Teunkie Van Der Sluijs

Teunkie Van Der Sluijs is a theatre director from Great Britain, and a former television actor, who works predominantly in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States.

Born in the Netherlands in 1981, Van Der Sluijs read Drama at the University of Amsterdam before studying directing at London's Rose Bruford College.

United Kingdom

Van der Sluijs has directed work by Boris Vian at the Pleasance Theatre, by Robert Holman at Battersea Arts Centre, and by Howard Barker.[1] Van Der Sluijs started as resident assistant director at the Orange Tree Theatre under artistic director Sam Walters, where he also worked as associate director on Lars Noren's Autumn & Winter and directed the London premiere of Jon Fosse's Winter.[2] He made his debut in 2008 with Yasser by Abdelkader Benali, a production which transferred from Assembly Rooms Edinburgh to Chopin Theatre, Chicago and Arcola Theatre, London. The production was selected as Critic's Choice in both The Sunday Times ("Pick of the Fringe"[3] ) and the Chicago Tribune,[4] despite meeting with a varying critical response. Whereas the Edinburgh Evening News praised its "senstive direction"[5] and trade paper The Stage wrote of it as "captivating and emotionally supple,",[6] The Chicago Sun-Times called it "a solid piece of acting, but not exactly a revelatory story."[7] Van Der Sluijs went on to direct for Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival,[8] and won the inaugural TS Eliot Exchange bursary between the Old Vic Theatre and the Public Theater New York.[9]

Netherlands

Since 2009, Van Der Sluijs has directed theatre productions at the Royal Theatre in The Hague, the home of the national theatre of the Netherlands, and the Rozentheater, Amsterdam's primary theatre for contemporary playwriting. Productions include the Dutch premiere of Motortown by Simon Stephens [10] and HATE.[11]

In a 2012 interview with Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool, Van Der Sluijs characterized the difference between the theatre cultures of The Netherlands and the UK as "In the Netherlands, the director is primary; in England, it's the playtext, followed by the actors."[12]

Prior to working as a theatre director, Van Der Sluijs appeared as an actor in the country's longest-running and highest-rating soap opera Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden in 2004.[13]

2010 Times Square car bombing attempt

In May 2010, while in New York to direct Omar El-Khairy's play Longitude at the Public Theater, Van Der Sluijs witnessed the failed terrorist attack on Times Square when on his way to a theatre performance on Broadway; his story subsequently appeared on BBC[14] and in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.[15]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Winter programme. London: Orange Tree Theatre. 2011.
  2. ↑ Liber, Vera. "Theatre Review: Then the Snow Came / Winter". Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  3. ↑ "Yasser". The Sunday Times. 17 August 2008.
  4. ↑ "Red Eye's 'Best Bets'". Chicago Tribune. 28 October 2008.
  5. ↑ Wood, Claire (18 August 2008). "Moving Look at Real-Life Drama". Edinburgh Evening News.
  6. ↑ Radosavljevic, Duska (5 August 2008). "Yasser". The Stage. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Weiss, Hedy (6 November 2008). "'Yasser' Turns up the Heat on Frightened Actor". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  8. ↑ Christiansen, Rupert (28 August 2009). "Grimeborn, Review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Old Vic Announces Teams For TS ELIOT US/UK EXCHANGE PROGRAM". Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  10. ↑ "Production Database Theatre Institute of the Netherlands". Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  11. ↑ Akveld, Joukje (11 January 2012). "'Het Gaat Niet om Zelfexpressie'". Het Parool.
  12. ↑ Akveld, Joukje (11 January 2012). "'Het Gaat Niet om Zelfexpressie'". Het Parool.
  13. ↑ "Internet Movie Database entry for Teunkie Van Der Sluijs". Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  14. ↑ "Times Square evacuation: Eyewitnesses". 2 May 2010. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  15. ↑ "Bomauto op Times Square". De Telegraaf. 3 May 2010.