About us
The AATG is an English-language amateur theatre group based in The Hague. Membership is open to all nationalities, adults and children alike, with or without theatre skills or experience - as long as you share our enthusiasm for anything theatre! Whether you're excited for acting, singing, dancing, choreography, set design, painting, backstage crew, lights, sound, costume, make-up - there is always a spot for you within the AATG.
If you have enjoyed our plays and pantomimes in the past, and want to see them continue in the future, then please do support the AATG. The best way to support us to to become a member and join in with one of our productions or social events!
We are constantly looking for ways to bring entertainment and theatre to you, and this will help us do it.
What we do?
Our biggest yearly project is our hugely popular British pantomime, generally involving about 100 people on stage or backstage in one way or another. This fun show for all the family, usually based loosely on a traditional fairy tale, is seen by nearly 2,000 people each year at four or five performances in a major theatre in The Hague. The principal actors are selected by audition at the start of the summer, while the adults and children who sign up for the singing and dancing chorus have their first rehearsal straight after the summer holidays. Principals and chorus then attend scheduled rehearsals leading up to the live performances in December. And, of course, a whole army of backstage helpers has to be recruited as well!
From the new year to the summer, our efforts are mainly focused on our spring production, which may be a full-length play or a number of one-act plays or musical sketches. Here too, the cast is selected by audition, but the backstage volunteers are equally indispensable! Our spring productions are staged in smaller theatres such as the Warenar theatre in Wassenaar, and often include our subsequent FEATS entries.
Throughout the year we also hold several social events and other learning opportunities in which anyone can take part. And in recent years we have organised a very successful Murder Mystery Dinner each March, which gives AATG members a great opportunity to dress up and improvise the scripted characters – murderer, victim or innocent bystander – so that the diners can try to pinpoint the guilty party. The net proceeds are donated to a nominated charity.
The AATG is governed by an annually elected committee which takes care of day-to-day business and manages the finances in accordance with Dutch law, and selects proposed plays. Our current committee members are shown below.
Henri Colens
Chairman
Michael Connelly
Media manager
Stephanie Hazejager
Production Coordinator
Kyle Buijs
Vice-chair and
website
Chris Buck
Membership
Peter Comely
Treasurer
Rob Grant
Publicity
Megan Walch
Secretary
Emma de Moel
Newsletter
Member of the month
Helen Short
With her bubbly spirit and infectious grin, it’s difficult to not be in a good mood around Helen Short. The AATG choreographer has been lighting up our group with her smile for over 10 years, but has been teaching dancers and non-dancers how to move their bodies since her university days. Dancing from a young age, Helen’s interest in dance and movement bloomed at university where she completed a dance module in movement studies as she trained to be a teacher. It was at university that she began formally choreographing routines.
After university, she began teaching younger children, where she put on dance shows for the schools and incorporated dance and movement into her teaching. She also founded dance clubs at the schools she taught at as a way to inspire children who shared her love of movement. Her husband Alex was the first in her family to join the AATG. As a band member, he mentioned Helen’s choreography background prior to AATG’s 2012 production of Cinderella, and Helen has been an irreplaceable member since.
Intense research goes into each dance routine. First, Helen meets with directors and gets an idea of their vision. Then she begins reviewing elements of dance routines, making sure to provide balance and variation in movement. She also must consider the varying abilities of the cast members (who range from professional dancers to those who have never danced,) the positioning of where people will be, the varying dynamics of the group, and what will keep the interest of the audience.
Once a routine begins to emerge, she runs it through a trial to see if it will work, making sure to stay both literally and figuratively flexible when something needs changing. She is thankful to have the support of her husband to help her with the musical arrangement of the song and the two often collaborate to adjust the music to better fit with her creative ideas and vision. Creating the initial routine is the most difficult part of the choreography for Helen, as she finds the greatest joy in being able to teach the dance and watch it come alive onstage.
Although she has always been a professional teacher for children, Helen loves working with the adult cast of the AATG because of their enthusiasm and excitement. The instant feedback their smiles provide is motivating and uplifting. And while she is much more confident in her role behind the scenes, she hasn’t completely put-off the idea of performing onstage herself at some point. When she’s not teaching dance, she can also be caught on the dance floor performing various dances, from Latin American to Lindy Hop. Most of all, Helen is grateful that dance, her greatest passion, is something she still gets to spend her free time doing.
Our history
It all began in November 1951 here with a production of French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan. The proceeds were donated to the building fund of the Anglican and American Episcopal Church in The Hague, which had been destroyed by the bombings of 1945. The group’s original name was ‘Diplomaten Toneelspelers’. In March 1964, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands gave her Royal Assent and the group was registered at the Chamber of Commerce as the Anglo-American Theatre Group of The Hague.
In May 1976, the AATG co-founded and hosted the first Festival of European Anglophone Theatre Societies (FEATS) in Rotterdam, staging The Collection by Harold Pinter as a competing entry. Since then, the AATG has played a very active part in FEATS (held in a different European city each spring) by competing on a regular basis and hosting the Festival in The Hague every five or six years. The first FEATS Fringe – a non-competitive afternoon programme of short plays and workshops that is now an integral part of the Festival – was held in The Hague in 1990. FEATS will be hosted by the AATG in The Hague again in 2026.