: Elise Doorn, Babette Ploegmakers (+ Nienke Latten)

Directed by: Lotte de Krom

Band: Arjan Lienaerts, Walter de Kok and Wieke de Kruif

Story adapted by: Elise Doorn

Musical arrangements: Jasper van Oerle

A super cheerful set consisting of traditional rockabilly, rock-’n-roll and jump blues.

DEFDEF is setting up a press conference. Which could deal with a certain something that has been found. Perhaps a work bij Vincent van Gogh?

This performance takes place at a sidewalk café. An experiment that questions the rules, social conventions and our expectations. Everything Buzz touches turns into a musical instrument; a fork makes an excellent violin and a knife can act as an upright bass while Bug performs a dance routine.

Bill & Bobby is a tribute to the star partnerships of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Referencing a scene from their musical comedy masterpiece Swing Time , the two dancers will take you through a whistle stop tour of a bygone era, when the performers did it for the audience...

You’ve got a “rendez-vous”. Five ladies, each of them under a black umbrella.

The umbrella’s got a skirt hiding the lady to broad daylight

What the umbrella exposes is the legs of the lady and legs do talk

Half-women, half-umbrellas, the ladies take you into a strange ballet spreading confusion among the audience

What if she chooses you? What if you could go underneath the umbrella and see the lady? Just you and her gazing into each other’s eyes? Would you dare to lift the skirt to treat yourself to an unsettling theatrical trick?

“Rue des Dames” is about the intimacy we all crave for.

The texts are written by Jean- Pierre Dopagne (Belgium)

Take a deep breath and relax: everything has been taken care of. Come along and join us for a full-package Boulevard experience. A tasty meal, a boat trip, a show and an ice cream to top it off…

5.00 PM
We meet at the guest’s reception in the foyer at Theater aan de Parade. From here, we will take you to the Parade festival square for a glass of prosecco at the Wine bar.

6.00 PM
A three-course meal at Bij Jeroen restaurant on the Parade festival square. Drinks are included.

8.30 - 10.10 PM
We visit the show De Fietsendief (The Bicycle Thief) by the Flemish companies MartHa!tentatief/Theater Zuidpool/Toneelhuis on the big stage at Theater aan de Parade.

10.15 PM
We return to the Parade to enjoy the atmosphere and to use your voucher for one of the short performances inside the little tents on the square.

Deux sans Trois is a young Belgian circus collective that brings contemporary circus and physical theatre in a dynamic yet poetic performance suited for all ages.

In ‘TYPO’ the four artists find out first hand how a group impacts the individual: you can only be who the others allow you to be. They push each other’s limits, get in each other’s way, and sometimes work surprisingly well together. They try to make the best of it, despite (or thanks to?) the others.

An old typewriter, an LP of the ‘king of rock and roll,’ and violin compositions by Jef Hendrikx, are the main ingredients for the shows soundtrack, which is created live on stage. Deux sans Trois brings high level juggling and acrobatics, although the show is never just about the tricks. It’s hard not to like this witty quartet that doesn’t fear drama nor slapstick.

A young singer plus band alternate live music with imaginative poetry and stories.

The Flemish group Marthatentatief plays their new city revue, The Bikethief, a festive show dealing with urban themes; a tragic comedy and/ or a comic tragedy about Sofie, Marc and Abigail.

The exuberant show We might as well fail celebrates extraordinary accomplishments and makes us think about loss. Pure and uncut, just like life itself.

A live performance and installation that uses sensory impulses like smells, colours, light and sound to get the audience to surrender.

With his slicked-back hair and three-piece suits, the French singer, Gaspard Royant, calls to mind the classic era of pop-soul, with a lively sound that dances out his music.

DEFDEF is setting up a press conference. Which could deal with a certain something that has been found. Perhaps a work bij Vincent van Gogh?

Theatre maker and choreographer Ariadna Rubio Lleó is making a show this year with real  (local) dogs, a dog psychologist and three performers. In preparation, she will be giving workshops to 8 dogs from Den Bosch and their masters during Theaterfestival Boulevard.

