theater
L'étude (nu slaat de chaos toe)
A sunny day. Three actresses meet on a terrace, they challenge themselves to a study of the female archetypes in Shakespeare's work. They all have their own reason for this endeavor. They drink wine, loose themselves in language, examine Shakespeare's female roles within themselves...from lady Macbeth to Katherine (Taming of the shrew), from Portia to Ophelia...the more the study evolves the more the lives of the actresses become interwoven with the roles they examine...
created and performed by: Sien Eggers, Sofie Palmers & Jessa Wildemeersch.
DAYS WITHOUT DATES
DAYS WITHOUT DATES intertwines fragments of testimonies about the impact of war on an individual and a society into a mixed media theatre performance created by JESSA in collaboration with renowned Belgian theatre company Het Nieuwstedelijk and independent film maker Julie De Clercq
The performance is produced in Dutch and in English and is premiering and touring in Belgium in 2014-2018.
The international première took place on March 6th, 2015 at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival in Washington DC, USA
credits: concept and performance: Jessa Wildemeersch film: Julie De Clercq coaching: Sara Vertongen, dramaturgy: Els Theunis, set: Jan De Brabander, movement coach: Ugo Dehaes , sound design: Roeland Luyten, lighting design: Koen De Saeger, production and costume: Luca Lemmens, communications: Sylvie Vanmaele, administrative director: Raf Burm
The performance is part of the artistic commemoration of The Great War and is supported by The Flemish Community in Belgium, VGC Brussels, the City of Ostend, The Province of West-Flanders, The Embassy of Belgium in Washington, D.C and The Atlas Intersections Festival in Washington DC
WAITING
"A HAUNTING MEDITATION ON THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF WAITING; FOR A BUS, FOR A KISS, FOR A VISA, FOR A FUTURE NOT YET BEGUN. A VISUALLY ARRESTING COLLAGE OF FILM, MOVEMENT AND SOUND." (JURY ACT FESTIVAL PRIZE, BE FESTIVAL)
Waiting won 3rd prize at the BE Festival in Birmlingham, UK (2014). Since then the performance has been touring internationally. Waiting was invited to fastivals around the world ( Umbumuntu Arts Festival Kigali in Rwanda, International Theatre Festival of Kerela in India, Theatre an de Rurh in Germany, Act Festival in Bilbao/ Spain, Marokko, United Kingdom, France, Iran, Egypt,...)
DE KLEINE EVA UIT DE KROMME BIJLSTRAAT
Louis Paul Boon (text)
Jessa Wildemeersch (performance and creation)
Tuur Florizoone (accordeon en live composition)
Julie De Clercq (copyright image)
About 50 years ago one of Belgian's greatest author's Louis Paul Boon wrote 'de kleine eva uit de kromme bijlstraat', a long poem about the murder on the little girl 'Eva Blancken' . Tuur Florizoone on accordeon and actress Jessa Wildemeersch create a moving interpretation of this 20th century masterpiece.
DJINNY
A man leaves his children behind with a letter: He has to travel and might never come back. He also leaves the children a present: A ghost, Djinny! Together with Djinny the children go on a magnificent journey. Djinny is not bringing their father back, but makes them forget him... if only for a moment.
Based on the archetypel ghost Djinny of '1001 Arabian Nights', the performance takes a young and older audience on a hallucinating trip with a moving ending.
With handmade puppets and film, a performance never to forget.
For everybody 8 years or older Directed by Mokhallad Rasem Performed by Jessa Wildemeersch en Lore Uyttendaele Scenografie Paul Contryn Music and Image Saad Ibraheem Puppets Paul Contryn en Lieve Van Luyck Production: De Maan
CALIGULA
This performance is part of the Festival Antwerpse Kleppers organized by Toneelhuis.
http://www.toneelhuis.be
CALIGULA
Monty has commissioned a new work from Antwerp newcomer Mokhallad Rasem (Bagdad, 1981). Rasem trained both as a director and as an actor in Bagdad, where he also made his first productions. But the war in Iraq changed the course of his life and for the last five years he has been living and working in Belgium, where his is a new voice on the theatre scene. His work for the theatre is breathtaking and physical, associative and fragmentary in construction, clear and expressive in its ideas. He made a name for himself with his Irakese Geesten (Iraqi Ghosts, creative award Theater aan Zee 2010, short-listed for the Vlaams Theaterfestival 2010) and his Monde.com (Facebook), (KunstenfestivaldesArts 2011).
