de helling
Artistic director: Gerrie
de Vries
Music dramaturgy: Klaas
de Vries
Management: Kiki Raposo de Haas
In the music theatre works that are developed by De Helling, music
plays the leading role. It is the starting point for developing
new works, rather than an emotional supplement or interruption of
the dramatic plot. All aspects of the performance evolve equally
around that musical starting point.
The music theatre work of De Helling come into being through collaboration
with a variety of composers and theatre directors with very different
back ground. Creating a work from scratch in a joint venture of
open minds results in greatly varying stage projects.
That is why, the working methods of De Helling differ with each
project. Projects develop from different sources: either assembled
by improvisation and experiment, from a fully worked out score as
starting point for a performance, and everything in between. De
Helling does not restrict itself to new works. Existing repertoire
will feature on programmes regularly, but always developed with
a new and different approach.
Contributors:
A specific choice of singers and musicians is essential for the
type of works the group wants to present. But productions can also
include writers, painters, sculptors, choreographers and film or
video artists.
Themes: De Helling explores a great variety of themes.
De Helling produces one music theatre production per year, plus
various small scale experimental projects performed in targeted
neighbourhoods. These experiments aim to surprise people who are
not accustomed to visit music theatre performances with a captivating,
unexpected experience. For these experiments, De Helling cooperates
with festivals, community centres and schools. E.g. a cooperation
with the Rotterdams Opera Choir where De Helling performed La Habanera
from Carmen in the foyer of the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam and the ‘beautiful laundrette’ tour, where three big women do
their laundry in different laundrettes while singing songs written
especially for the occasion by Rob Zuidam.
*) The simple translation of ‘De Helling’
would be ‘The Slope’, though by the once-so-seafaring
Dutch it is still often used in the meaning of ´The Ship launching
slope´
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