Dago Huygen

Internships

• Jef van Gestel and Peter Vandemeulebroecke, ‘Tochtgat’ (2025): assistant director/co-builder
• Collectief Plankton, ‘Er rent een berg voorbij’ (A Mountain Runs Past) (2024): assistant director/set designer
• De Toneelmakerij/ Eva Knibbe, ‘Untitled’ (2019-2024): assistant director and actors' guidance

My graduation performance, Braakland, is a visual and object-based performance. It centres on a piece of land that, through human intervention, has been transformed from nature into a construction site. It is a performance that explores the intersections of theatre, visual art, and video installation. My goal with these performances is to immerse the audience in a dreamy, poetic visual world. For this performance, I designed and built a set (a gigantic table) from which set pieces appear and disappear through hatches and sliders.

Who are you as a creator and artist?

I am a theatre maker who starts with image and form. I work Sensory and instinctive. Often involving many objects/things. I enjoy collaborating with other disciplines to create the most complete theatrical reality possible. My performances are often absurd and alienating, offering audiences space to associate and imagine themselves. I like to give non-human subjects the leading role in my work.

How do you define the concept of Artist Educator in Theatre?

A theatre maker who uses art as a starting point to work with others. And who continues to learn and truly appreciates the context within which they relate. A creative interloper who enriches and disrupts.

How did you come up with your graduation project?

A while ago, I was cycling through the Amsterdam neighbourhood where I grew up and saw the changing landscape. I've always been fascinated by open streets and vacant lots. But also by how we, as humans, manipulate nature to our advantage. My graduation project was loosely inspired by places like IJburg, Zeeburg, and Almere, reclaimed sand plains filled with tall, straight apartment blocks.

Where do you draw your inspiration?

From all art disciplines except theatre. I draw the most inspiration from things and people I encounter on the streets or in nature. Often, my mind needs very little to start wildly associating. The rough edges of cities, where it's a bit rough and the wind has free rein, are the most fertile places for inspiration. But I also simply gather a lot of materials and start building sets from those objects. Good and unusual films, because of their richness of image, sound, and acting, are usually fantastic sources.

Can you tell me a bit more about your internship?

This year, I interned with Jef van Gestel and Peter Vandemeulebroecke for their production Tochtgat. A visual whirlwind in which two figures interact with an unpredictable wind landscape. Together with Jef and Peter, I built a world in which fabrics, building materials, and other objects could float, fly, and inflate. With Jef and Peter, I learned even more about working on the floor with a material. Building is also playing; from creating and manipulating materials, we oftentimes suddenly found ourselves improvising entire scenes.

What are your ambitions and future plans?

I'd like to create performances/visual works for children, but also ones where adults can briefly reconnect with their childlike imaginations. I'll also be teaching children with intellectual disabilities and in special education. Imagination and storytelling are central to this. I want to inspire my students and make them feel that they are capable of so much.