Mokhallad Rasem is very familiar with Caligula. Even while still studying theatre, he wanted to direct this classic by Albert Camus but performances of the play were banned under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Shortly after the fall of Hussein in 2005, the then 23-year-old Rasem chose it as the subject of his thesis, making his the first production of the play in Iraq for more than 35 years. Seven turbulent years later Rasem is working on a whole new version of Caligula, a contemporary play which, like no other, analyzes the essence of dictatorial power.
CONCEPT & DIRECTION MOKHALLAD RASEM DRAMATURGY PETER ANTHONISSEN TEKST & SPEL JESSA WILDEMEERSCH, BASSIM ALTAYEB, HUSSEIN ALI, ABUTHAR ABBAS, LORE UYTTENDAELE, MOKHALLAD RASEM MUSIC COMPOSITION ROELAND LUYTEN COMPOSITION and DRUMS JENS MAURITS BOUTTERY VIDEO SAAD ABRAHEEM 


PRODUCTION Monty & Jamaa El Irakya CO-PRODUCTION Toneelhuis
TONEELHUIS. BOURLA
Komedieplaats 18
2000 Antwerp
Box Office
T. 03 224 88 44
Margaret's Awakening
Europe, 1500
Maximilian I, Emperor of Austria is at war with France and the Ottoman Empire. Gold from the New World enriches Maximilian’s vast territory. His daughter, Margaret of Austria, serves as a pawn for his political strategies. By the time Margaret is 27 years old she has been married three times and is about to become governess and Regent to Charles V, a child who will serve as the most powerful ruler of The Hapsburg an Empire.
Margaret’s Awakening reveals the struggle of a woman caught between her family’s interest and her quest for individual freedom. But how much choice does Margaret really have?
DAYS WITHOUT DATES in NEW YORK
Jessa Wildemeersch will continue the work on the English version of her latest play 'Days Without Dates'.
Rehearsals will take place at The Actors Studio in New York - October 18th until November 1st; 2016-
http://theactorsstudio.org
The project is funded by: The Flemisch Community, Gone West, The Province of West-Flanders, the City of Ostend, Het Nieuwstedelijk, The Flemish Community in Brussels, NPAFE (The National Performing arts Funding Exchange) and the generous support of individual contributers.
The project is supported by: Atlas Intersections Festival in Washington, DC, The Belgian Embassy in The United States and Flanders House, New York
Monde.com
De Nacht van Margaretha
Europa, 1500, vroege Renaissance. Maximiliaan I, Keizer van Oostenrijk, voert oorlog met Frankrijk en het Ottomaanse rijk. Zijn dochter Margaretha dient als pion voor zijn politieke strategieën. Wanneer Margaretha de leeftijd van 27 jaar bereikt is ze al drie keer getrouwd en staat ze op het punt om regentes te worden van haar neefje Karel V.
De Nacht van Margaretha vertelt het verhaal van een vrouw, gevangen tussen familiebelangen en haar zoektocht naar individuele vrijheid. Een monoloog over het gevecht dat een vrouw voert die zelf nooit keuzes heeft kunnen maken. Maar ook hoe ze vanuit haar beperkingen haar mogelijkheden realiseert.
April 19, 6-8pm fundraising evening with Jessa Wildemeersch at Flanders House , New York
Geert De Proost, the General Representative of the Government of Flanders to the USA, and the National Performing Arts Funding Exchange kindly invite you to an evening with Jessa Wildemeersch, Belgian actress, writer and creator of the renowned multi-media theatre production Days Without Dates.
Days Without Dates offers a shared experience to overcome individual and collective trauma’s caused by endless conflicts and war. Days Without Dates inspires audiences all over the world and offers responses to urgent questions we all have about the trauma of war.
At this special evening event, you will discover the inside story of how Days Without Dates evolved from a simple idea to an acclaimed international stage presentation. You well get to see excerpts from the play and Wildemeersch will answer your questions, too. About the Days Without Dates production itself. About the value that this theatre creates for society. About the special value to business and entrepreneurs when they team with performing artists to bring this unusual form of artistry to actual audiences.
by invitation only
http://thejessaproject.org
DAYS WITHOUT DATES - selected for ATLAS INTERSECTIONS FESTIVAL in Washington, DC
DAYS WITHOUT DATES is a new play created by JESSA and intertwines fragments of testimonies into a mixed media theatre performance in collaboration with renowned Belgian theatre company Braakland/ZheBilding and independent film maker Julie De Clercq.
The international première will take place March 6th, 2015 at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival in Washington DC, USA, eight days of performing arts that celebrate the diversity, energy and excellence of artists and audiences from DC and beyond.
