State of the Union & Youth 2023 + Actor awards ceremony
Het TheaterFestival
The annual moment to catch up as a performing arts sector at the start of a new cultural season! With the festive and critical State of the Union & Youth behind us, conversations traditionally get off to a fast start.
For the first time, no creator is taking on the State of the Youth, but we are giving the stage to young violence behind the scenes. With their speech, Gilles Pollak and Lotte Vrancken will gladly give you an insight into life as it is as a lighting technician/scenographer and cultural worker, dramaturg & writer anno 2023. The State of the Union 2023 will be spoken by actor, rapper, podcaster and writer Rashif El Kaoui.
After the states, the actor awards will be presented. With the support of ArtistsUnited, Het TheaterFestival and De Acteursgilde are joining forces to expand the actor awards. From now on, the jury of Het TheaterFestival will compile a shortlist for the members of the Acteursgilde to vote on.
Everyone is welcome, reservations are required.
KVS BOLSOLD OUT
Rashif El Kaoui studied Theatre at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and has since become an actor, audio-maker and writer. In 2016, he won the El Hizjra Literature Prize in the prose category. He has already been published in Das Magazin and Das Mag’s Sampler 2018. As a columnist for De Standaard and Knack, he writes opinion pieces on social hot buttons. As a columnist for the Poëziekrant, he casts an alternative view on the definition of poetics and literature. As a maker he has worked with Monty, Theater Zuidplein, Het Zuidelijk Toneel (De Bastaard) and Fabuleus (De Kwetsbaren), among others. His own work often assumes co-creation with your audience/target group and walking the line between reality, fiction and audience engagement. As an actor, he has appeared in several productions by Het Nieuwstedelijk (Kiss ‘n Ride, Mooie Jaren & BLIK) and KVS (Malcolm X , Odysseus. Een zwerver komt thuis, Drarrie in de nacht & Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Mesut Arslan and JR). He also teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, LUCA Drama, Fortio/Syntra & the Academy for word, music and dance in Mortsel, among others.
Lotte Vrancken (°1997, they/them, she/her) is a cultural worker, dramaturge and writer. Lotte has been working for development and production platform detheatermaker for a year now. Lotte also co-facilitates and organises One Field Fallow, a collective off space in an old night shop in Brussels. For her own work, she did residencies at Het Bos and Kaap, among others. Lotte obtained a Master’s degree in Theatre Studies from UGent in 2020 and then followed a year of Word Art at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
Gilles Pollak (°1996) obtained his Master’s degree in Scenography at HKU and his Bachelor’s degree in Stage Techniques at RITCS. He works as a lighting designer and scenographer with various companies in the Netherlands and Belgium and is a member of theatre collectives WOLF WOLF and Camping Sunset. In 2022 and 2023, he took charge of the technical direction of Theater aan Zee. Gilles is currently working on a performance in which light plays the leading role and in which backstage and technicity can be used as a concept and space to create in. A performance in which he searches for a dramaturgy of light, or how to create different atmospheres with a minimum of light. At The Theatre Festival, he plays with Spring Awakening by WOLF WOLF and with Paris Was A Woman.
ArtistsUnited is an independent advocacy and advice organization for anyone working in theater, dance, visual arts, television, film, literature, circus, gaming, music, … From Status of the Artist to advice on your contracts, copyrights, negotiations. For all artists, creatives and technicians. With heart and soul for the sector!
De Acteursgilde is the Flemish interest group for professional actors. Where as an individual you are far too weak or vulnerable to get things moving, De Acteursgilde wants to defend actors’ interests. We focus primarily on the audiovisual sector but also make our voices heard in the performing arts field when necessary. De Acteursgilde is interlocutor for producers, broadcasters, unions and government. In discussions about policy, subsidies, wage formation, neighboring rights, taxation, the future of our media landscape, … only acting together can make a difference. For that difference, De Acteursgilde is the guarantor.