DEFDEF is setting up a press conference. Which could deal with a certain something that has been found. Perhaps a work bij Vincent van Gogh?

Take a deep breath and relax: everything has been taken care of. Come along and join us for a full-package Boulevard experience. A tasty meal, a boat trip, a show and an ice cream to top it off…

2.30 PM
We meet at the guest’s reception in the foyer at Theater aan de Parade. From here, we will take you to the Parade festival square for coffee/tea and a Bossche Bol.

3.30-4.30 PM or 3.45-4.45 PM or 4.00-5.00 PM
We depart for the Wonderlijke Klim or wondrous climb; a walk along the ‘gutters’ of  St. John’s Cathedral that offers you a chance to admire the famous statuettes on the flying buttresses, which date from Bosch’ times, from up close. NB This ‘climb’ is accessible to people with reduced mobility, as there is a lift. The church roof offers a magnificent view of the city and Theaterfestival Boulevard’s festival square.

4.30/4.45/5.00 PM
Drinks and a short performance inside one of the tents of the Parade festival square.

6.00 PM
A shuttle bus will take you from the Parade to the site of the show.

6.30 PM
We visit the site-specific show Piknik Horrifik (12+) by the Flemish theatre company Laika. A modest meal will be served as part of this show.

8.00 PM
The shuttle bus will take you back to the Parade festival square.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Zvizdal (Tsjernobyl - so far so close)

Pay attention: starting time is 7.00 PM!

A dynamic and musical show about a young man named Max who decides to dodge the road to adulthood and responsibility. And he has made up his mind: he is not going to act along, he is never going to work again.

The show Max was made by five performers, four of whom are students at the Rock Academy. They will be performing the wild things, called the Maximonsters. These Maximonsters exist only in Max’ imagination, the fantasy realm he runs to when he refuses to grow up. But when the Maximonsters lecture him, things come to a head between Max and his Maximonsters.

A new generation of actors is performing their version of Ferdinand Bruckner’s Krankheit der Jugend, which caused quite a stir at the Berlin premiere in 1926.

In a therapy session, the young director Julie Cafmeyer discusses her impossible love life with her audience. In an open dialogue she is asking your advice.

ONE. is a four-part choral piece sung by a single woman. The score measures 75 metres and deals with movement and loneliness.

Masai, the show by the Dutch-Tanzanian Nienke Nillesen, tells the story of Nienke’s bond with her father, who is head of the Masai tribe, and her very, very large family. The central focus is on absence, growing up and cultural differences. Music is the glue that holds everything together in this show and illustrates the contrasts between Africa and classical arias.

"Despite the fact that I have been unable to communicate with large parts of my family, I did feel a great sense of connection through our dancing, singing and jumping."

The Amsterdam-based Moon Tapes performs dreamy songs with catchy riffs and melodic vocals.

A boy places a big, white sphere over his head. From that moment onwards, he is Airhead, who lives in a bizarre world of his own.

Step up to an array of interactive games to test your puzzle solving, cup stacking and co-ordination abilities. Playful Catalan artists Tombs Creatius’ beautifully designed and handmade wooden games are perfect for all ages and skill levels. With colourful illustrations, they create an expressive and exciting atmosphere in the streets and plazas.

Skryf the sand writer moves forward,
leaving a stream of letters behind him.
Skryf refers to the fact that everything is transitory.
An almost irrelevant pile of sand creates the magic of the word.

Human beings, nature and the passage of time are responsible for the disintegration of the word again. Sometimes very quickly, sometimes very slow.

Like sand through your fingers…

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Zieke jeugd.

Chotto Desh, meaning ‘small homeland’, draws on Khan’s unique quality of cross-cultural storytelling, creating a compelling tale of a young man’s dreams and memories from Britain to Bangladesh. Chotto Desh celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the modern world and promises to be a magical, thrilling and poignant dance theatre experience for families to enjoy together.

Review A Younger Theatre
Review The Stage
Interview with Akram Khan, Eastern Eye

Brabant’s most talented young musicians, actors, directors, artists, dancers and writers are presenting their winning acts from the Kunstbende contest.

Eight young performers probe the tensions between delusion and reality, lust and aggression in this punk version of The Winter’s tale.

