AMMODO ✕

Holland Festival

The creation of new work is essential for theatre practitioners at all stages of their careers. By creating such new work an artist can reinvent him or herself, explore the limits of their own abilities and experiment with form and content, all of which contributes to the artistic development. To make the creation of new works in the field of performing arts possible Ammodo entered into a long-term collaboration with the Holland Festival back in 2013.

The Holland Festival is one of the leading international festivals of performing arts. The core of the Festival is an offering of high quality international work which is rarely seen on the Dutch stage. In addition, the Holland Festival is committed to the continuing development of the performing arts and makes it possible for new work to be created. The creation of new productions and the (co)production of works are of significant importance to the quality and the reputation of the Holland Festival. This allows the Festival to attract leading artists, to enter into partnerships with other quality theatre festivals and to bring international premieres to Amsterdam.

For artists theater festivals are an important setting where they can show their work to a large and often international audience. Since festivals are able to commit to productions at an early stage, theatre practitioners gain a longer time in which to work on the production of new works. (Co)production is therefore crucial to both the quality of the festival and the creative development of the people involved.

At the present time, co-production is coming under pressure due to the unfavourable financial climate and the associated artistic risks. For this reason Ammodo is working together with the Holland Festival to realise projects which are important for both the festival and the individuals involved, because when it is a question of new work there is an even greater artistic and financial risk.
Thanks to the collaboration between Ammodo and the Holland Festival various (co)productions have taken place since 2013. These include: When the mountain changed its clothing, Heiner Goebbels; El Djoudour, Abou Lagraa and Nine Rivers, James Dillon in 2013. Valley of Astonishment, Delusion of the Fury, Coup Fatale and Luigi Nono in 2014 and You are my destiny, The rape of Lucrece, Angélica Liddell, Répons, Pierre Boulez and Manger, Boris Chamatz in 2015.

The production of new work entails artistic and financial risks.

Annet Lekkerkerker, business director of the Holland Festival: ‘The Holland Festival considers it important to encourage artists to create new work. This allows the festival to continue to offer new productions and to contribute to the development of promising theatre practitioners at a crucial stage in their careers. If, as a festival, you give artists a chance to create a new production you do not know in advance what the outcome will be. That carries with it an inevitable risk. We are very happy to have a partner such as Ammodo which is willing to accompany us on this adventure and to give the artists the necessary room to experiment’.