Biography Hilda Vleugels

What's in a name? -  Shakespeare
Hilda Vleugels is not a pseudonym. All my life I have listened to that name (when used friendly). It is on my Belgian passport, on a diploma of "Graduated in European Languages and Secretariat" and on 16 Flemish/Dutch humorous plays; 3 French and 5 English translations.

Honor to whom honor is due
I definitely inherited my writing and comedy talents from my father. He was a well-known puppetplayer and ventriloquist in Belgium, who wrote his own puppetplays. With his travelling puppettheatre he achieved over 5000 performances. I'm proud of him

"Life is 100 % how you make it and 90 % how you take it." - Irving Berlin
After having been a direction secretary for five years, I ran a shop for twenty years. Then I decided to slow down a bit. The shop was handed over and suddenly I had heaps of time to do what I like. I joined an amateur theatre group. One day a co-actress said: "Why do men always have the nicest parts in comedies?" Then it stroke me that there were indeed only few comedies with intriguing roles for women. So I decided to do something about it. I wrote 19 Flemish (=Dutch) comedies with intriguing parts for women, hence not always leading parts. All my plays have a different set, an absorbing plot and are filled with humor.

Awards
With my first play already I banged on the target: "A Personal Ghost" (not translated in English for now), won the Frans Cools-award in 1994.
In 1999 a Belgian theatregroup won silver with "Satan's Laundry".
"Coffee Grounds And Crystal Gazing" was one of the ten finalists in the 1999 George Kernodle New Play Competition - Arkansas, 

Conclusion = the place where one is fed up thinking
Totally in the scope, all my extra activities are devoted to theatre now. I followed directing courses in 1993, and have produced  9 plays since. I translated "The Happy Islander", a play from the Finnish playwright Jussi Walgrén, into Dutch. I am a member of VTA (Union of Flemish Playwrights) in Belgium. And last but not least: I'm writing a new comedy.