Eerie Wanda has a magical ability to use somewhat standard song structures as the skeletons of their sound, but the bones are brought to life with a mixture of joy and sparkling surprises.

Take a deep breath and relax: everything has been taken care of. Come along and join us for a full-package Boulevard experience. A tasty meal, a boat trip, a show and an ice cream to top it off…

3.00 PM
We meet at the guest’s reception in the foyer at Theater aan de Parade. From here, we will take you to get a taste of the atmosphere on the Parade festival square at the foot of St John’s Cathedral where you  will receive a voucher to visit one of the (short) performance inside the little tents.

4.45 PM
Enjoy a drink at the Wine bar.

5.30 PM
A three-course meal at the Scarpetta restaurant on the Parade festival square. Drinks are included.

7.30 PM
We walk to the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal for a boat trip to the site of the next show.

7.45 PM
Departure.

8.30 - 10.00 PM
We visit the site-specific show XIX by Compagnie KAiET! with André Manuel & Geert Hautekiet.

10.10 PM
The boat will take you back to the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal, just a short walk away from the Parade festival square.

Can juggling go beyond the spectacular? In Spectrum, Michiel Deprez presents his own form of juggling and circus, playing with rhythm, colour and improvisation.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of WOLK.

In the heat of the Indian jungle Lisah Baert invites you to dinner. The metaphorical tales about animals from Kipling’s Jungle Books (1894) inspired the characters dancing around you.

In the heat of the Indian jungle Lisah Baert invites you to dinner. The metaphorical tales about animals from Kipling’s Jungle Books (1894) inspired the characters dancing around you.

An evening on re-migration, set to derail. For the first time in history more people are moving from the Netherlands to Turkey than the other way around. What does this mean?

Nine young people are blasted off to conquer the world: ''In the beginning, there was a great nothingness, and from this nothingness, something grew.''

They have got both feet firmly on the ground for the new; standing on their own two feet and making their own choices. Through their personal stories we are going on a tri, allowing the performers to look back at the past. A show about creating your own identity, about how the past makes you who you are now, and about the question: how to move on?

Compagnie KAiET! from Antwerp and Dutch singer André Manuel join forces to present a passionate musical tale.

The best saxophone players in the Netherlands and jazz/ soul singer Ntjam Rosie present a music theatre show that blends Afro-European soul with jazz, gospel and world music.

Toneelacademie Maastricht’s class of 2005 graduated at Theater Artemis. Taking ‘growing’ as the theme of their play, they started from the time they were 11. Eleven years later they’re reuniting.

002Percussion consists of four enthusiastic young percussionists whose purpose is to do away with the etiquette of concerts. They do so by playing new percussion instruments and drawing new sounds from existing instruments by using new technology (including live electronics). 002Percussion distinguishes itself from other percussion ensembles by their preference for a predominant use of  melodic percussion (such as marimbas, vibraphones, and glockenspiel). This means no traditional drumming. 002Percussion likes to perform new compositions with a groovy / pop-like sound, great energy and lots of movement.

A physical research into shedding one’s personal identity. Why? To embrace a universal state of being. Working with plaster, the performers blur the boundaries between man and his surroundings.

Naive Set is a four-piece Amsterdam band, performing and releasing music in the guitar-pop tradition of bands like the Kinks, Jonathan Richman, and Ultimate Painting. Their music has been described as “smart, super-catchy indiepop. Addictive.” by 3voor12 (vpro)

The children’s pop concert has been a hit at Boulevard for many years: an infectious celebration of music that sees little ones and grown-ups alike sing and dance and jump along.

Choreographer Katja Heitmann creates very unique theatre installations. Last year she presented For iTernity; a requiem for an eternally dying swan.

Pandora 0.1-beta is an art project focused on the themes man and machine. To what extent is man a machine, or can a machine become human? With ‘Pandora 0.1-beta’ Katja Heitmann is creating a  ‘mediaroom’ full of perfect humans. The audience is invited to become part of this surreal biotope. Every day there are several timeslots to visit Pandora 0.1-beta. Its creators will be working as you visit.