Watch teaser: http://youtu.be/utpGBJh4tag
Tickets and info: http://atlasarts.org/event/jessa
WAITING wins third prize at BE Festival in Birmingham ,UK
With the third prize the artists are invited to present the performance at ACT Festival in Bilbao , SPAIN in 2015
WAITING can be an interruption, a pause, an obstacle to a future not yet begun. We wait for insight or for a bus. Until pain subsides. For word of a loved one, for toilet paper, money or for a visa. Different worlds clash quietly through traces of dance, performance and film in a meditation upon the fundamental human experience of waiting.
http://vimeo.com/92027449
along the border of paradise - work in progress
‘along the border of paradise’ is a new project in development created by JESSA.
In this work-in-progress Jessa reflects on peoples desire to imagine a life after death.
‘along the border of paradise’ is supported by theatre Company Het Nieuwstedelijk and Associates Directors.
S L O W
Jessa Wildemeersch received a grant from the Flemish Community in Belgium to develop the work-in-progress S L O W. The project focusses on Shakespeare's heroïn's. Jessa is looking for the parralel between the archetypel female charachter's portrayed in Shakespeare's work and the female identities in a present-day context.
Jessa is coached by dramaturg Erwin Jans (Toneelhuis, Antwerp) and vocal coach Alba Quezada (New School University, New York).
The project is being developed at The Actors Studio (New York, April 2013), Master Class with Kristin Linklater on Freeing Shakespeare's Voice (Birmingham/ UK , July 2013) Roeland Luyten Qo2 ( Brussels , December 2013)
With the support of The Flemish Community in Belgium
SOME USE FOR YOUR BROKEN CLAY POTS
work-in-progress
Works of science fiction commonly give you an insight into a possible future society by depicting the adventures of one of its individual inhabitants. Some use for your broken clay pots, on the contrary, apprehends our future by providing us with the basic laws which are to rule the imagined society. It is up to the spectators to imagine what their individual lives would be like under this new set of conditions.
Sex in Bagdad - December 9th 4.30pm MASKI Theatre Festival Poznan, Poland
Directed: Rezan Saleh
Cast: Jessa Wildemeersch, Sofie Palmers, Odille Heftye Blehr, Jakub Papuga, Pjotr Wojtyniak
Tekst: Hassan Blasim, Rezan Saleh
Live Music: Borys Slowikowski
MY PARADISE-November 9th and 10th 8.30pm, Monty Arts Center, Antwerp
The first Episode of the work-in -progress 'My Paradise' was presented at XS Festival in Théatre National in Brussels.
Monty Arts Center supports the full production of 'My Paradise'.
'My Paradise' is a visual performance' posing the questions: What is Paradise? Where is Paradise? Is it a beautiful garden with honey , fruit, rivers and wine?
Is it a new home after having to flee from your country?
Concept and direction: Mokhallad Rasem
With: Jessa Wildemeersch, Bassim Altayeb, Abuthar Abbas, Lore Uyttendaele
Video: Saad Ibraheem
Music Composition: Roeland Luyten
DE LIEFHEBBERS
Inspired by Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights dream.
Jessa coached a group of adult performers to interpret the 'group of actors and stock charachters' in Midsummer Nights Dream.
What you see is a bold, funny and uplifting view on Shakespeare's comic charachters.
Long Days. Short Stories.
'Kid Nap'- Work in Progress- September 16 and 17 at 20.30 pm in Monty , Antwerp
DAGEN ZONDER DATA / DAYS WITHOUT DATES
In this new performance, Jessa Wildemeersch is looking for the connections between testimonies of nurses and soldiers serving in WWI and stories about army-conflicts in more recent times like WWII, Vietnam, Irak, Afghanistan, South-Africa, Ukraine. The traumas inflicted now don’t seem to differ so much from those left by WWI. Days Without Dates is about the common traumatic experiences, the healing and the re-integration process throughout the last century.
Days without dates is intertwining WWI and present-day testimonies into a mixed media performance in collaboration with an actress, a filmmaker and the Belgian multiple award-winning theatre company Het Nieuwstedelijk (coaching and dramaturgy).
Fin dÂ’Saison: Oostende, 31 Augustus 2008
A summer festival in and around the beach cabins in Ostend. Jessa Wildemeersch created a sound recording with stories about the sea. She invites the audience to sit in the cabin, listen to the recording and observe the sea and it’s surroundings. Inspired by Bernlef’s novel “The Piano man” “…If you look at things, without trying to find meaning or connections.If you just take the things, as they are, separate, then the world is much more interesting..." http://cultuur.oostende.be
Alfredo est en colère
During the past week Jessa Wildemeersch worked with a young collective of actors on a staged reading of a new play by Tony Oliotovsky. The play's major team is 'the art of living together'.
