Old town theater
The Theater der Altstadt in Stuttgart-West is a professional theater that was founded in 1958 by Klaus and Elisabeth Heydenreich. It is located at Rotebühlstrasse 89 in Stuttgart .
history
The theater was founded by Elisabeth and Klaus Heydenreich (former dramaturge at UFA and senior theater director at various city theaters). With the help of Gottfried Müller, the founder of the Salem Brotherhood, a wooden structure for 99 spectators was erected at Brennerstrasse 17 in Stuttgart, and the stage was used for the first time in 1958. Under the direction of Klaus Heydenreich the two one-act plays "were this year Oedipus " by André Gide and "The Beautiful Indifferent" by Jean Cocteau shown.
By the end of 1965, the theater had over 20,000 visitors. The theater had established itself and had become an integral part of the Stuttgart cultural scene.
On July 11, 1969, the building on Brennerstrasse burned down completely. A solution was found with the help of the neighboring Greek center, the Stuttgart amateur theater “Die Schatzgräber” and the residents of the district. Next to the ruins, members of the theater organized an exhibition and collected donations for reconstruction.
After only 36 hours, the theater in the old town played the successful play "Magic Afternoon" by Wolfgang Bauer in a new venue . Walter Erich Schäfer (then General Director of the Stuttgart State Theater ) made the chamber theater available for the premiere of Samuel Beckett's “ Waiting for Godot ” five days after the fire .
After a year of changing venues, the plans for a theater with 155 seats in the tram underpass at Charlottenplatz were realized. With "August August, August" by Pavel Kohout , the new venue was inaugurated on April 21, 1970.
After the death of Klaus Heydenreich in 1990, Elisabeth Justin-Heydenreich first took over the acting management of the theater, then Susanne Heydenreich in 1995. The directorship was advertised publicly in the winter of 1996. Susanne Heydenreich was awarded the directorship of 48 applicants.
Since 1993 the stages at Charlottenplatz and Rotebühlstrasse have been used in parallel. Due to a municipal council resolution, funding was only granted for one theater. After 27 years in the venue on Charlottenplatz, the stage was closed in 1998 and the "Theater der Altstadt im Westen" opened in the former "Feuerseekino" with "Der nackte Wahnsinn" by Michael Frayn and 148 seats.
A plaster bust of Arthur Schopenhauer has adorned the canopy of the theater since July 1999 and has become the theater's “ landmark ”.
Web links
- theater-der-altstadt.de Homepage of the theater in the old town
Coordinates: 48 ° 46 ′ 19.5 ″ N , 9 ° 9 ′ 48.7 ″ E