Concept, choreography: Katja Heitmann
Concept/Sound Design: Sander van der Schaaf
Performers: (ovb) Celine Werkhoven, Anna Zurkirchen, Tom Pham, Hannah Rogerson, Eleni Ploumi, Merle Schiebergen, Ruben Mardulier
Costume Design: Annemarije van Harten - by VanHarten

One musician and one actress bring to life the singer Nico (The Velvet Underground) and her defiant, darkly romantic legacy.

When we cried confetti is a physical party piece made by a young group of dancers that deals with the fear of being invisible.

A show-box die that fits inside a wooden suitcase. A different musician every night. A 14-minute mobile miniature show for twenty-odd people.

An intimate and silent performance created for the flowing and unpredictable nature of the street, using a puppet and an actor to tell a simple story about freedom.

The man stands firmly. The box seems to be waiting there. Their eyes meet, he rolls, he jumps , he crawls. Eventually they are face to face, and he listens carefully.

What’s inside? He must know. He opens the lid slowly, so slowly…

This small bubble of poetry has met an even success all around the world since 2012: Kabul (Afghanistan), Linz (Austria), Udine (Italia), Villach (Austria), Namur (Belgium), Graus (Spain), Charleville-Mézières, Miramont de Guyenne,Istres, Mirepoix, Nantes, Hagetmau, Brétignolles s/mer, Granville, St Aignan de Grandlieu (France)…

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Priemgeval.

A one man staging of Milton’s epic Paradise Lost and not like whatever came into your head when you read the first bit of that sentence. Combining theatre, comedy and movement this is a journey through the story of the creation of everything condensed into 75 minutes.

 "The comedy is divine, but the images of love and loss are achingly human" (***** The Independent)

 "A heavenly new take on Milton" (***** The Evening Standard)

"Like all the best fringe productions, Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) achieves great things with brilliant economy of means." (***** The Observer)

"Brilliant dance theatre ode to the clumsy and crushing art of creation." (***** The Guardian)

Review The Stage (*****)
Review The Fix (****)
Review The Independent (*****)
Review The Guardian

Milk II is a tender and angry performance that deals with hope. Featuring live music by pianist Caspar Vos.

A miniature show of few words, with lots of ends of rope, two colours, a pair of shoes and a cat.

A literary revue featuring the best writers and musicians in the Netherlands.

The young director Alexia Leysen is creating a highly personal universe that navigates between the imagination and the hyper realistic.

United Cowboys offers fragile yet powerful dance that celebrates the human body. This is not a sad Song takes place in an abandoned space, giving a sense of its history.

Rob Heron evokes the spirit of Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt with a quintet that shuffles and boogies with panache.

Simon van der Geest wrote the beginning of the story: “How the grownups left…”.  “What happens next,” is that you get to write what happens next. On the first day we will start by telling you how the story begins, and a writer will be helping you on your way. On the second day we will hear how it ended: your story. We are looking forward to reading what you have come up with…

This World Made Itself

A visually and musically-rich journey through the history of the earth, from the universe’s epic beginnings to the complex world of humans. The piece is at once semi-scientific (like flipping through a children’s encyclopedia), and emotional and dream-like rich, in surrealism and fantasy.

Myth and Infrastructure

Live performance with projected fantastical animation. The artist’s shadow is constantly present in this piece – sometimes in semi close-up and sometimes as a full figure – as the world around her shifts and transforms.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of De Terugkeer-Turk.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of This is not a sad song.

How the grown-ups left and what happened next starts with a medieval village on the stage. Things seem peaceful, until the parents decide to leave... And one child gets up.

Kikki Vanhautem is performing extracts from Eva Braun’s Intimate Diary and singing the lyrics of Bertolt Brecht.

Eva Braun: lover, and later on wife, of Adolf Hitler; and Bertolt Brecht, the man who hated war and whose literature was burned and banned by the Nazi party.

In her diary Eva is portrayed as an a-political, ignorant young girl. Whether this is who she really was and if the diary was even really written by her, we will never know. But I am going to perform it anyway.