You are invited to observe this exciting work in progress!
when: March 28th 5pm in where: Théatre La Balsemine / Brussels Avenue Felix Marchal 1 B-1030 Schaerbeek www.balsamine.be 02 735 64 68
language: French / Dutch / English / German / African
duration: 58' Alfredo est en colère de Toni Oliotovski
Projet pour 2009 : Ce texte est basé sur la musicalité et sur le jeu quasi chorégraphique des acteurs. Il a la particularité de méler le français et le néerlandais. Nous pourrions appeler ce projet "du théâtre-concert" et le rapprocher du travail d'un Guyotat (tentant d'inventer une langue qui dépasse toute les langues) ou d'Alexandre Friederich.
Les lecteurs : Lucie Debay, Aurélie Eltvedt, Frederic Evrard, Christiane Girten, Sébastien Fayard, Johan Moonens, Kristien Pottier, Elise Steenackers, Gaetan Vandeplas, Jessa Wildemeersch, Marc Zinga
ROADMOVIE
Circusnachten
Fevvers is half woman, half bird. At least, that’s what she has everyone believe. Evening after evening she holds circus audiences spellbound with her caprioles. She even manages to ensnare the sceptical, feet-on-the-ground journalist Walser; even he comes close to believing her wings are real. Mesmerized, he follows Fevvers and the circus into distant Russia where they are all cast ashore in the barren Siberia. Circusnachten (Nights at the Circus) lures us into a world of sensation and semblance, of success and solitude. The circus is a sanctuary where freaks excel and are safe from the outside world and the merciless laws of normality. In Angela Carter’s sensory and extravagant universe nothing is what it seems. Hybrid creatures take us by the hand and dazzles us with glitz and glamour. Truth acquires wings, lifting us to dizzying heights until the spotlights are suddenly extinguished and, as if by reverse magic, we come back down to rest … on a soft bed of love. With Circusnachten Peter De Bie, Jo Roets and Bart Van den Eynde draw inspiration from a major novel by Angela Carter (1940-'92), one of the pearls of English literature. Her stories, novels, plays and journalistic work reflect the cultural climate of Great Britain and mainland Europe in the 1980s. With her extraordinary flights of fancy she was totally out of sync with the level-headedness and rationalism that prevailed in the troubled social climate of the time. Think of Carter and you think of unbridled imagination and the courage to undermine logic. Her magical realism is justifiably compared to that of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. She creates fabulous, mythical characters who hover between myth and reality. Typical of Carter is the way she harnesses reality; with courageous directness and not a hint of awkwardness she describes the darker and even the ugly side of humanity. Nights at the Circus was first published in 1984. Circusnachten goes on tour in the depths of winter as a location production in a specially designed funfair theatre. Like voyeurs in the wings, the spectators are the privileged witnesses of an enchanting universe. SCRIPT Jo Roets and Bart Van den Eynde (after Angela Carter) |
STYLLING Peter De Bie |
ACTING Jakob Beks, Lien De Graeve, Justus Dillen, Jos Geens, Lilian Keersmaekers, Luc Springuel and Jessa Wildemeersch |
MUSIC Rudi Genbrugge |
DIRECTION Jo Roets |
COSTUMES Mieja Hollevoet and Lieve Meeussen |
DRAMATURGY Michael De Cock, Caroline Fransens |
DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT Katrien Van Langenhove |
LIGHTING Anton Van Haver |
TECHNICIANS Patrick Arnauts, Bas Banen, Franky Barbaix, Felix Goossens, Marjolijn Hectors, Rik Helsen, Dieter Lambrechts, Eddy Levens, Pieter Smet and Rik Van Gysegem |
ADVICE Danny Ronaldo
TRUST
Wa vinde gij
DJINNY - Stadschouwburg Mechelen, donderdag 30/10/2014 om 11u
Djinnny is een multimediale voorstelling voor iedereen vanaf 7 jaar.
Wanneer de vader van Ari, Laila en Sara onverwacht op reis vertrekt blijven ze achter met een groot cadeau.
Dit is het begin van een reis vol spannende en onverwachte avonturen, met prachtige beelden en onverwachte wendingen.
