Welcome at GertSpeelt!
My name is Gert Talens. I tell stories. Stories I've read or written myself. Beautiful stories about everything life has to offer. Stories also for young and old. I tell these stories for all kinds of groups and at various parties and festivals. Do you want to sit back and relax and muse away at these stories? Please contact me. Who knows, maybe I'll tell my stories soon to you.
The story of Alfred Edward Kitchen and Maurice Williamson and their Havilland Mosquito B Mk.XVI - ML 979 - HS – A.
In the next publication you can read the story about my search for what happened on the night of 27 November 1944 with Alfred Edward Kitchen and Maurice Williamson and their De Havilland Mosquito B Mk.XVI - ML 979 - HS - A. It is a moving and impressive story.
About Gert
I was born in 1967 in Eext, Drenthe, The Netherlands. A beautiful little village at the Hondsrug. As a child I enjoyed the peaceful life and the beautiful nature. I built huts and played a lot. I also enjoyed the great stories of my father and his brothers on birthdays at our house. The true stories that both my grandmothers told me were precious to me.
And... I loved to read and to travel. Whilst reading and travelling I collected lots of stories. That's how I became filled with stories. Stories that I don't want to keep to myself, but that I would like to share with others. It is what a storyteller does.
Special Projects
In the autumn of 2014 the Foundation ‘Projecten Rondom het Greppelveld’ in Dronten contacted me. This foundation manages a number of green areas in Eastern Flevoland. The question was whether I wanted to write a story that would fit with the ‘Torenbosje’, a small forest located halfway between the N309 Dronten-Elburg.
On June 27, 2015, the ‘Torenbosje’ was officially opened and I told the story 'The secret of the Torenbosje'. An improbable story in which fiction and facts are mixed. One of the facts in this story is the life of Alfred Kitchen. He was a navigator during WWII and died in the night of 27th of November 1944. Parts of his plane were found at the Torenbosje. The pilot managed to save himself with the parachute. But navigator Alfred Kitchen couldn’t. He is buried in 1945 at the cemetery in IJsselmuiden. When I finished the story of the ‘Torenbosje’ I then focussed on finding out what happened during this November 27 th 1944. My report about that can be read at this site.
Interesting to watch
Thot Worldwide - www.thoth-worldwide.nl
Maarten Bootsma is an extraordinary man. I have been working with him since 1991. For more than twelve years he has trained me in improvisation techniques, in storytelling, in acting, but above all to be in the uncertain now. Maarten himself runs a lot of different projects. The ones in Uganda are incredible. Through theaterprojects he is working with victims and perpetrators of war violence to let them make and preform stories about what happened to them during wartimes. These stories heal them and are showing how to deal with it. I think that Maarten's work is important, which is why 12,5% of my fee goes to his Ugandaprojects.
Interesting to watch
XL De Ateliers - www.xldeateliers.com
XL De Ateliers is a foundation in Dronten, founded by friend and artist John Hagel. A place where all art forms come and work together and create beautiful artprojects. A place where professional artists and loving art amateurs come together to create.