Biography

During their school days, Alice Toen and her sister Maddy were both in the school choir, so they knew a number of songs. Alice was in the sopranos and her sister in the altos. Singing without an instrument wasn't easy, so she bought herself a ukulele; it was cheap. Ping, ping, ping. Then they met Bobbejaan Schoepen, and he felt they couldn't achieve much with that little instrument, and he said he still had a guitar. And so she bought that guitar, which she still has today. Both could perform as 'De Toentjes' but received no money, only things in kind such as flour and vegetables. Their mother was happy with that, so she didn't have to queue for food.

At one point, she thought: "Children's theater must be able to do something other than always the same fairy tales. Let us go to the classrooms, send the teacher out, and ask the children what they want to see in the theater." And so Alice Toen created 'Puss in Boots', a contemporary interpretation of the old inheritance story, in which the children themselves were allowed to build the castle scenery on stage and search for an accessory that could make the sun shine. The success of the play resonated abroad, and soon Alice Toen was asked to translate her text for performances in Germany, Poland, Austria, and ex-Yugoslavia. "There, they didn't have the money to pay the royalties and reimbursed me in traveler's checks.". Her version of Puss in Boots has been performed 2,000 times worldwide.

At the age of 99, the actress took to the stage of the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) in Brussels. Together with soprano Françoise Vanhecke and guitarist Jean Van der Schueren, she performed songs and texts by Federico Garcia Lorca, Toon Hermans, and Jules De Corte, among others.

Alice Toen was one of the founders of the Mechels Miniatuur Teater, where she became director.

In 1957, Alice Toen won the first prize in Drama and Recitation at the Conservatory of Mechelen.

I often had a relationship with a fellow actor. When the play we were performing in together was finished, the relationship fizzled out. It was a natural course of events; I didn't make a big deal out of it. And later, relationships ended because the men died. My last love, a pianist, too. I was eighty by then, he was two years older. But what a beautiful body that man had.

I was never really slammed in reviews. Unlike colleagues, I always kept reading them, but with the realization: "It is, after all, just one person's opinion."

Getting old happens to you, there is no secret

I prefer learning lines on my exercise bike. Then I spit out the words without emotion. Or I recite them at night when I can't sleep, with my eyes closed.

I consider myself a mediocre actress. I have fragmented myself too much to be a top performer.