History of the house
The history of the theatre is the history of the city itself
Theatre has been made in Amsterdam for more than 750 years. From the chambers of rhetoric that performed in the streets and in the city's hospices to the great national and international productions you see in our auditoriums today.
But the Stadsschouwburg as you know it now is not how it began.
The first theatre (1638)
On 3 January 1638 Amsterdam's first permanent city playhouse opened on Keizersgracht, designed by the architect Jacob van Campen. Joost van den Vondel wrote his Gysbrecht van Aemstel for it and coined a new word for the occasion: 'schouwburg'. 'De Gysbrecht' was then performed every New Year's Day for more than three centuries, until the 1960s. The proceeds of the playhouse went to the city's orphanages and almshouses. Even in those earliest years, theatre and city were thoroughly intertwined.
Fire! (1772)
On 11 May 1772 things went wrong. Extra candles were placed to light the auditorium better. The curtains caught fire. The blaze destroyed the building completely; eighteen visitors and a firefighter died. One silent witness remained standing: the Schouwburgpoort at Keizersgracht 384, which is still there today.
To Leidseplein (1774)
Two years later, in 1774, a new wooden theatre opened on Leidseplein, where Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam stands today. Over time, it grew into one of the city's cultural landmarks. When Napoleon attended a performance in 1811 and saw Johanna Cornelia Ziesenis-Wattier on stage, he is said to have called her “the greatest actress in Europe”. Her portrait can still be seen in the Koninklijke Foyer.
In 1874, the theatre underwent a major transformation, gaining a stone façade and elegant classical ornamentation.
Fire again, rebuilding again (1890-1894)
On 19 February 1890 disaster struck once more. A smouldering firecracker from the fireworks on Leidseplein reduced the theatre to ashes again. Four years later, in 1894, the building that still stands today opened: a theatre of stone, designed by Jan and Jacob Springer and Dolf van Gendt in a sumptuous neo-Renaissance style.
At the opening in September 1894 the Concertgebouw Orchestra played and brother and sister Louis and Theodora Bouwmeester stood on the stage, the most famous actors of their day. Their names are still there in gold letters on the front of the first balcony in the Grote Zaal.
That Grote Zaal is horseshoe-shaped, and that is no accident. The building was designed on the principle of seeing and being seen: the audience looked at one another just as much as at the stage. And did you know that the original seating plan had 900 seats? Today there are 750.
The house opens up (20th century)
For a long time the Stadsschouwburg was, in the eyes of Amsterdammers, an inaccessible bastion, with separate entrances for different social classes. There was the main entrance, but also an entrance at the side on Marnixstraat where wealthy Amsterdammers arriving by horse and carriage could be dropped off.
Left and right at the front were entrances for the less well off. Where The Bookshop is now, you once took the stairs to the cheap seats at the top of the theatre. In that way rich and poor did not have to meet. That has changed over time. It is no coincidence that The Bookshop is today the place where, together with makers and our audiences, we reflect on the history of the building.
In 1969 the Grote Zaal became the stage for the Aktie Tomaat. Young theatre-makers quite literally pelted the stage with tomatoes. They demanded more artistic renewal and social engagement from the companies. They called for culture to be spread more widely, for more room for new plays and for greater access to culture for all Dutch people. They set in motion a movement for renewal that would change Dutch theatre for good.
An extra stage
Between 2000 and 2009, the Stadsschouwburg underwent a major renovation and expansion. The Rabozaal, floating above the Lijnbaansgracht, was added as a second large auditorium designed for a new era. With Toneelgroep Amsterdam in residence, the building evolved into a centre for large-scale, innovative and international theatre.
In 2018, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam and Toneelgroep Amsterdam merged to become one producing and presenting organisation: Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, or ITA. The organisation remains based in Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg today.
Generations of theatre-makers have found their place here. Together, they have made the Stadsschouwburg the heart of Dutch theatre and dance, a role it continues to play today.
