The "modern times"

from 1960 - 2000

After a short period of great succes, with as a highlight the presence of the little Bosco Circus on the exhibition "ENERGIE 55" in Rotterdam, the end of the circus came at hand. Hannes Ophof was no longer able to travel around with his little circus, the times were a changing.

Wil Spoor originally a mime player was a pioneer of theater. He was the first in the Netherlands and far around that introduced, what we would call: “Location theater” . In the ÿears '70 and '80 he would have many followers. Theatre was no longer limited to be performed inside the traditional local theatre, where the traditional plays would endlessly be repeated. The plays changed and needed more space. The traditional stage became too small and distant.

Young directors tried to bring the theatre closer to the public. To a new public, not only to the usual crowd of the establishment. They went out into the streets: “street theatre” they called it. The entertainment on the fairs was one of their examples: a stage where they could face 'the common people'. It also was kind of going 'back to the roots' of the Commedia dell'arte, which in 17th century Italy was also performed by a travelling company of artists, performing on markets and fairs.

In the beginning of the 20th century many attractions on the fair used a so called 'Parade'. On a raised platform in front of the tent the artists would stage a small show in order to seduce the people to come and buy a ticket at the box office and see it all. The Bosco Theatre was just such a structure. In 1987 a travelling festival that dedicated itself to this principle started: “De Parade”. They got many followers in Holland and abroad.

The Festival of Fools in Amsterdam, 1972 showed besides a lot of exhuberant hippie culture also the birth of new trends in theatre, such as the Amsterdam "Dog Troep". It was the first time that a 'Spiegeltent' was introduced in such context. A specimen of past glory of the Belgian fairs from the beginning of the century. Already in the sixties Wil Spoor brought the Bosco Theatre to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, featuring a group of various Dutch artists and also the London theatre legend "The people show".

After the period with Wil Spoor the Bosco Theatre was used often staging children theatre. After that, many years followed on theatre festival "De Parade", as the house of magic: with the magician Arnold Jan Scheer.