As part of his graduation performance for the Maastricht Theatre Academy, Kai Slaghek, ICAF NWE MRK 2025/2026 is searching for the feeling of ‘home’.
In his own experience, Kai believes he arrives at this feeling of ‘home’ faster than most people – making it difficult to leave the apartment whilst he is on vacation, becoming emotional when he had to leave his student room behind, and remove his belongings from the classroom at the end of the school year.
But now he questions: is that strange? Is that weird? Especially since he has met and worked with students who weren’t in the Netherlands by choice, but because they, themselves, no longer had a home. Children from Syria, from Ukraine, who seemed quite happy here, glad to be here, but when they talked of home, it wasn’t about here. It was something or somewhere that might no longer exist and may never return.
For his new maker trajectory, Kai therefore wants to explore the question: “Do you feel at home here?” And ask: What does feeling at home really mean? Is that feeling constant, or do certain conditions influence it? Do others still detract from it? What if you go somewhere else? Will that be your new home? Will it replace the old one? Can multiple homes coexist? Do you feel completely at home here or there? Anywhere?
Together with participants and audiences, he hopes to find that feeling of home and perhaps even recreate it through performance, and discover what happens when it suddenly disappears…
A huge welcome to Kai from ICAF and the Rotterdams Wijktheater!