Brochure 2023 - 2024 see below

Wiersma & Smeets and the Art for Little People

For almost 20 years Moniek Smeets and Bram Wiersma have developed great and small installations and performances with their knick-knack art. For expositions, festivals, theatres, etc. And for art-, theatre- and festival audiences as well as children.

In many cases the installations and performances not specifically intended for children nevertheless made a special impression on these little people. The free and unconventional style that Wiersma & Smeets use stimulated their fantasy, most likely because it is very similar to the way children shape their fantasy world in play.
Both Wiersma & Smeets and many programmers and cultural managers consider this style of making art as a building block of their creative development, which implicitly prepares them for the love of watching and creating theatre. Apparently children create their own stories based on what they see and hear in their environment. And isn't that what theatre really is, the telling of stories, both real and abstract?

Throughout the years especially The Film Jukebox, The Prulka (Knick-Knack Train), The Dreamtrain and Little Light turned out to be regular hits. They were often performed as a side show at children- and puppet show festivals.

By now it is time for a project in which similar installations and performances are combined with theatrical elements in total theatre. This is about to happen now with the financial support of 'Fonds Podiumkunsten' and 'VSB-Fonds'. It is called The Media Playground and dancer/theatrical animal Ulrike Doszmann and director Joris van Midde participated artistically.

In the next few years this project will come about which each year one of the three episodes starting medio 2015. Every episode has a similar format but steps up one school level each year. The episodes remain available simultaneously.
The Film Jukebox, The Prulka (Knick-Knack Train), The Dreamtrain and Little Light also continue to be separate parts on the repertoire.