The screenplay I’ve been writing together with a director -who is also a dear friend of mine- is about to be fired off into the world of financing. Half the financing is already in place. Which means just about now comes the time when I’m to make a graceful exit. This is when screenwriters tend […]
moreIn the playground recently, I told my son “five more minutes.” We left half an hour later. The sun was shining. Simply being there, watching him and doing nothing in particular was fine. As a little girl, five more minutes of swimming felt really, really long. Only a few years later, five minutes went by […]
moreIn a flash I could see what had happened. Someone was hanging from my shower. A man. He wasn’t all that big it seemed. Round glasses. Pleated pants. After that, I didn’t dare look in any mirrors for fear of what else I’d see.While packing my things the next morning I decided to ask the owner […]
moreI am reading a writer’s diary. At one stage he describes a narrow escape he experienced and how everyone has them all the time, without necessarily knowing it. I wondered whether I’d had any.Instantly, an image sprung to mind. It was a memory I never knew I had. Lago de Garda, 16 years old. My […]
moreWhy is it that in the course of years, you can suddenly appreciate something you haven’t before? Paris, for example. And Claude Debussy. His Piano Works were hidden away in my Itunes library. Somehow, they never shuffled by. Yet now, I find myself overwhelmed by the beauty of those pieces. Or is it the memory? Debussy […]
moreThe other day, I watched the Dalai Lama on Dutch television. He discussed aggression and how one aggressive act always leads to more acts of aggression. It is his conviction that the only way to settle differences (whether between individuals, religions or countries) is through dialogue. Talk to each other, he said. It sounds so […]
moreThe best and worst part of performing are the nerves. Apparently I’m finding something important enough to get nervous about. As we get older in life, we gain experience and events such as birthdays or exams won’t be keeping us awake the way they did when we were young.We’ve been there, done all that and […]
moreOne final note on flamenco. I’m in two groups: beginners and advanced. My level is somewhere in between. I had always taken the beginners class lightly and worked hard during the advanced class. The surprising result of all this being: I am actually doing all right at the choreography for the advanced group, but messing […]
moreI am convinced a person can age a year in one day. Loss of youth is a sad event, especially when it is snatched away from you in that way. Then again, this kind of ageing is often paired with insight. The sweeping, grand kind of insight that comes with a day of almost unbearable […]
moreLeila is 17 years old. Her best friend Elizabeth is dying. Elizabeth’s parents are refusing to see this. She is 35 kilos and for the very first time in three years, she has admitted to Leila that she may need her help. But Leila doesn’t know where to start, what to do. So Leila sits […]
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