The former Asiëhuis in the Rensenpark remains a place for youth theater. The municipality of Emmen has asked Garage TDI Jeugdtheater Drenthe to take over from Loods13. The theater group from Assen will start working in the building from this fall.
“We felt honored that we were being asked by the municipality of Emmen,” says director Remco van Zandvoort. “We were quickly at the table. The Rensenpark is a beautiful area for us to gain new inspiration.”
Garage TDI started twenty years ago as an initiative with a group of young people and grew into a professional workshop for youth and family performances throughout the country. The organization has been subsidized by the government for a long time, has nine permanent employees and has branches in Assen, Beilen, Borger, Coevorden, Hoogeveen and Meppel.
In Emmen the focus is again on young people. Van Zandvoort: “The basis here will be a youth theater school. But we also focus on social projects, education and cultural collaborations.”
The first activities of Garage TDI will be presented during the Uit Festival in Emmen on September 13. The theater lessons start shortly thereafter, after the autumn holidays. How large the location in Emmen will be is to scan. “That depends on the interest. Maybe we will start with three days a week, maybe more. We will see what is needed,” says Van Zandvoort.
According to Alderman Dewy Keen (Wakker Emmen) it was essential to switch quickly. “The importance of Jeugdtheater is great, so we quickly went looking for a suitable successor for Loods13. It was important that there were already relationships in the province of Drenthe. We quickly arrived at Garage TDI.”
According to Keen, the continuity is also guaranteed: “There is no gap between the departure of Loods13 and the start of garage TDI. Children and young people can continue with theater.”
The news also means the final farewell to Loods13, which the Asia house filled for thirteen years with youth theater and talent development. The organization will stop this summer, after a difficult financial support process.
“It’s with pain in the heart,” said director Eva Wortmann earlier. “We could no longer build on a structural basis. I compare it to making a Tesla. For example, that car costs 80,000 euros. But the municipality only wants to pay 10,000 euros. So get things out. But then you get a car that drives badly or often breaks. And I don’t deliver that.”
Yet there is also a new future for Loods13. As of July 1, the organization will move to the former ammunition complex in Donderen, where it continues as a production house. Wortmann: “A beautiful place. A sanctuary with boundless imagination.”