HENRIËTTE RIETVELD
About
Henriëtte Rietveld (pronounced in English as Harriet Reetveld) is a theatermaker and scholar based between the US, the UK, and The Netherlands. She is currently a visiting scholar and lecturer in the Dutch Department at the University of Amsterdam; and she is a DFA Candidate at the Yale School of Drama, where she received her MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism as a Fulbright Fellow in 2022. Before coming to Yale, she worked as a director, dramaturg, and creative producer in London.
Henriëtte also translates new plays by/with Dutch playwrights.
Creatively, she is excited about exploring models of deep collaboration; environmental and site-specific work that engages with change-making; and the use of technology in performance. Academically, she is developing two lines of interest: connecting ecology, place, and contemporary performance; and the politics of cultural transfer and mobility in relation to representations and manifestations of imperialism in early modern performance.
Henriëtte currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut, a guest on the stolen lands of the Wappinger, Paugussett, and Quinnipiac peoples. She thanks them for their continued stewardship of this land, and recognizes that this acknowledgement is only one step towards decolonization.
Theatermaker
Henriëtte believes in the transformational power of storytelling, theatre, and performance—for artists and for audiences. She likes switching between roles, working as director, dramaturg, or whatever is needed and wherever she can be helpful. Across all of her work, Henriëtte sees herself as a facilitator of creative processes and conversations, valuing collaboration and care. Anti-racist and people-centered approaches are central to her work. Henriëtte is especially interested in projects that tend to the climate crisis and environmental justice. As a cis white Dutch woman, Henriëtte recognizes she grew up within and is part of the systems she aims to transform, that she stumbles doing so, and she is committed to deep and continuous learning and reflection.
Selected Production Work
Scholar
Henriëtte's DFA dissertation examines four theatrical texts that transferred from across Western Europe to mid-17th century Amsterdam to consider how empire was iterated, manifested, and transformed on the stage. She explores how imperial narratives were acting and enacted on stage transnationally, and how they were at the same time locally inflected. Understanding Dutch imperialism as capitalist, maritime, and built on a sense of supremacy, Henriëtte applies eco-critical, oceanic, and early modern race studies together with theatre and performance studies as theoretical lenses to analyze the texts and their productions.
Education
D.F.A. Candidate, Yale School of Drama (New Haven, US).
M.F.A.: Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism (2022), Yale School of Drama (New Haven, US).
Certificate: Cultural Heritage: Challenges and Opportunities (2011), Asia-Europe Foundation University 17. Hosted at University Sains Malaysia (Penang, Malaysia).
M.A.: Theatre Directing: Text and Production (2011), University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK).
B.A. (Hons): Liberal Arts & Sciences (2009), double major in Social Science and Humanities, University College Roosevelt (Middelburg, Netherlands).
Semester abroad as part of B.A. at University of California, San Diego, Major in Theatre.
Positions
Visiting Scholar and Lecturer in Dutch Historical Literature, University of Amsterdam (2024–25)
Part-time Acting Instructor, Relating Bodies: Performing Sites and Ecologies, Yale University (Spring 24).
Research Assistant to Prof. Ayesha Ramachandran (2022–present).
Co-convener with Shawn Boyle of Projection Production Process - Site Specific Theater (& Beyond) Edition, Yale School of Drama (Spring 22).
Teaching Associate for Survey of Theater and Drama at the Yale School of Drama (2021-22 | 2022-23 | Fall 23).
Research Assistant to curator Dr. Melissa Barton at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library for exhibition Brava! Women Make American Theatre (Summer 2021).
Managing Editor of Theater (2019-20).
Publications
“Blackface in the Zeventiende Eeuw: De Zaak Aran en Titus.” Theaterkrant Theaterjaarboek 2022/2023 (2023) [Full text]
“Colonialism Rescaled,” Theater 50:3 (2020). [Full text]
Papers, workshops, and conferences
“All the World’s On Stage: A First Look at Colonial and Material Entanglements on Amsterdam’s Stage.” The Early Modern Stage between Baroque and Enlightenment: Vondel’s Century. University of York. 20 September 2024.
