Youth theater school Loods13 has decided to stop. Director Eva Wortmann said this in a letter to cultural parties in Emmen. The upcoming season is still being completed, after which the plug will be permanently disconnected on August 1.
The theater school, located in the former Asia House in Rensenpark, ran into problems last year. The cause was the loss of an extensive subsidy of more than half a million from the Fund for Cultural Participation. The money in this fund turned out to have run out.
Loods13 then decided to contact the municipality of Emmen for an increase in their subsidy to €200,000. The school would also look to other sources.
The municipality responded at the time with the message that it wanted to allocate an average of 134,000 euros per year until 2028. Together with the province, additional funds would be sought. Cultural councilor Dewy Keen indicated that she would like to see the youth theater school continue to exist. But she also reported that the financial basis of the current organization is not yet solid enough.
Eva Wortmann has announced that she will move to a location outside the municipality of Emmen. “But we will no longer continue as a theater school.” In that case, Loods13 will continue as a production house. “Starting a theater school took me 13 years and I am not going to do that again. Unfortunately, it is all coming to an end. But I really hope that another party will take its place.
According to Wortmann, the school and the municipality have regularly discussed financing the school over the past 2.5 years. “I compare it to making a Tesla. That car costs, for example, 80,000 euros. But the municipality only wants to pay 10,000 euros. So just take things out of it. But then you get a car that drives poorly or often breaks down. And I don’t deliver that.” She asks herself out loud which party can do that.
Wortmann also does not expect the government to fill the gap created by the loss of the contribution from the Fund for Cultural Participation. But what struck Wortmann is the alderman’s statement that Loods13 is an unstable organization.
Wortmann: “If they say something like that, then it’s time for me to go. That doesn’t provide confidence.” She also doesn’t understand what that statement means. “We end up with a plus on our annual accounts, so what is it? Am I angry? No, I am frustrated. I think this is a real shame.”
At the end of last year, Keen announced that he would at least have the wallet for the next six months so that the lessons can continue. In the meantime, the municipality is conducting a kind of cost and benefit study. The outcome should provide the municipality with clarity about what is appropriate with regard to the future financing and organization of a theater school in Emmen.
The municipality does not yet want to respond substantively to Loods13’s decision. “We still have to consider the state of affairs and what consequences this has for the planned investigation,” says Alderman Keen’s spokesperson. The aim remains to ensure the continued existence of a theater school in the municipality of Emmen.