Theatre does not need to stay within four walls! Tochtheater explores playful, surprising and accessible ways of creating theatre outside the traditional venue: on the move, in public space, online or on location. This inspiration guide shows which forms are possible and how you can get started with them. It helps makers and companies reach their audiences in new places and create strong theatrical experiences with simple means.
All documents are provided in Dutch.
Walking while enjoying short theatre moments along the way turns out to be a perfect match. During a theatre walk, you guide groups of participants along a planned route that leads them to several spots where they experience a short performance. These moments can form a colourful mix or a more connected whole. The open nature of the concept leaves plenty of room for creativity.
The idea of the wagon play may sound old‑fashioned, but once you consider what can be done with this centuries‑old concept, it becomes surprisingly fresh. And think of all the people you can involve, or even better, the audiences you can reach in your town or city with a contemporary wagon play.
The tradition dates back to the fourteenth century, when plays were performed on flat carts, mobile little stages with different sets, each more ingenious than the next. Like a procession, the wagons moved past the audience. The plays were created by the chambers of rhetoric, the predecessors of today’s community theatre groups, together with the local guilds of butchers, bakers, carpenters, painters and many others. Their themes were often reflected in the scenes on the wagons.
It was usually a festive moment in the city when the wagons rolled out. Wagon plays were also staged for special occasions. With their decorated carts, the guilds tried to outdo one another in creativity, but also in displaying their wealth, knowledge and humour. The themes were originally religious, but later broadened. The wagons themselves were small masterpieces of set design, sometimes even equipped with a clever lower space that could serve as a dressing room.
A livestream is a live broadcast, usually shared through television, radio or the internet and viewed on an external screen, a projection or a mobile device outdoors, in a theatre or event venue, or simply at home.
A livestream allows you to bring a presentation, performance or event to an audience that is not physically present at the location where it takes place. Think of live football matches, for example. Sometimes the live images can be combined with pre‑recorded material.
Is the radio drama passé? A relic from a long‑gone era when entire families gathered around the radio at a fixed time to listen to spoken plays? Think again.
Thanks to new technology, we can now enjoy audio stories anytime and anywhere. Whether you are on the train or in the bathroom, taking a long walk or cooking: with a smartphone, a podcast app and a pair of earbuds, you can effortlessly lose yourself in countless worlds.
Creating an audio drama is no longer as difficult as it may seem at first. With just a few tools, you can shape your own story into a rich audio piece: warm, intimate and, above all, free from any form of visual distraction.
A podcast is an audio broadcast in which the sound file is offered on demand through web feeds, a kind of mini website. Thanks to the rise of portable mp3 players such as the iPod, this way of sharing audio quickly became popular among radio enthusiasts.
The word podcast is a blend of iPod and broadcast. A podcast can be informative or entertaining, a monologue or a dialogue. It can be an interview, a read‑aloud picture book or anything else you can imagine. The possibilities are endless.
An inspiring storyteller, speaker or slam poet in the spotlight, with an audience hanging on every word in a welcoming spot in your town or city: that is what it’s all about. Many kinds of stories, texts or poetry are possible here, from personal accounts and slam poetry to folk tales and literary masterpieces.
In 2020, online experiences and activities suddenly became very important. We often cursed them, but gradually we also learned to embrace their advantages.
When meeting in person is not possible because people live too far apart, there is no space available, someone has a broken leg or, heaven forbid, a pandemic is raging, an online platform can offer a solution.
Online rehearsing or brainstorming simply means collaborating on a production or performance remotely, through a computer screen.
