Since the founding of the theater in 1946, three directors have been at the helm. The daughter of the founder of the theater, Martje Dijkstra-Broekema, calls the differences between then and now actually too large to compare. “If my father would see this, I think he would have amused himself for expensive. He himself was much stricter and it looked very different here at the time,” she says. “Jack is much more modern in that sense and that’s good.”
Van Muijen was already there before Nieborg joined the group. “What it is pleasant about working with Jack is that he is always looking for something in you that you are very good at and he will use it. He will rarely let you do something that you don’t feel like. I am not always looking forward to a rehearsal, but actually after half an hour it is already over and gives you new energy and that is good to do that for each other.”
Nieborg’s documents have evolved over the past 25 years. Also by changing the set -up in the forest. “The great thing about being an artistic leader is that you can develop. I just didn’t do things well here and I have been able to improve them,” he says. “When I started I heard a lot of people say:” Shakespeare, that’s not for me. “My conviction is that Shakespeare is there for everyone.”
Due to the interest of the public for the performances, the theater breaks the records every year. The number of visitors is getting closer to the 30,000. This year too, two extra performances have been inserted for September.
Schools use the theater as an educational tool. The Harens Lyceum is also the case with a performance. “BridgeI had expected worse, “says a teenager afterwards who was afraid of a mandatory number. And afterwards the two new residents of Diever also understand why Shakespeare and Diever go hand in hand.