Theater

The Dutch are Coming

New Island Festival invades Governors Island

by Sarah Shanok   |   Aug 31, 2009

The Dutch are Coming

 

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Establishing itself as an official New York destination, Governors Island has been invaded by locals and tourists alike, and now, the Dutch are coming! This summer alone the island has already hosted the 2009 FIGMENT festival, Make Music New York’s Punk Island, the African Film Festival Children’s Day and the City of Water Festival, to name a few—not to mention regular influxes of bicyclists, bird-watchers, and curious visitors. With the debut of the New Island Festival, the Dutch are now attracting the masses to the island, bringing us a taste of European outdoor festivals, as part of NY400 Week, honoring the 400th anniversary of Englishman Henry Hudson’s historic sail down his namesake river to our shores, thanks to a Netherlands funded voyage.

Producer David Binder got to experience the rich Dutch inspiration for the New Island Festival firsthand. Five years ago, after returning somewhat disappointed from a cultural trip abroad that yielded little inspiration, a chance run-in with friend and colleague Jim McCullough of the New Theatre Workshop at the airport inspired him to return to Europe, but this time to the Netherlands Oerol festival. Binder was impressed by the caliber and diversity of the artists involved, and when he noticed he was the only American in attendance, he wondered why, and sought to change it.

In its 25th year, Oerol (meaning “everywhere”) takes over the small rural island of Terschellig for ten days in mid-June with performance art held outdoors amongst beaches, meadows, forests, barns, and abandoned warehouses. Back in civilization, De Parade, a three-month mobile summer festival that travels from one Dutch city to the next, stops in Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Den Haag, bringing with it theater, music and dancing.

Culling the best Dutch talent from both Oerol and De Parade, the New Island Festival brings over 150 artists here to present site-specific works utilizing Governors Island’s waterfront, historic homes, abandoned barracks, and green spaces as stages, alongside musicians and DJs. While many events are free, a $35 passport gives you unlimited access to $5 ticketed performances, including Toneelgroep Amsterdam presenting Ivo van Hove’s interpretation of Jean Cocteau’s monologue La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice), performed by actress Halina Reijn; and De Veenfabriek’s musical theater exploration of Greek tragedy Orfeo, featuring actor/singer Jeroen Willems and Track, served with Chef André Amaro’s Mediterranean dinner.

Free festival highlights—some performed on and around the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, a 400-foot wooden family-style table serving as a mini-stage, as well as a place to gather for Dutch food and drink—include the U.S. premiere of “Silent Disco,” where participants don wireless headphones, and dance pseudo-synchronically to music from DJ NO DJ, DJ BIG KING BING and DJ Steven Guts, seemingly in silence; Tuig’s performance piece “Salto Vitale,” featuring a man rising slowly up a 45-foot wooden structure powered by fire, air and water, until he reaches the top and has to take a leap of faith to come back down; Theo Botschuijver, the artist responsible for making Sean Connery’s James Bond walk on water in Diamonds are Forever, bringing his giant inflatable floating bubble to New York Harbor in “Waterwalk on the Hudson;” and sketch improvers Boom Chicago dissecting Dutch clichés like windmills and weed in “Holland Globetrotters.”

Binder hopes that the New Island festival will become an annual event, fortifying New Amsterdam’s connection to the Old World, but that’s up to your participation! So get onboard the free ferry for a fifteen-minute trip to the Netherlands.

Full program, artist list and more information at newislandfestival.com.