Career
Born in the in 1981, Van Der Sluijs read Drama at the University of Amsterdam before studying directing at London"s Rose Bruford College. Van der Sluijs has directed work by Boris Vian at the Pleasance Theatre, by Robert Holman at Battersea Arts Centre, and by Howard Barker. He made his debut in 2008 with Yasser by Abdelkader Benali, a production which transferred from Assembly Rooms Edinburgh to Chopin Theatre, Chicago and Arcola Theatre, London.
The production was selected as Critic"s Choice in both The Sunday Times ("Pick of the Fringe" ) and the Chicago Tribune, despite meeting with a varying critical response.
Since 2009, Van Der Sluijs has directed theatre productions at the Royal Theatre in The Hague, the home of the national theatre of the, and the Rozentheater, Amsterdam"s primary theatre for contemporary playwriting. Productions include the Dutch premiere of Motortown by Simon Stephens and HATE. In a 2012 interview with Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool, Van Der Sluijs characterized the difference between the theatre cultures of The and the United Kingdom as "In the, the director is primary.
In England, it"s the playtext, followed by the actors."
Prior to working as a theatre director, Van Der Sluijs appeared as an actor in the country"s longest-running and highest-rating soap opera Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden in 2004. In May 2010, while in New York to direct Omar El-Khairy"s play Longitude at the Public Theater, Van Der Sluijs witnessed the failed terrorist attack on Times Square when on his way to a theatre performance on Broadway.
His story subsequently appeared on British Broadcasting Corporation and in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
