Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam

While in Amsterdam in March I was lucky enough to see the backstage of the Muziektheater.  Skoopy has been there twice on tour and her friend kindly took us around the building.  It is the biggest and most impressive theatre I have ever seen.  The stage and backstage area are equipped to move an entire set, including a floor, upstage or off stage and could in theory have 4 entirely different full-sized sets being used in rotation.   Here are the few pictures we took.  We didn’t want to take too many as people were working a load-in.

electrics from above:

multi-cable roller in the grid:

electrics:

the very top:

extra equipment:

That night we saw the Nederlands Dans Theatre.  It show was both beautiful and funny and I can’t come up with a description to do it justice.  Skoopy and I were embarrassed to be running late.  The usher slid us into balcony seats just at the lights were dimming.  We enjoyed the first act from upstairs and moved down to our seats at the break.

clip from Fluke:

I will remember Fluke as one of the top five best shows I have ever seen — along with Mary Zimmerman’s Pericles, Stephen Wadsworth’s Don Juan, and the now-defunct small Boston company Beau Jest Moving Theatre’s The Last Resort.  Hmmm, that just makes four.  I’ll have to think about the fifth.  Probably the production of King Lear I just had the pleasure of seeing at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

my ticket:

Theatres – Shakespeare’s Globe

Sights and Sounds:

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

London, England

March 21, 2008

UPDATE January 18, 2009:  This is one of my earliest blog posts.  I have since become better at dealing with photos.  I have erased the slideshow and instead created a set on Flickr.  See pictures of props from past productions and photos of the Globe Theatre  here.

 

House Right Box Seats

Alas poor Yorick

Peaches for Chester

The Thames, low