Keanu: “The way we imagined can't continue and that's a real shame. Over the course of four academic years, you work towards a clear endpoint, which in our case involves creating a graduation performance and participating in the ITS Festival.
Mees: “But we are glad to at least have been able to experience a rehearsal process and rehearse together physically. We hope to be able to stage it for a live audience in June. We are still glad we opted for a theatre performance, that was something we really wanted to do.”
IJdele Boys
Mees and Keanu are graduating with their mutual friend Fjodor Jozefzoon (Drama and Contemporary Music Theatre – Academy of Theatre and Dance Amsterdam). The three of them together make up the group IJdele Boys. The performance is about three friends; fellow loft residents. “The performance will make up an aesthetic whole with a new repertoire, all of it made in 2021.”
Good matches
Keanu: “It's great when your collaborators are friends too. We all share the same tragicomic sense of humour. During our five-week research, we realised that what makes us laugh are jokes without punchlines. The approach is never to be funny. The humour always comes from taking subjects seriously. That way the tragedy – and hence the humour – arises spontaneously. Because essentially people are hopeless cases when they go all the way for something.”
Mees: “Randa Peters (writer) based the play on our brainstorming sessions about the framework of the play and the underlying plot. We know Randa through our supervisor Kasper Tarenskeen (Oostpool Theatre Group). She’s a good match for us too. Randa has the same sense of humour, is from the same generation, has a keen eye for the latest developments and manages to translate them into lines for the stage flawlessly. She has a kind of cynical or ironic way of writing without losing the drama.”
On to the premiere
On Tuesday 23 March, IJdele Boys will perform for the first time in a closed team setting. “We can perform to a few people at the school because there is an educational need. Everyone who attends must have a role in connection with our graduation. We don't yet know when we will be performing to a proper audience. Hopefully the premiere will be in June. We’ve already made an Instagram page (@ijdeleboys) and had photos taken in the studio. There are already a few posts on our Instagram to excite people. The actual performance dates are yet to be confirmed.”
Looking back on the course
Keanu: “I think I can speak for both of us when I say that the Arnhem School of Acting is the best drama school there is. I've had a fantastic time during my four years here. I've always felt safe. You are given such good preparation for the outside world. They give you all the tools you need to enter the professional field as a fully-fledged actor. In the first two years, you train intensively on your technique. After that, they look at what kind of actor/maker you are and how you can make the best use of the techniques you have learned in order to shape that unique maker inside you.
Mees: “You're part of a small and therefore tightly knit group. Twice a year you do joint evaluations, which means you are also evaluating your classmates. That creates a really friendly atmosphere.”
Ambition
What Mees and Keanu want to do after the course is clear. Mees: “We have a strong ambition to start performing for ourselves. That's the first priority for all three of us. Over the next five years, it would be perfect to act in two shows per year and also put on a performance with IJdele Boys, or do a project, for example, make a film. In short: Act in as many places as possible and discover everything the professional field has to offer. We don't have a specific preference for a company.”
Keanu: “Yes, we have our own ambitions. Plus IJdele Boys remains something we are going to explore for sure. I really look forward to acting. It would be great to be able to work as an actor in the future. Perhaps also in film or TV. I'd love to go down that route.”
Follow Mees and Keanu
