Doubt

Theaterworks Amsterdam invited you to “remember” with a Dramatic Reading commemorating
Dodenherdenking/Remembrance Day

4 May 2006

This year, in what has become an annual tradition for Theaterworks Amsterdam, we read "War Diaries", based on the diary Harm van der Wal kept as a teenage boy living under Nazi occupation.

The young Harm lived in the North East of the province of Groningen, near the harbor town of Delfzijl, close to the German border. In spite of the bombings by both German and Allied forces he continued to go to school in Appingedam. In his diary he writes about school, but also about the moments of fear in the air-raid shelter, and his worries about the uncertain future.

In 2005 Radio Netherlands producer Hélène Michaud made the Documentary ‘A diary of War and Liberation’ about Harm van der Wal and his diaries.
Iain Macintyre translated the diaries into English, and Marcel Snyders has since adapted the English text for the reading on 4 May.
The text has been divided between two characters: a young Harm van der Wal who describes his war experiences, and an older Harm van der Wal who experiences his memories again after sixty years. Together they tell the story of an ordinary, innocent boy in a terrible war.

Directed by Nina Cohen, featuring Daniel Hillel-Tuch and Joost van Oosterhout as the two Harms.

Saskia van Engeland also offered a short reading this evening and there was time after the reading to speak with the actors.

“War Diaries” continued Theaterworks Amsterdam’s tradition of reading new and classical works that hold a special significance to our current situation. This was the third annual Remembrance Day reading - previously, we have read John Steinbeck’s “The Moon is Down”.

This reading was sponsored by the ABC Treehouse, a project of the American Book Center (www.abc.nl,
www.treehouse.abc.nl

Director - Nina Cohen is active in theatre and music as an actrice, director and singer. Her most recent appearance on
stage took the form of a singing chicken in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk by the English theatre
company The In Players. Besides laying golden eggs she sings in the Nederlands Concertkoor, a large
classical choir, and in Ademnoot, a group of five singers and a pianist. She has directed several (music)
productions such as Amadeus by Peter Shaeffer. She was assistant director for The Crucible directed by Donna
DuCarm for Theatreworks Amsterdam. Her greatest wish is to be cast as a singing zombie in a zombiefilm to be
shown at the next Amsterdam Fantastici Film Festival. In her spare time she works as a biologist.

Young Harm - Daniel Hillel-Tuch is a student from the International School of Amsterdam, born in Holland with an American father and Israeli mother. He was raised in both English and Dutch. Previously he has worked in the ISA production 'Conference of the Birds' and he can be seen online in an advert for Twix (at http://www.leertedelen.nl). Together with other students of the ISA he has managed to set up and perform two full length improvisation shows. When not performing Daniel enjoys playing the guitar, watching movies and reading.

Older Harm - Joost van Oosterhout has worked in several areas of performance. His educational background consists of acrobatics, Vaudeville techniques, martial arts and percussion. He has worked for almost fifteen years with a theater company on a professional basis. In this capacity he has developed and performed theater plays, animation and coaching projects. Apart from being a performer, he is also skilled as a director and as a teacher of theater techniques. Over the last three years he has performed in several readings with Theatergroup Trezoor/Theaterworks Amsterdam, and last November he played the part of Giles Corey in The Crucible.

The Adapter - Marcel Snyders was born in Amsterdam in 1966, and studied English and Philosophy (for a whole year!) in New Zealand. Since 1985 he has worked as an actor in corporate training, television- and theatre productions. He also worked as a presenter for Teleac/NOT and Radio Netherlands. Marcel did courses in writing, journalism and copywriting at the Media Academy in Hilversum, ’t Colofon in Amsterdam and the Centre for Communication & Journalism in Utrecht. He does voice-overs for commercials, writes song lyrics and develops ideas for television.