Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 21:30 EET (GMT +02:00)
Netherlands
Director: Koen Verheijden / Netherlands
Actor: Monica Ardeleanu
Episode: Day 7. Story 1
about the Director
Koen Verheijden
Koen Verheijden (Breda, 1994) graduated in 2020 from the Institute of the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts with the (self-written) play Nina Bobo, a play about the Dutch colonisation in Indonesia, where his family is from. He is working both as a playwright and a director.
He worked with Zaal 3 of The National Theater (Hague), Theater de Generator (Leiden), Monty Kultuurfaktorij (Antwerp), acteursgroep Wunderbaum (Rotterdam) and he is going to work with Stichting Likeminds (Amsterdam) and Podium Bloos (Breda).
Research, fieldwork and interviews are the starting points for his work. His work has a strong social scope and is characterized by allowing for and against votes to co-exist, without prejudice. His signature can be recognized by a fragmentary, poetic and melancholic style. An important theme in his work is the Dutch-Indonesian background. Other themes in his work include revolution, the Dutch (de) colonization, activism and the climate crisis.
Mostly he starts working from historical events. This provides the substantive basis. Through history he tries to relate to current social problems. His work is not about the protagonists of historical or contemporary conflicts, but about the extras of world history, about the “ordinary” person, whose life has been changed by the problems of his or her time.
about the actor
Monica Ardeleanu
Monica Ardeleanu graduated in 2008 the Theatrical Art Department of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Craiova and since 2008, she is part of the troupe of the Craiova National Theatre.
In more than 12 years of her career, she played under the baton of the greatest Romanian directors, such as Silviu Purcărete and Mihai Mănițiu, she collaborated with important artists of the new generation: Bobi Pricop, Andrei Majeri etc. but also starred in productions signed by Robert Wilson (USA), Tim Carroll (UK), Janusz Wiśniewski (Poland), Charles Chemin (France).
Monica Ardeleanu has performed many plays that have been in the programme of many national and international festivals: the International Theatre Festival in Izmir, Turkey; International Shakespeare Theatre Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel; International Theatre Festival “Varna Summer” Bulgaria; Gyula International Shakespeare Festival, Hungary; International Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk, Poland; European Festival of Performing Arts Timișoara; Sibiu International Theatre Festival, etc.
In the current season she plays in 4 productions: Operațiunea Marte (Operation Mars) by Alexa Băcanu, directed by Dragoș Alexandru Musoiu, Aias. Eseu despre demență (Aias. Essay on Dementia) after Sophocles, directed by Mihai Mănițiu, Athens By Night by William Shakespeare, directed by Charles Chemin, Năpasta (The Trouble) by I.L.Caragiale, directed by Kincses Elemér, the latter being one of the longest-running titles in the repertoire of the National Theatre of Craiova.
