detheatermaker

3 Artists, 3 Houses, 3 Weeks

In February we will kick off the Shared Practices, Shared Research residency. During this 3rd edition, we welcome Gökhan Kizilbuga, Rubin Ajlouni and Colette Goossens. They will delve into their research and share their experiments in three cultural houses: Monty, Rataplan and c o r s o. Each week they will move on to another house to continue their work, and on February 28 they will present their findings in c o r s o
Shared Research, Shared Practices is a collaborative project of MAP, Monty, Rataplan, c o r s o and detheatermaker.
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Gökhan Kizilbuga is a theater producer and director, a graduate of the RITCS. His work is distinguished by an interdisciplinary approach that combines theater, performance and visual art. With projects such as Sledderlove and We Build This, he explores the impact of urbanization and migration on individuals and communities. Through participatory workshops, installations, performances and ethnographic research, he creates immersive experiences. His work is often site-specific and aims to empower local communities. As curator of Steenkool & The Gang, he also creates a platform for emerging artists.
Es Kamen Menschen An intimately and visually explores the lives of guest workers. With personal stories, historical facts and projections, Gökhan Kizilbuga portrays the harsh reality of this existence far from home: loneliness, coldness and isolation. The performance is not only an artistic representation, but also a social document that highlights the valuable contribution of guest workers to our society and calls for more recognition of their history.
Photo: Victoriano Moreno
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Colette Goossens (she/her, 1999) is a playwright, performer and writer. She made her debut with the graduation performance My Brother: The Walrus (2021-2022), which she created during her drama training at the KASK Conservatory in Ghent. With this performance she could be seen, among others, at Theater Aan Zee (2021).
In 2024, together with Laurens Aneca and Stan Martens, she realized the performance Under The Influence. She is also active in the young collective Ottessa, which was part of the Eigen Kweek program with the performance Rest and Relaxation (2024).
As a performer she was involved in productions by compagnie Cecilia and Kopergietery, among others. During her student days, she co-founded the Drama School Festival.

Colette wants to study the mental state of Britney Spears. Britney Spears has been in the spotlight for many years, not only as a pop icon, but also as someone whose mental health was discussed worldwide. After a period of intense success, her life went into a downward spiral in the early 2000s, with public outbursts and her father’s prolonged control via a conservatorship. Although that curatorship ended in 2021, questions and concerns remain about her mental well-being. Her behavior on social media, such as the dance videos she regularly posts on Instagram, evokes fascination and sometimes concern from fans. What drives her to make these videos, and what do they reveal about her inner world? Colette wants to explore these questions by putting herself in the (dance) shoes of Britney Spears.
Photo: Lina Van Hulle
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Rubin Ajlouni was born in the Netherlands and today lives in Antwerp. Since the age of 17, he has been fascinated by theater. In the Netherlands, he was seen at ITA in the junior performance XXX Jr. (2019), he belonged to a theater collective DeGasten and took several courses before enrolling in the preliminary training of De Nieuwe Spelers in 2019. Rubin took a year of drama at Luca School of Arts and was featured in Ontroerend Goed’s Funeral.

In this performance, Rubin Ajlouni brings the monologue “Jasser” to life. Written by Abdelkader Benali in 2001, Ajlouni places the play in a contemporary setting, weaving the changes of the past 20 years in Palestine.
As a Palestinian actor in the role of Shylock, the Jewish merchant, Ajlouni wonders what it is like to play this role after 20 years. What did the death of Yasser Arafat mean for the Palestinian cause and how does he now view this leader, who was supposed to liberate Palestine?

With the monologue JASSER, Ajlouni wants to show audiences how the situation in Palestine has changed and how it affects the daily lives of Palestinian citizens. He hopes that this performance will encourage the audience to speak out on this issue and contribute to a better future for all parties involved. For Ajlouni, it is also a search for his own identity, where he wants to be able to look himself straight in the eye and show, “this is me.” This is a personal journey that he has often avoided and is now fully embracing.
Rashif El Kaoui helps him bring Benali’s text to the now and set the right framework to bring this to a right fit with his own texts.
The play is about Rubin’s Palestinian identity and how he deals with it and tries to embrace it. On the other hand, it is about the dream of wanting to act and how you want to be seen.
The context of a casting is the basis of the play as it makes the parallel with the personal and the political. It is a casting to be allowed to exist as an actor, as an artist, as Rubin; but also symbolizes the country of Palestine coming “on casting,” auditioning for the right to exist. Both Rubin and Palestine want to be seen and recognized by the world.
Photo: Victoriano Moreno