Last week, I interviewed one of our newest additions to the student advisers team, and winner of the 2020 FASoS Christmas quiz: Raf Widdershoven. Before joining FASoS, Raf studied psychology and a research master’s in psychopathology at FPN. During his studies, Raf was an active member of the student theatre association Alles is Drama. Why did he not pursue a life on stage, and how can his background in acting explain his current career choice?
“As a child, I was pretty shy. That’s why my mom decided to enrol me in Kumulus, the theatre school in Maastricht, when I started high school. I loved it from the minute I walked through those doors. I learned a lot, about myself, about others, and I was part of a great group of people.”
The choice to join Alles is Drama, the Maastricht student theatre association, was quickly made when he started his BA in Psychology. Though he currently is not a member of Alles is Drama anymore, he does still perform as actor. In fact, in December 2019, Raf and some fellow actors started a new production, for which they even received a subsidy. In April 2020, they were supposed to start performing on stage, but this rendered impossible due to the coronacrisis. At first, it was decided to put everything on hold, but when measures seemed to relax, they picked up rehearsals again, partly via Zoom, partly in real life. “The fact that we are a mixed-country group with people from Belgium in it makes it logistically difficult to rehearse. But that’s also how we started to be even more creative. We have recently decided to make an experimental movie instead of a play. The different characters will be filmed in their own worlds, in Maastricht, in Brussels, and all other places our group represents.”
The people involved in this project have different levels of expertise and aspirations. Some people in the group try to establish themselves as actors or directors and hope to gain more experience by making this film. For Raf, it is more a hobby. “I auditioned for the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts after high school, but I didn’t get in. I wasn’t too bummed about it because I had also always loved psychology, which was now a very good fall-back option. Somehow, I also feel the two are connected: when you are rehearsing for a part, you want to know everything about the character you are playing and you put yourself in the character’s shoes. The same goes for psychology; you really want to know everything about the person in front of you and you try to explain human behaviour.”
That’s why Raf also likes to work with students. “At the start of the day, you have no idea what the day has in store for you, what kind of challenges students are facing, and how you can help them. Perhaps by just offering a sympathetic ear or by providing specific tools to help overcome their challenges. During the corona pandemic this is more challenging than ever because every conversation has to take place online.”
On that note, since Raf started at FASoS during the coronacrisis, he has been unable to meet most of his colleagues in person. So feel free to send Raf an email to get to know him or drop by his office for a chat as soon as this is possible again.
