I auditioned on a whim. Got cast in LIES: twelve actors, seventy audience members, ten tables of seven an a real conversation. Several performances where I was one of the actors before the general producer asked if I wanted to work on the production side as well.

I said yes. That conversation started a friendship I'm still grateful for.

The local production company secured rights to two Ontroerend Goed shows: LIES and Fight Night. Belgian company, plays Edinburgh, the Almeida, major festivals. The general producer initiated the collaboration. I handled everything on the ground.

We worked with Moscow, Hong Kong, Shanghai – other companies producing the same shows. Impressario Theater in Moscow sent actors when we needed them and we did the same for them. That was a fun trips – exploring Moscow as actors was quite fun, got to see some unexpected places and people.

Local theatre here: audience, stage, play. Classical, some independent work, but conventional in form.

LIES is twelve actors engaging seventy people across tables.
Fight Night looks traditional until the audience realizes their votes eliminate performers in real time.

These forms didn't exist here before.

I remember hours before Fight Night opened, the voting display failed.

Hardware worked. Software worked in theory. Connectivity had issues, but minor. The problem was displaying live results during the show – every test failed.

Solution was simple, but elegant: two PowerPoints running simultaneously: one captured votes, the other stayed live on displays while I edited it in real time during the performance.

Improvised. Slightly hacky. Clean enough.

After both shows, people would fine me. They talked about reconsidering their own choices, how fragile money feels, how differently they saw agency after watching performers get voted off.

One person said LIES stayed with them for days.

I wouldn't have moved from stage to production without this project. That shift shaped how I think about this work.