Since graduating from the Dutch Academie voor Lichte Muziek in 2001, Diederik has been an actor in (musical) theatre, performing in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Shows include “Ciske de Rat” (swing), “Annie” (Burt Healey, cover Rooster), “War Horse” (Joey as a Foal, cover Klausen), “Come from Away” (cover Oz, Claude) and “We Will Rock You” (Buddy).
In parallel he worked as a resident director for the Antwerp version of “War Horse” (directed by Drew Barr), the first non-English version of “Come From Away” (directed by Antoine Uitdehaag), and ABBA’s “Mamma Mia! The Party!” in Rotterdam (directed by Roine Söderlundh).
During the corona pandemic, he graduated from the MA Playwriting programme at the University of Manchester. He took classes with Chloë Moss, Tim Price and Anders Lustgarten, and further workshops with Simon Stephens, Tom Wright and Tee O’Neill. His first full-length play “Shoulders of Giants” about fraud and mental health in academia was longlisted by London Playwrights, who called it ‘a brilliant script’, while several short plays by Diederik received staged readings by London’s Page2Stage and Amsterdam’s Downstage Left.
