UvA buildings | The University Theater: a laboratory of experiments
UvA’s University Theater is a building with a rich history. In addition to cigar dealer Reynvaan and art dealer Muller, the painter Rembrandt van Rijn is said to have once lived there. Now it houses the UvA’s theater science laboratory. But for how long?
Jesus in a white robe ascending to heaven on a cloud held by cherubs: once Rembrandt van Rijn (1909 - 1969) lived and painted this “Ascension of Christ” for the then Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647) in the current University Theater on Nieuwe Doelenstraat.
The building is an amalgamation of two 17th-century buildings overlooking the Amstel River at the rear. At the front, it once overlooked the targets of the firing and practice range where the marksmen of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” might well have aimed their muskets. Nieuwe Doelenstraat takes its name from their headquarters, the Kloveniersdoelen.
“Rembrandt is said to have lived there between 1635 and 1638, at number 18,” says Henk Danner, professor of theater studies at the UvA and manager of the University Theater. “Evidence of this can be found in a letter to Constantijn Huygens, one of the greatest poets of the time. But some sources point to his residence at number 20, where Café de Jaren now sits.”
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The Flemish-style beamed ceiling
Upon entering the University Theater, the ceiling immediately catches the eye. The beamed ceiling is painted with Renaissance ornaments and mythological figures. Frederik de Vries, secretary of Amsterdam and administrator of the West India Company, had the building constructed in 1635 and commissioned this ceiling. Only in the entrance and the adjacent room of the current secretariat is the ceiling still clearly visible.
Under the plaster ceiling in the central hall of the University Theater, the exact same beamed ceiling should be visible, but the UvA added drywall and ventilation shafts when it purchased the building in 1961 to make it fireproof. “At one time there was a plan to restore the ceiling to its former glory by students in the Conservation and Restoration program, as a study project. Unfortunately, this request was turned down by UvA Housing because of the cost as well as doubts about the theater’s zoning plan,” Danner says.
The Vesseur Theater
After the departure of tobacco merchant Reynvaan (1863) and the subsequent art dealership Frederik Muller & Co (1904), the building needed considerable renovation after being purchased by UvA in the 1960s. Indeed, both “economic” and “dramatic” studies, as they were then called, were to take up residence. Lecture rooms, and eventually a theater, were planned.
The art gallery also included an auction room by the Art Gallery at the rear of the building, designed by stage designer Wim Vesseur (1919-1977). “The interesting thing about his design is that the theater could easily be converted to different theatrical forms, similar to Greek and Roman theater styles, as seen at Epidauros in Greece. He was also able to ingeniously incorporate the famous Shakespearean theater style and even the popular round play style (la ronde) of the 1960s into this space. Vesseur succeeded very well in integrating these different theater forms here in miniature,” Danner said.
A laboratory for theater studies
The professor of theater studies at the time, Benjamin Hunningher (1903-1991), insisted that the theater be designed to be as modular as possible for students to create theater. “In this way he wanted the students to experience what the whole process from idea to text to performance entails, and from that starting point have them study the different theater forms. It was supposed to be ‘the laboratory for theater studies,’” Danner says.
Practical units are currently being taught for theater studies. “For example, the first-year students just completed their first unit. They had to reduce a play to 10 minutes. And amazingly, many students year in, year out choose Sartre’s Huis Clos, which is about three characters who are locked in a room asking themselves ‘Who was I, who am I, and how should we move forward together.’ In itself I can understand that, as the play fits well with a phase many students go through,” Danner said.
Moving?
The University Theatre is a large building with a lot of empty space, as many rooms are not being used. That’s why the UvA is hesitant to keep it. “We’re on very expensive land here, and it costs quite a bit to maintain this kind of property,” Danner says. “With the sale, the UvA could invest in something else. But that would mean we would have to move.”
There was once a plan to do just that and a beautiful new theater design for it in the Oudemanhuispoort. But because of escalating costs and certain requirements from the municipality, it is not going ahead for the time being. “People have also asked whether we could collaborate with De Kleine Komedie or Frascati and use their theaters. But that would mean losing the function of our own hall as it is now, as a laboratory for students. And as a university faculty, we obviously don’t want that.”
