A bio (I wrote it myself)
Most people write their own bio and then… stick it in third person as if someone else had written it for them. This implies a kind of embarrassment around owning up to one’s choices and achievements. I want you to know why I chose to do what I do. I wrote this bio myself.
When I was a kid I recall spending most of my time experiencing the world around me (we lived in a forested part of America) as beautiful. What I wanted was to take this feeling and turn it into something. Nobody had ever taught me a thing about art. Nevertheless, I made sculptures, ran around with a camera, drew pictures, wrote in my diary, dug time capsules into the soil and - above all - stood in front of imaginary audiences pretending to be whomever I wanted to be (including, simply, 10 year old me.)
It was not about the end product.
It was not about getting it perfect.
It was not about receiving feedback.
It was not about finishing something.
It was not about them.
By my early 30’s things had changed quite drastically. I had graduated as a ‘Master of Theatre’ and was determined to ‘make it’ in ‘the scene.’ If all those years of training had taught me one thing it was that it’s important to develop a signature style and then get famous for it.
So I made a whole bunch of work and had a secret agenda of having it meet the expectations of what was ‘en vogue’ at the time. Surprise, surprise: My work didn’t speak to anyone because my work didn’t speak to me.
But what was much worse still: I lost my creative drive. My real career started the day I stopped trying to make it fit in.
I remember that day. I was sitting on a bus in Nicaragua during the year I took off from my career. I decided to start playing again instead of producing. Since then I have a rule. I only make what I FEEL like making, because I simply don’t care about anything else. And the beauty is that when I really feel something, you do too.
As a coach, it is nothing less than thrilling to see my clients do the same. To get out of their ideas of what they think should be said, and into what they feel needs to be said. I used to think I had to make something nobody else had made. Now I want make what feels right, and I want to help you do the same. Whether it’s the content you’re writing, the way you’re standing, or the voice you’re using to be heard – as you.
A short CV in case you need some references…
STUDIES
BA Performing Arts - Middlesex University London
BA Performance Studies - University of Amsterdam
MA Theatre - DAS Amsterdam
TRAINED WITH
Boom Chicago, The Annoyance, Writer’s Collective, Commedia del’Arte,
Art of Meditation, Gestalt Therapeutic Coaching, Saphire Imagery,
Marya Lowry Voice.
ASSOCIATE COACH WITH
The Core Story, van Ede & Co, Amsterdam Refugee Academy,
Interacting for Autism, Delite Academy for Newcomers, Avalanche.
WHERE I RECEIVE PRIVATE CLIENTS
EQUALS, KOCH, online.
THEATRE WORKS
Third Culture Kid, Improvised Feminism, Me & the Beguines, ANDY, Translating Lola, WINDOW, Subculture Cabaret.
CURRENT SHOWS
Amsterdam Burlesque Revue, Burlesque Freakout,
Lady Marmalade & Friends.