Nina van Tongeren

Nina van Tongeren (1999) is a Dutch playwright and dramaturg. Since 2022, she has been the resident dramaturg at De Toneelmakerij, where she also writes one production per year. Her most recent piece for the company was Giselle (8+) in 2024, a radical mainstage adaptation of the classical ballet, exploring themes of social class.

She graduated from HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in 2022 with the youth play Ndumbé and the Wolf Gang (9+) and a thesis on the importance of meaningful representation in theatre. That same year, she wrote Swimming to Ndakaaru (8+) with De Toneelmakerij and Urban Myth, a story about the lingering effects of colonial history from an African perspective. Her play Cuckoo’s nest (10+), written for Theater aan de Rijn in co-production with Theater Sonnevanck and Theater Oostpool, tells the story of two sisters whose mother climbs onto the roof one morning and won’t come down. The script was awarded the Kaas & Kappes Award fo best youth theatre text in the Dutch-German language area in 2024. Alongside Paulien Geerlings, Nina also engages in research and writes essays on representation, care dramaturgy, and the position of marginalized voices in the performing arts. She is currently writing Dachshund, her first work for adult audiences, for Theater Bellevue. Dachshund will premiere in said theatre in 2026, before it will tour through the country in 2027.