Djinny is een voorstelling over vriendschap , gemis.
regie : Mokhallad Rasem spel: Jessa Wildemeersch , Lore Uytendaele, Muhanad
scenografie , ontwerp en uitvoering poppen: Paul Contryn, kostuum: Lieve Van Luik.
assistentie: Jannis en Kaatje productie: De Maan
Reservatie en tickets http://www.demaan.be
De misfit in me
Me, Mike en Mustafa
De Meeuw
W.M.D.
May 2008 NYC workshop performances THE PUFFIN ROOM (Carl Rosenstein, Director) presents W.M.D. ( just the low points) Created by SPONSORED BY NOBODY Conceived & Directed by Kevin Doyle at THE PUFFIN ROOM 435 Broome Street New York, NY 10013 212.343.2881 puffinroom.org MAY 22, 23, 24 MAY 29, 30, 31 ( Thursday / Friday / Saturday ) All performances at 7:30pm Tickets $15.00 (cash only at the door) $5.00 (seniors, children & H.S. students) Advance reservations strongly recommended. sponsoredbynobody@gmail.com *Reception follows May 22 performance* featuring McKENNA KERRIGAN SCOTT MILLER PAUL NEWPORT SEAN O'HAGAN JESSA WILDEMEERSCH ELIZABETH WOODARD CEM BAZA JOSH EDELMANN video & sound design BRENDAN REGIMBAL lighting design PETER HOERBURGER music CAPTAIN TOM W.M.D. ( just the low points) is a deconstruction of our culture's preoccupations that incorporates elements of theatre, dance, film and live music. Structured around the events of a single date -- January 8, 2004 -- Sponsored By Nobody uses found-texts to investigate Americans' relationship with their media during wartime. Featuring an international cast from three continents, SBN presents a series of workshop performances prior to their premiere of W.M.D. later this year. Support for the development of W.M.D. ( just the low points ) has been provided by: BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange chashama (NYC) The National Endowment for the Arts The Ontological-Hysteric Incubator The Puffin Room The Puffin Foundation The Flemish Minister of Culture The Flemish Community of Belgium Beursschouwburg (Brussels, Belgium) Monty Art Center (Antwerp, Belgium) and The Friends & Patrons of SBN For more information on the work of SPONSORED BY NOBODY please visit: myspace.com/sponsoredbynobody
The Boor
thesis project at the Actors studio Drama School in New York.
Presented at Cirrcle in the Square, Bleeker Street , New York
Margaret's Awakening
Margareth's Awakening When starting to write the play, I decided to choose the year 1507 as a basis, as it seemed to me a pivoting point in European history. All the gold and silver of the New World came streaming in, the Inquisition swept over Spain and yet new influences, which later would be summarized as the Renaissance, began to affect a predominantly Christian society. While he Church was at the height of its worldly power, Luther was being ordained and Copernicus began to develop his heliocentric theories. Meanwhile the money of the world was slowly concentrating itself in Flanders, especially in Antwerp, whose port profited most from the discovery of America and the trade with India. When the first Portuguese ship arrived from Calicut, it was loaded with spices destined for the whole of northern Europe. Antwerp became the capital of the world economy, comparable to today's New York. At that time, a woman reaches a pivoting point in her own life. And that's where the story turns personal. The woman is twenty-seven, she has been manipulated again and again by her father and tries to get a hold on her life. Noble and misunderstood, that's how she feels. She has literary instinct and yet the circumstances of her descent seem to steer her into a political role she hasn't asked for. She doesn't know it yet, but soon she will become governess of the Lowlands and rule in the name of her minor nephew Charles. The rest is a play about power and poetry, which I wouldn't have written, if I could summarize it in a few lines. Margareth has a restless night, because the little Emperor Charles is due to arrive. She has to decide whether to pursue her own artistic ambitions or to sacrifice her life to serve the Emperor. While writing, I tried to analyze my own ambiguities. Where do I stand as a writer? Am I an engaged artist who takes ethical stands and analyses society or am I more of a musician, worrying above all about sound and composition? The dilemma Magaretha fought with, was also mine. At the same time it is the age-old dilemma of career versus children, a choice women are still grappling with today. It's those sensibilities I liked to investigate in my play. What's our freedom worth and what does it really mean to be free? As for the historical accuracy of the text, I heavily leaned upon a historical study of professor Leo Kooperberg, published in 1908 (Margaretha van Oostenrijk, landvoogdes der Nederlanden, tot den vrede van Kamerrijk, 1480 - 1509). He died in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen. But the main question is: will my play stand the test if it's presented to a public that's not too familiar with European politics in the sixteenth century? Will the flame in the text survive the historical context? Does the play feed our myths? This seems to me the main issue and foremost criterion. (Kamiel Vanhole/ author of 'Margaret's Awakening')