“Pickelhering’s Painted Face.” Visual Dramaturgies (1500–1800) Scenography, Costumes and Movement on Early Modern Stages. Centre de musique baroque de Versailles & Sorbonne Université. Versailles and Paris. 3 July 2024.
“The Pan-European Cid: A Castilian knight turned protector of white Christian Europe .” Theatre Without Borders. Amsterdam. 25-28 June 2024.
“Les jeux de Chimène: Le Cid’s feisty female character on tour.” SAA Conference. Portland, OR. 12 April 2024.
“From Aaron to Aran: shifting notions of race in Jan Vos’s Aran en Titus.” RSA Conference. Chicago. 21 March 2024.
“Le Cid: or how a Spanish knight became a symbol of white Christian Europe.” DFA Chapter Conference. David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. New Haven. 12 December 2023.
“The sun never shines brighter than in the embrace of clouds: the use of baroque contrast to bolster whiteness in Jan Vos’s Aran en Titus.” DFA Chapter Conference. David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. New Haven. 12 May 2023.
“[Bodies] in Place and Time: Embodied, site-specific, and ecological temporalities in the works of Eiko Otake and Sarah Cameron Sunde.” Ecology & Performance Working Group at ASTR 2021. San Diego. 29 October 2021.
“Into the woods, into the sea—negotiations with the landscape.” Translation, Adaptation, and Dramaturgy working group at IFTR 2021. Galway (online). 15 July 2021.
“Miranda: Negotiating Histories through Cross-Cultural Theatre.” Asylum and Displacement Conference, Royal Holloway, Egham. 21 April 2012.
Invited Lectures
“Manifesting Empire on Seventeenth Century European Stages” for Survey of Theater and Drama. Fall 2023, Yale School of Drama.
“Relating Bodies: Performing Sites and Ecologies” for Survey of Theater and Drama. Spring 2023, Yale School of Drama.
“The Imperial Baroque” for Theatre from 1642. Spring 2023, Brooklyn College.
“Imperialism and the European Baroque” for Survey of Theater and Drama. Fall 2022, Yale School of Drama.
“Bodies in Places: Site-Specific and Eco Performance” for Theatre from 1642. Spring 2022, Brooklyn College.
“Bodies in Places: Site-Specific and Eco Performance” for Survey of Theater and Drama. Spring 2022, Yale School of Drama.
“Imperialism and the European Baroque” for Survey of Theater and Drama. Fall 2021, Yale School of Drama.
“Adapting the canon from a woman's perspective,” as part of Theatrical Encounters: Experiments in Performance. Vasanta College for Women. 7 June 2021.
Scholarships, Fellowships, and Awards
European Studies Council Grant for Language Study 2024
Yale MacMillan Center International Dissertation Research Fellowship 2023–24
Yale RITM Research and Conference Travel Award 2023
MacMillan Center Summer Fellowships for Language Study 2023
Folger Institute Early Modern Dissertation Seminar 2022–23
G. Charles Niemeyer Scholarship 2022–23
Beinecke Research Fellowship summer 2022
IFTR Bursary 2021
Mark Bailey Scholarship 2020–22
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Scholarship thanks to Egbert van Paridon Fonds 2020–21
Stanley Kauffmann Scholarship 2019–20
NAF-Fulbright Fellow 2018–19 | Fulbright fellow 2018–21
Robert Brustein Scholarship 2018–19
Translator
A translator of plays from Dutch to English, Henriëtte is excited about creatively transposing an author's voice into another language. She prioritizes rhythm and sound as much as she focuses on meaning. After having lived in the UK and the US for years, Henriëtte's English drifts between those idioms, and it is framed by her identity as a white Dutch migrant woman. To expand that frame, Henriëtte believes in deep collaboration with native speakers, as well as working closely with playwrights to create work that most reflect their words. Like any script, Henriëtte perceives her translations to be drafts for production, to be finalized in the rehearsal room.
For Boom! Creative Encounter: works in progress by Maaike Bergstra, Enver Husicic, and Gable Roelofsen (2020-2022)
Take the A Train by Enver Husicic (2021)
True Colors by Maaike Bergstra (2020)
Shared Rooms by Gable Roelofsen (2018)