http://www.hetpaleis.be

HETPALEIS is a theatre company for children, young people and artists in the heart of Antwerp. The aim of the company is to make the performing arts an obvious choice by offering accessible quality and by making quality accessible to every child in every family.

HETPALEIS does this by creating and presenting high-quality productions that are primarily – but not only – aimed at children and young people aged 4 to 18. In order to achieve this, the company opts for two extremes: pieces for large theatres that may or may not tour and small-scale performances and projects that invite dialogue with specific target groups. In this way, HETPALEIS hopes to appeal to a broad public.

HETPALEIS is a civic theatre through and through. It sees the city as the artery of life, as a source of inspiration and as a platform. Every year it develops a wide range of productions, projects, presentations and fringe activities either in-house, on location and in cultural centres and theatres both in and out of town. It uses the diversity, complexity and contemporaneity of the urban environment as the foundations of the dialogue between theatre-makers and their audience.

HETPALEIS is an open house that’s continuously developing and where productions and projects are allowed to evolve organically. In order to incorporate new impulses, the house works with freelance artists: Piet Arfeuille, Benjamin Boutreur, An De Donder, Peter De Graef, Pieter Embrechts, Dimitri Leue, Stefan Perceval, Jo Roets, Arne Sierens, Sam Vloemans and many others. HETPALEIS opts for performances that grow out of a dialogue between artists, audience and management. In addition, the company also collaborates with outside companies. This enables productions to be brought to fruition that would otherwise have little chance of getting off the ground. For example, HETPALEIS has worked with Huis aan de Amstel, Union Suspecte, Blauwe Engel, SKaGeN, Stella Den Haag and Theater Froe Froe, which operated under the wing of HETPALEIS until the end of 2005. Recently HETPALEIS has worked closely with Compagnie Cecilia (Ghent) and Laika (Antwerp).

As well as being a production company, HETPALEIS strives towards a positive evolution in children’s arts. In 2008 it highlighted a number of points for attention with regard to the improvement of the children’s arts environment, thus stimulating the government to adopt a (more) child-friendly policy, which culminated in the signing of a children’s arts charter by seven Flemish mayors. In addition to this, HETPALEIS encourages cooperation between different youth theatre groups in Het Paletfestival, which the ten subsidised youth theatre companies organised in May 2008. Furthermore, in collaboration with ‘deBuren’ Flemish Dutch Centre and in its Art and Society series, the company invites a monthly speaker to explain a topical issue related to a current theatre production. For example, professor and dementia specialist Christine Van Broeckhoven spoke while U bent mijn moeder was on.

In the educational field, HETPALEIS invests in innovation. Its education service supports the audience in three complementary ways: firstly by means of an introduction to HETPALEIS productions in the form of reading material, talks and workshops. Additionally, ‘De Stal’ offers intensive theatre lessons that culminate in an open lesson or performance moment. And in ‘De Tuin’ the audience is given the chance to spend a single day breathing life into a story of their own, which gives them a taste of the creative development process. ‘De Tuin’ is a laboratory for children that is full of challenges and impulses and it aims to stimulate their imagination and creativity. The main goal of this activity is for the participants to learn to look at, hear and feel things and work together in a way that’s just a little bit different. With ‘De Tuin’, HETPALEIS is working on strengthening the interaction between its productions and its educational arm.