Flashback: 'She set a kind of fire in me'
Actress and screenwriter Ilse Warringa (43) plays Miss Ank in De Luizenicide. She also co-writes on this television series: the second season is in the making. Teacher Annette de Boer directed Warringa more than 25 years ago in her first major role.
Picture: Fred van Diem
“I always knew I wanted to be an actress or a cabaret artist and luckily I was in a secondary school that did a lot of art and culture. I was 15 or 16 years old, then students and teachers The King and Queen of Naples would step up. And there was Annette. She conducted the auditions and directed the play - which incidentally had far-reaching romantic consequences.
Annette completely restored confidence. She set a kind of fire in me.
But first about that play: She hired me and I got the big part of the maid. That was a victory, because a few years earlier I had auditioned for a role in an intersolar musical in Zwolle, where I was only chosen for the choir. I did not let the rejection put me off my plans for the future, but of course fun is different, especially at that age. Annette completely restored confidence. She set a kind of fire in me. Sounds great, doesn't it? But it did feel that way. It was a confirmation of: I have to do this, here I have to be. That was because of two things.
First of all, Annette was a nice person with a great sense of humor and self-mockery. Very contemplative, very cabaret-like. She flawlessly managed to register the irony of situations. In a few words she could describe people in a very witty way. Without pissing them off. The ridicule arose precisely from love for people and not from disdain. I admired that immensely.
In daily life I could be shy, but on stage I dared everything.
Secondly, it clicked between us professionally. As young as I was, she could direct me very well. During rehearsals I felt exactly what she wanted and she knew how to get me there. That must have been the mix of her attitude that we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously, and the notion that our game should be solid at the same time. I felt like a fish in water. In daily life I could be shy, but on stage I dared everything.
After the premiere of the play, in October 1991, schoolmate Martijn Krabbé gave me a red rose in the wings and said meaningfully that I had 'played very well'. I should perhaps clarify that: it was not Martijn Krabbé. But he looked awful like it. From a distance, in the schoolyard, I had always assumed it was him. Fortunately that truth has been revealed, because he is now my husband. I wonder whether Annette actually knows that the play also helped me find a man. ”
Annette deBoer (58):
I didn't know that Ilse owes her husband to our school play. So you hear something again. I felt Ilse's embarrassment, she had to cross a barrier to give herself in her role, but she was determined. I am very proud of her that she has managed to fulfill her passion for drama.
