Photo: Benning & Gladkova
About Ulrike Quade
Ulrike Quade makes visual theatre and has a lively practice as an artistic researcher. In intimate lunchtime performances, interdisciplinary dance productions, large-scale operas and mixtures thereof, she broaches relevant social issues and questions what seems to be taken for granted.
Ulrike regularly collaborates with renowned and emerging artists, has won several (international) awards for her work, including the Wim Meilink prize for her oeuvre in 2022; and travels with her performances at home and abroad.
‘I see the stories I share as possible futures. Thought experiments about how we co-exist with technology and how we want to see the future before us.’ – Ulrike
Futures
The lightning-fast development of technology plays a major role in Ulrike Quade’s work. Both in subject matter and form. The Internet, AI and, increasingly, robots, are all around us and are becoming more and more intertwined with our lives. Ulrike explores how these innovations affect our society and our humanity. For although it is already far beyond our thinking, and we don’t know how it will evolve, we are still in control; and can take ownership.
In her performances and projects, Ulrike therefore stays close to reality. She works closely with universities and fields of study to pick up different perspectives: with the study of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for example, at Utrecht University, which examines the human in relation to their environment and the other; or the study of Robotics at Delft University of Technology, which studies the development of innovative technology such as robotics.
Scientific knowledge and Ulrike Quade’s own artistic research, now form the basis of performances and projects. As with Roman and ELIZA. A study and performance about the digital survival of a deceased boy with the help of a chat box. For friends, it dampens the pain of parting. For the family, it is hard to bear. It begs the question: what would you do?
Wim Meilink
Oeuvre prize 2022
Coco Chanel
Best theater performance ’17/’18
The Writer
Audience Award BITEF Festival
The Writer
The Little Prince award, International Puppet Theatre Festival
“Heart touching”
★★★★ De Volkskrant about Mahler & Kokoshka
“A beautifully imagined and staged contemporary fairy tale for adults”
Theaterkrant about Vrouw of Vos
“A magic beyond words”
★★★★ Theaterkrant about Coco Chanel
Japanese puppet theatre
Ulrike Quade began her career in 1999 as a puppeteer and performer. In 2006, she founded her own company and developed further as a director. In her first performances, she retells myths, literature and fantasy stories on topics such as identity, authenticity and loneliness. Inspired by Japanese Bunraku theatre, the actors on stage often bring (life-sized) puppets to life within a poetic scenography that visualises the layered nature of the performance. Through the use of digital technologies, the puppets become “virtual avatars.”
For Ulrike, the puppet symbolises the human, and the scenography symbolises the world around it, which is becoming increasingly complex, layered and voluminous under the influence of the internet, among other things. She brings objects and puppets to life to show multiple sides of a subject. And gives a voice to that which cannot speak or is underrepresented. The individual is merely one player of the biotope we live in.
The ancient Greeks wrote myths to explain the world. Ulrike Quade also brings stories that offer insights, though they are less moralistic. Above all, she wants to offer comfort and hope.
Photo: unknown
“In my performances, I show that nothing is what it seems, and that we can always question what we take for granted.”
– Ulrike Quade
