Bio in English

Gijsje Kooter is a Dutch playwright who studied Writing for Performance at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (Utrecht Academy of the Arts) in the Netherlands and Creative Writing, Film & Theater at the University of North Caroline at Greensboro in America. She graduated (Cum Laude) in 1996.

The Royal Court Theatre in London invited her in 2000 for the International Residency for Emerging Playwrights, where she worked with Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Mark Ravenhill and Martin Crimp. Her play Casanova is moe (Casanova is Tired) had a rehearsed reading at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

In her plays, man fuels his imagination by speaking, and his thoughts start to run amok while he’s saying them out loud. He is touched by what he hears himself saying.  His life, be it fictional or not, is something that befalls him.

She has written plays like Fantoomlief (1997, Phantom Love), Bikker, Bikkes en Bikje (1999), Na achten geen oorlog (1998, No War After Eight), Edward Edward (2007), Veulen Ongelikt (2007, Foal Unlicked),  Achteruitkijkend vooruitlopen (2004, Looking Backward Walking Forward), De wereld is ondertiteld (2011, The World Is Subtitled), and De klimaatopera (2019, The Climate Opera) performed by The Residence Orchestra.

In 2009 she won the Kaas & Kappes German-Dutch Playwriting Award for PARTS.

The jury said about PARTS:

‘PARTS gives us a razor-sharp analysis of a time that can only be defined as ‘today’. The writer does this by placing recent current events next to fictional situations, always recognisable, as she plays with language and form. Exceptionally honest , exceptionally consistent. Daily reality in a wonderfully tangible, yet almost surreal world.’ 

PARTS also ended as a finalist in the Arad Goch's Scriptwriting Competition. The play had a rehearsed reading at the Opening Doors Festival in Aberystwyth, Wales' International Festival of Theatre for Young Audiences from the 16th till the 20th of March 2010. In the summer of 2012 PARTS will be presented at the Women Playwrights International Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 2019 she wrote the libretto for a climate opera. The world premiere was at the Zuiderstrandtheater in Scheveningen. The music was performed by the Residentie Orkest.

Here you find an excerpt of her play PARTS.