In Milo Rau’s Five Easy Pieces children are initiated in the emotional and political absurdities and bottomless pits of the adult world. What does it mean to involve children in adult theatre? What does that tell us about power and subjection, theatre and performance, and mimicry and humanity?

"For children, Dutroux is a grizzly fairy tale

Twenty years on from the Dutroux affair, the Swiss director Milo Rau is bringing one of the blackest chapters in Belgian history to the stage. Despite his controversial decision to use children in the performance, it is not designed to provoke.

‘I would like to change a few things, but that’s impossible, because it all actually happened.’ Rachel (8) reads the line from her script with a casualness that is both genuine and acquired.

It is disconcerting to see her sitting there, picking at her hair, in a minutely recreated living room setting that hardly leads you to suspect that it harbours the spirit of one of Belgium’s most hated child murderers.

You are looking at a child who is playing the role of a child in a theatre performance about Dutroux, but who is still a child herself. Does this small, blonde girl fully understand how sobering her words are, regardless of how many times the director and child psychologist may have explained things to her? Can a child ever preach about the bankruptcy of innocence? Five Easy Pieces is theatre for adults, not children.

We’ve known for some time now that the Swiss documentary theatre-maker Milo Rau – let’s just call him the most exciting European artist of the moment – is unafraid of taboos. The Rwandan genocide, the trial of the Ceausescus and the Yugoslavian civil war are just a few of the subjects to have undergone his razor-sharp analysis with his company International Institute of Political Murder. And now comes a piece about Dutroux, in which, at the request of the Campo Arts Centre, he is working with children for the first time." (Charlotte De Somviele, De Standaard)

Read full article: http://planning.campo.nu/files/fiveeasypieces_article_for-children_dutroux-is-a-grizzly-fairytale_destandaard.pdf

A personal rendering of Baker’s lyrical melancholy. West Coast jazz, 2016-style. The legendary jazz trumpeter’s turbulent life interlaced with songs like My funny valentine and The thrill is gone.

The 4 young performers who form le Mouton Noir translate rites, religion and celebrations into contemporary forms.

It happens in a super brief instant
But that split second
Is enough to change your entire life.

Je moet dansen op mijn graf (dance on my Grave) is a high-energy theatre show about falling in love head over heels, and still tumbling, having to say goodbye. An honest attempt to understand the very thing for which there no words. A poetic puzzle of musical, dazzling imagery.  

Ilse Oostvogels created this show as part of her graduation. HETGEVOLG took her under its wing for the process.

Adapted from the book Dance on my Grave by Aidan Chambers

The dance movie Kali offers a look inside the dream-like universe of an androgynous creature.

The Cannonball Johnsons brings back folk, Southern rock and bluegrass.

A street performance featuring Burek -  the dog uncannily imitating the movements of real canines. Do you have your own dog? Bring him or her and you will see a new side of your pet.

A preliminary study for Pandora 0.1-beta, exploring the themes man and machine. Heitmann creates a ‘media-room’ full of perfect humans. Visitors are invited to become part of this surreal biotope. Open to public daily.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of XIX.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Milk II.

A parade of different situations that could all be happening more or less simultaneously. Each reinforces or diminishes the other, or puts it in perspective. Does the juxtaposition generate meaning?

An opera by young people featuring classically trained musicians alongside amateurs. Twenty young people made this music theatre show to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Hieronymus Bosch’s death.

Moore Bacon! by the young theatre makers Bosse (1993) and Kobe (1993) confronts its audience with its own finiteness, but most importantly, it puts us on the wrong track.

Vaudou tradition and trance inducers such as Blues, Funk, as well as the Rythm’n Blues of James Brown, Otis Redding and Wilson Picket.

Frenchman Olivier Grossetête will construct a church tower in the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch - without any bricks. Instead, he’ll use passers-by, cardboard and lots and lots of sticky tape. Everybody is welcome!

Recently spotted in our streets; The ‘Elander‘. Driven from their natural habitat and looking for new grounds, this strange species infiltrates Western Europe. The behavior of these people with antlers makes you doubt their human nature. They are curious, but also weary of danger. They don’t seem vicious, at most a bit ponderous and maladjusted to our manners. There hasn´t been much contact between man and Elander yet, but the expectation is that they will live together peacefully. As an experiment, a small herd of Elander is plotted in our urban wilderness. Guided by their natural instinct they wander around, searching for food and hunting for bargains.

