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Dutch press photo by Stalles Theaterprodukties, Amsterdam. photo: Pief Weyman. Helmert Woudenberg in the stage play 'Een avondje thuis' (An Evening at Home).
On 23 November 2023, Dutch stage and film actor and stage director Helmert Woudenberg (1945) died of a heart attack at the age of 78. He worked for Het Werkteater, a collective of actors who made history in the 1970s with social theatre, playing everywhere from prisons to hospitals, and also for Toneelgroep Centrum and Toneelgroep Theater. His theatre work counts 214 productions and he alternated solo performances with playing in ensembles. Several plays by Het Werkteater with leading roles for Woudenberg were also filmed, such as the award winning Opname/In for Treatment (Marja Kok and Erik van Zuylen, 1980) with Frank Groothof and Een zwoele zomeravond (Frans Weisz, 1982).
Helmert Woudenberg was born in 1945. His childhood was problematic. Woudenberg's father voluntarily joined the Dutch section of the Waffen-SS, his grandfather was a member of the NSB and editor of the NSB newspaper Volk en Vaderland. Just before Woudenberg was born, his father died. His mother died soon after. Woudenberg grew up with his grandparents and in a foster family, with a foster mother who hid a picture of Hitler in the linen closet. Woudenberg studied at the Amsterdam School of Drama. After his graduation in 1968, Woudenberg and eleven others, including Olga Zuiderhoek, Frans Weisz, Shireen Strooker and Peter Faber, stood at the cradle of the Werkteater, which presented performances not only within the theatre walls but also on location. Experimentation and confrontation were not shunned: current affairs had to be experienced, even if they were often socially critical, and thus the Werkteater made room to discuss what people preferred not to talk about. In places that were not always obvious, such as prisons and care homes. At Het Werkteater, Woudenberg met actress Marja Kok whom he married. Together they had two children. In another relationship, he also had a daughter. With Het Werktheater, he made several films such as Toestanden (Thijs Chanowski, 1976) which started as an improvisation-based performance. Toestanden was inspired by psychiatrists such as RD Laing (Family and Madness) and J. Foudraine (Who is of wood). The Werkteater played this performance 'in the den of the lion': in psychiatric institutions for patients and carers. Other Werktheater films were the comedy Camping (Thijs Chanowski, 1978) and the gripping and intensely moving Opname/In for Treatment (Marja Kok, Erik van Zuylen, 1979) about the taboo of cancer. About the craft of theatre-making and the art of improvisation in theatre, he wrote the book 'Vuur, water, lucht en aarde' (Fire, Water, Air & Earth).
Helmert Woudenberg's first major feature film role was Blue Movie (Wim Verstappen, 1971). This was followed by a role in Paul Verhoeven's debut film, Wat zien ik!?/Business Is Business (1971). Both films were box office hits. Many other films followed, which, like his theatre credits, show how versatile he was. He appeared in The historical drama Max Havelaar (Fons Rademakers, 1976), the Horror thriller Amsterdamned (Dick Maas, 1988), Polleke (Ineke Houtman, 2003), Van God Los (Pieter Kuijpers, 2003), Matterhorn (Diederik Ebbinge, 2013) and Oorlogsgeheimen (Dennis Bots), 2014. In 2018, he starred, together with his Werkteater's colleague of the first hour, Olga Zuiderhoek, in the graduation film Dante vs Mohammed Ali (Marc Wagenaar, 2018). The general public also knew him from popular TV series such as Flikken Maastricht. In 2021, Helmert Woudenberg was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau. Woudenberg transmitted his views on the art of acting to amateurs and budding professional actors within the framework of the theatre school Studio5 founded by him and his permanent directing assistant Vera Boots. In this context, in addition to acting courses in which he taught his elements method, he has shaped numerous amateur productions over the past decades, of which he took charge of both direction and script. Woudenberg was still in the middle of his working life. Earlier this year, he performed his sixteenth solo, 'Louis Bouwmeester'. Hein Janssen in De Volkskrant: "He was a soloist on stage and at home. A somewhat solitary man, but also an actor around whom no one could ignore. In theatre about the here and now, for a wide audience, he felt most at home." Helmert Woudenberg was 78 years old.
Sources: Nederlands Film Festival (Dutch), Hein Janssen (De Volkskrant -Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.
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