Travel along with Artistic Director Mark Yeoman

Mark Yeoman: "At the base of the new World Trade Centre they are adding a theatre, the Perelman Theatre, with Meiyin Wang (next to me) as the first Artistic Director. She gave a few of us a quick tour, it will open later this year!"

Mark also visited the iconic Joe’s Pub to see the remarkable Salty Brine from New York perform. Additionally, he saw Dan Daw, an activist and artist with a disability, give a presentation for the festival symposium.

An insider tip from Mark for everyone who is planning on visiting New York in the upcoming months: go to the Whitney Museum. Here you can find Edward Hopper’s exceptional work. ‘I didn’t know, but he and his wife had a fixation with theatre. He made several paintings inspired by theatre scenes and always used his wife as the model,’ explains Mark.

The outside of the Perelman Theatre exists out of 5.000 marble panels that have been manufactured in Portugal. They are so thin, that looking from the inside it gives it a ‘glow in the dark’ effect. The theatre has been built closely to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which makes visiting it extra special. 

(Look at image on the left side from the text)

The reason why Mark is in New York is because of the Under the Radar Festival. The lobby of the Public Theatre is THE meeting point for professionals who are here. Festival Director Mark Russell (Under the Radar Festival, on the right in picture) has visited Noorderzon multiple times in the past.

Despite his busy schedule, Mark still has the time to miss his dog. A little more waiting is required before Mark finishes his travels and sees his dog again.

About his impression of Santiago, Mark says: ''The Peoples’ Revolt and student rioting of 3 years ago is still very present in the graffiti and damaged buildings in certain parts of Santiago.''

''We were invited to a reception at the Presidential Palace, to meet the young President Gabriel Boric, who emerged as leader after all the Protests. He spoke beautifully about the critical relationship between politics and culture, and was presented a book to commemorate 30 years this year of the festival Santiago a Mil. He was really impressive and people gathered round him as if he was a rock star… I never saw a politician being mobbed quite like this ;)! He represents progress and hope for many people but is currently being shot down by both the right wing press and the far left protest movement… There is a lot of frustration that the ‘new Constitition’ did not get approval, and the country remains stuck with the old Pinochet Constitution...''

During the Santiago a Mil Festival, Mark has been able to visit several works from different artists. One of the biggest hits at this festival has been at Noorderzon once (2019) too: Teatro Bonobo. This young theatre group presented new work in Santiago. Another community-theatre from Bolivia performed a wonderful piece about alcoholism and domestic abuse. Lastly, a successful performance done by disabled actors from Peru ended in one big party on the stage.

In addition to visiting the festival, Mark also talked to youth who took part in protests there. "There remains a significant police presence on the streets including water cannons and a gassing van..." A lot of youth that Mark has talked to have experienced what it is like to be targeted by these machines. "Democracy in Chile feels quite different than here in The Netherlands," is how Mark ends his story. This can be seen in the works that are presented during the festival. Most of the performances are focused on dramatic protest movements and political changes that have been made in the past few years.

Mark was accompanied by programme assistant Raydun Bolk on this road trip. Together they visited Germany and Poland.

In Berlin, they went to see the Salty Roads performance by Bashar Murkus at the Maxim Gorki Theatre. Salty Roads is the eighth edition of the Myths of Reality series, where the Palestinian director Bashar Murkus and his team research how the ocean contributes to myths from the past and present. 

After visiting Berlin, Raydun and Mark drove to Szczecin, a Polish village. They were invited by Janek Turkowski (a familiar face at Noorderzon), to come see his new work. Janek's presentation took place in an empty room in a flat in Szczecin. "Everything felt empty and abandoned, except for the space itself, somewhere on the third floor. This room was full of sprouts and seedlings of edible plants," elaborates Raydun. "We also took a seat in a key element of the performance: a house on wheels. This was made for one of the homeless participants from Janek's project."

"It was pouring when we arrived in Bilbao! On the terrace where we were eating, the roof collapsed right above our seats. All the water fell on us. We saw it as luck: ''baptised'' in Bilbao. Just a pity that Mark’s bag was open," laughs Raydun. 

"Here I am together with Iva Horvat, at the famous Guggenheim Museum (a must-see if you are in the area!). You can sometimes see Iva in Groningen as a mentor for the Producer's Development Program of Station Noord," Raydun continues.

You can see Raydun and Iva together in the picture on the right. 

"After Bilbao, we travelled to San Sebastian for DFeria, a theatre and dance 'fair' that has existed for almost 30 years. DFeria had organised everything for us: presentations, many performances and even our meals. Every now and then, our busy schedule allowed us to visit the rough coastline. 

The first night we were invited to a cider brewery. Together with many international and Spanish colleagues we ate like the Basques do: standing up while consuming lots of cider…

Out of the performances and presentations, we also saw many theatre and dance societies. Both big and small names. We started including more and more Spanish programme at Noorderzon over the past few years. For example La Tristura; they are returning to our festival for the third time. The Spanish company is currently working on a new piece: Las Niñas Zombie – a co-production of Noorderzon and Grand Theatre."

Unfortunately, we are keeping that a secret for now! Would you like to be kept informed of the latest news about the programme and everything related to Noorderzon? Then keep a close eye on our socials!