Elander is a moving, interactive and improvised piece of street theatre. A group of bizarre figures moves amidst an audience of festival visitors, interested people and passers-by. One moment it is a stoic and distant flock, just lazing about. The next moment they are nosy solitaries looking for some human warmth and something tough to chew on. At other times it’s a breezing and blaring pack of untamable beasts.

Elander is watching and being watched in a theatrical study of herd behavior.

Two dancers rid themselves of their own human, physical appearances and create a sculptural performance. One image morphs into another; ant eaters become cylinders, cylinders become caterpillars, caterpillars leave traces and these traces are followed. ANT AND.. is an elegant game for audiences of all ages.

Drop it. Re discover. Your humanness.

Choreographer Hilde Elbers brings us face to face with questions like: can we start again and be open? Aim for a real connection, to ourselves as well as to others?

Laundry XL is a street theatre performance by 5 women and a large pile of sheets. Five laundry ladies roam the city and transform it into a world of white laundry. Laundry is the main ingredient for a fleeting drama that passes by. With their tight household the emotions of these fanatical laundry women sometimes go a bit overboard. The performance balances in the realm of dance, theatre and visual art. When you enlarge something ordinary like laundry to extreme proportions, it suddenly becomes interesting and starts to live a life of its own. The spectator is in the middle of this magnified situation: The laundry women make the everyday world disappear, and literally pull the audience into their white world of laundry.

Laundry XL opens the senses of the audience: you have to see, sense and experience it.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Hoe de grote mensen weggingen en wat er daarna gebeurde.

Sachli Gholamalizad, a Flemish artist of Iranian origin, delves into her family history and engages in confrontations with her mother and her grandmother.

Article Flanders Today
Interview Uit in Brussel

The story of a boy who has been living on a rooftop ever since his dad disappeared. He has been waiting for his dad to return up there. It’s clear to Wolke: his dad is a hero and he is out on an adventure; he is flying among the clouds, he is working for world peace, feeding the mouths of the poor BUT he could come back any minute now...

Wolke’s live floats by, one day after another, until suddenly the Birthday Girl appears right beside him, and refuses to leave. Today, and tomorrow, and the day after, is her birthday. The Birthday Girl doesn’t understand that Wolke is waiting for his dad. Dads are always too busy doing important things. The credit crunch, the lady who lives next door, paying alimony. Dads do not want to be found!

A show about dealing with absence and with not being missed.

A staged radio show featuring the band New Cool Collective, who have been taken stages everywhere by storm these past 24 years with their funky, energetic and highly danceable music.

How much should actors reveal about their private lives? Performers Wine Dierickx and Ward Weemhoff go in search of the boundaries of our privacy, inspired by historic performances in art history, in which artists use their own personal experiences and issues to explore the line
between the public and the private.

In Milk & Honey two dancers take their audience on a personal journey based on a theme that touches us all in our lives: letting go. This highly physical show, which sees the dancers drawing from their own personal experiences, not only shows us how our minds deal with these experiences, but also how our bodies do. A show in which melancholia meets urgency, mystery and freedom and which demonstrates the strength that lies in vulnerability.

In his solo performance Maask uses his own voice and a customized 8 track loopstation to create full finished dance productions in a split second. He takes you on a journey from drum & bass to Major Lazeristic dancehall to Jazzy Ska.

A thrilling dance piece for everyone age 4 and up!

How the grown-ups left and what happened next starts with a medieval village on the stage. Things seem peaceful, until the parents decide to leave... And one child gets up.

How the grown-ups left and what happened next starts with a medieval village on the stage. Things seem peaceful, until the parents decide to leave... And one child gets up.

Every day at 5.30 PM you can share a table with the artists at the Josephkwartier. The dinners are linked to shows. You and twelve other guests share a meal and talk to some of the members of the company, and you are welcome to ask them anything you want. After dinner you will visit the show.

Today you can join the artists of Radio NCC.