Lotte van den Berg / OMSK (NL)

Lotte van den Berg is born in Groningen in 1975. Already in her early childhood Lotte becomes fascinated by theatre, through her acting father. She briefly studied Law at the University of Amsterdam, followed by Theatre Studies and Philosophy. It very fast became clear to her, that she wants to make theatre herself and in 1998 she was accepted to the School for Directing at the Amsterdam School of Arts. After her studies Lotte van den Berg immediately started working as freelance director for various Flemish and Dutch companies.
Lotte van den Berg projects are often developed on site, including professional actors as well as teenagers and non-professionals. Because she works mostly visually and uses minimal or even no text at all in her performances, her work is sometimes classified as ‘mime’ or physical theatre. The project “Begijnenstraat 42” (2004), a gripping, almost wordless performance in the prison pf Antwerp in which prisoners act with guards and professional actors caught broad attention and Van den Berg received the Köhler Award for it. In 2006, Guy Cassiers offers the young director a permanent place at Toneelhuis in Antwerp. In the following years she created “Stillen”, “Gerucht” and “Winterverblijf”.
At the beginning of the year 2009 Lotte van den Berg has entered a new phase in her work. She left Toneelhuis and became artistic director of a new structure in Dordrecht that is named OMSK. In this structure, she gathers a few actors and artists around her and continues her artistic adventure. New encounters and long collective journeys abroad have become a permanent aspect of the practice. In 2009 OMSK created “Het Verdwalen in Kaart” in cooperation with fifty residents of Dordrecht.
From June to September 2010 Lotte van den Berg travels with a group of artists to Kinshasa, the capital of the democratic Republic of Congo. They work with Congolese theatre makers and artists, with bicycle repair men, street kids and IT students in public rehearsals. Immediately after the return from Congo, OMSK presents “Cold Turkey”, a live montage of the material that was developed in Kinshasa in the previous months – this work was shown at the steirischer herbst festival 2010. The experience of these public rehearsals is also the starting material for the performance “Les Spectateurs”.
www.omsk.nl