Stella Den Haag
In January 1990, the municipality of The Hague asked Hans van den Boom, former artistic leader of the company De Blauwe Zebra (The Blue Zebra) in Kampen (in the east of the Netherlands), to set up a new youth theatre centre in The Hague. In January 1990 Stella Den Haag was born.
Stella Den Haag is a theatre company comprised of professional actors, directors and designers who present plays for children, young people and adults. Each year we present both new productions and repeat performances of older ones. Our productions are suited for everyone from a certain age. For example we present plays 'from five years and up', 'from 10 years and up', 'for young people', or 'for adults'. What is unique about the work of Stella Den Haag is the fact that it leaps whimsically to and from on the traditional borders of theatre. Productions for children from 7 years of age are also enjoyed by adults (in the company of a child or alone), adults come to shows where many young people are among the audience, and children enjoy the adult presentations. Stella Den Haag knocks down the thresholds that often loom so large in terms of what's available in the world of theatre.
A considerable amount of Stella Den Haag's work is intended for presentations to primary and secondary school audiences. Any primary school in The Hague can contact the Koorenhuis in this regard. We work in close co-operation with this Centre for Art and Culture. We handle the organisational aspects of the visits and monitoring of secondary school students ourselves. Our school presentations reach audiences from all levels of the population. Our school presentations take place not only in The Hague but also throughout the Netherlands and abroad. The plays always take place in theatres, virtually never at schools. Many of these presentations are preceded by extensive introductions, allowing us to provide the public with the greatest possible of support in what is frequently their first theatre experience.
We manage to win more and more loyal fans in response to our 'free presentations' (this means for the public in a non-organised context). Since our establishment we have had the pleasure of entertaining more than 135.000 people with 1420 presentations (data from 1-1-2000).
We make more than 120 presentations each year. Currently some 60% of these take place in our own theatre in The Hague. In addition we travel to many other theatres in the Netherlands and Belgium. Stella Den Haag is also a welcome guest at international venues. Over the last few years our plays have been presented at festivals and in theatres in Bosnia, Canada, Russia, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and the United States.
Stella Den Haag has established scores of contacts with theatres and festivals abroad. The music theatre presentations of Hans van den Boom are particularly popular. Our trilogy comprised of 'Storm', 'Venice', and 'Tom' is also presented in French, English and German. Over the years Stella Den Haag has won a number of prizes for its presentations. For example 'Carmen' was named best youth theatre production in 1991 during the World Youth Theatre Festival in Lyon, 'Van Onder uit de Zak' won the Hans Snoek prize that same year (prize for the best youth theatre presentation in the Netherlands), 'Don Quijote' won the Signaal prize in 1993 as the best youth presentation in Belgium, and 'Storm' and 'Venice' carried away a joint prize in 1996 in the form of the Z'Bing d'Or (the prize for the best presentation) during the festival 'Les Coup de Thé�tre' in Montréal, Canada. In January 1998 Stella Den Haag was awarded the Haagse Pluim by the mayor of The Hague 'on the basis of the positive atmosphere that the youth theatre appearances created for The Hague on a national and international level.'
Stella Den Haag is subsidised by the Municipality of The Hague and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
Artistic collaborators
Most of the presentations are developed by artistic leader Hans van den Boom. His work forms the leitmotiv within the company. In his productions Hans van den Boom, who has been working in youth theatre for over twenty years, always focuses on the target group of children. The continual research into youth theatre and specific forms including music theatre has yielded many unusual and very special presentations over the last few years. Next to being the artistic director, Hans van den Boom wrote and directed 'Carmen' (1990), 'Seppan' (1992), 'Giraf' (1992), 'Brasso' (1993), 'Spinnen' (1993), 'Storm' (1994), 'Rovers' (1994), 'Venetië' (1995), 'Tom' (1997), 'Rovers 2' (1998) and 'Geitenjong' (1998), 'Hoop en glorie op de dag van de heilige drie-eenheid' (1999).
Hans van den Boom was responsible for the dramaturgy of all the plays of Alize Zandwijk, 'Antigone' (1990), 'KOT' (1994), 'Een Maand op het Land' (1995), 'Lange Dagreis naar de Nacht' (1995), 'Vrijdag' (1996) and Othello' (1997). Furthermore he directed the concert 'Slag Werk' (1997) and 'Different' (2000).
In addition to Hans van den Boom, various guest directors also work at Stella Den Haag on a regular basis. In the past much work was done in co-operation with Alize Zandwijk. For example Stella Den Haag presented the much-acclaimed plays 'Friday' and 'Othello'. Alize Zandwijk is the artistic co-leader of the Ro-theatre since 1998. We have also had the pleasure of working with Johan Dehollander, known for such work as his theatre productions with the Flemish company De Blauwe Maandag Compagnie.
Actors Erna van den Berg and Peter Reijn have been a part of the company since the very inception of Stella Den Haag.
Bookings, information & photographs
For more information (in English) please contact Willy Smits (business manager) or Mieke van Oorschot (publicity).
Stella Den Haag
Kerkstraat 11
2514 KP Den Haag
The Netherlands
Tel. +31.70.330.70.70
Fax +31.70.330.70.71