ABOVE ALL, DO WHAT
YOU ENJOY!
Before a performance I stand in the wings and my stomach churns as if I'm going to be sick. I've made it a rule to play every show as if it were my last, so that I give everything, every time. But as soon as the curtain opens, I walk onto the stage and I'm completely in my element. When I was little, I often sat drawing, I already needed to express myself back then. Around the age of 18 I started writing down what I saw; situations and characters, the way people talk and what their body language said. That was the start of my journey towards the theatre stage. I did the Pop Academy and art courses, and produced music for other artists. Until I discovered that theatre is really my thing.
I have a good feel for my audience, and I call my style guerrilla art. Paul de Leeuw is a big role model for me, because he could get away with anything. That's what I want to achieve too. All those Moluccan characters I play are a way of respectfully holding up a mirror to my people. My audience loves it.
Grandpa and grandma always said: ‘Live, study and do your thing.’
I never experienced their pain, but I did learn to discover their traumas.’’
Joshua Timisela is third generation, grandson of Private Second Class Ledrik Timisela and grandmother Yaya Timisela-Leatemia. Village of origin is Wassu on the island of Haruku.
The Timisela grandparents came to the Netherlands together with their 2 sons on the ship the Fairsea.
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Person portrayed
Joshua Timisela
(1984, Tiel)
Theatre maker and owner
of TBT Works
Lives in Rotterdam - Photographer Ed Leatemia
