About Theater Zuidplein

(under Construction)

Mission and social objectives

The mission of Theater Zuidplein is as follows:

Theater Zuidplein: the colourful, innovative and trend-setting public theatre for all the people of TODAY’s Rotterdam!

We focus our activities primarily on people in Rotterdam who have been educated to MBO (intermediate vocation) level – that is, 70% of the total population of the city. Our theatre programme, which aims mostly to promote social engagement, our pricing and our high level of service are adapted to this very heterogeneous group of people from a broad spectrum of cultural backgrounds.

There is a wide range of productions in our theatre: cabaret, dance, plays, concerts, theatre for children and young people, matinees for senior citizens, festivals and performances programmed by special guests.

Some 75% our total programme is what we refer to as a total experience, meaning that an additional event is organised for our customers, in addition to the performance or concert. This may vary from a surprise reception to a lively after-party with live music and a DJ, or from a meet & greet with artistes to educational activities for children and young people. Another regular bonus is the delicious food and drinks served, from different countries.

We seek to be firmly rooted in Rotterdam life, which is why all our activities are designed to fit in with our mission stated above, as well as with the following social objectives:

1. We get ourselves involved, whether by invitation or at our own instigation, with art, culture and society in Rotterdam-Zuid.
2. We enhance the feeling of safety in the Zuidplein area with special activities for our customers and our neighbours.
3. As an on-the-job training company, we contribute to improving the educational prospects of young people and help them with their development.
4. We seek to reduce our CO₂ emissions on a daily basis.
5. We feel a responsibility to generate extra financial resources for society.

This helps us succeed to be the colourful popular theatre for all the people of TODAY’s Rotterdam.

Theater Zuidplein – facts and figures for 2010

Some facts and figures about our organisation
Theater Zuidplein has two auditoriums (for 585 visitors and 166 visitors) and a theatre café with a small stage. In 2010, we organised 544 events, including 374 performances, 67 primarily educational fringe activities and 103 other cultural and commercial events, which attracted a total of 88,006 visitors. No fewer than 70 students were on internships in our on-the-job training company, making us one of the largest such companies in Rotterdam.

Some facts and figures about the area where we are based: the Zuidplein
Theater Zuidplein has been based at Zuidplein since 1953. Nowadays, with 33 million people passing through every year, Zuidplein is one of the busiest squares and public transport interchange locations in the Netherlands. Zuidplein is also the site of the biggest covered shopping centre in the country, Winkelcentrum Zuidplein, to which 12 million visitors come every year. We are 300 metres away from one the most important event complexes in the Netherlands: Ahoy, through whose gates 2.5 million people pass annually. And just 400 metres from us is Zadkine locatie Zuid, one of the largest MBO (intermediate vocation education) locations in Rotterdam.

Theater Zuidplein’s outstanding and innovative nationally-renowned policies

So Theater Zuidplein is an ambitious and socially engaged theatre. In the last four years, Theater Zuidplein has chalked up some outstanding successes following a process of modernisation. During that time, visitor numbers have increased by 25%, while the image of the theatre among the general public, fellow professionals and grant-awarding bodies has improved considerably. It is now a leading and innovative theatre with still-rising visitor numbers. In the light of the fall in such numbers currently being experienced by many performing centres in the Netherlands as a result of the economic recession, that is even more remarkable.

This is why Theater Zuidplein is renowned among fellow professionals in the Netherlands and Europe, and by government bodies (including those at local government level) as a leading practitioner of innovative diversity policies. Theater Zuidplein has made a success of attracting new target groups to the theatre through a refreshing choice of programmes and marketing and sophisticated policies towards its employees. About 50% of our audience consists of young people from a mix of cultural backgrounds, 25% are adults from Rotterdam with a multicultural background: Dutch combined with Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, Antillean, Cape Verdean, Chinese, and 25% are adults with just a Dutch background.  Visitors to Theater Zuidplein, of whom 51% come from Rotterdam and 49% from the Rijnmond area, describe the theatre as welcoming, lively, creative, young and “for all the people of Rotterdam”. In 2008, Theater Zuidplein was presented with the KoplopersTop award from Minister Ronald Plasterk on account of its innovative policies. Theater Zuidplein is regularly asked to appear as a speaker at national and European conferences to share its expertise in this area with others.

History of Theater Zuidplein

Theater Zuidplein was built in 1954 Rotterdam-Zuid. The product of architect Van Ravensteijn, who also designed Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam Zoo), was located at the end of Pleinweg, where it was an eye-catching presence from the very start. The theatre was surrounded by green meadows and was opposite the Brabants Dorp – an emergency complex that existed between 1941 and 1967, consisting of 525 homes in streets all bearing the names of places in the province of Noord Brabant, and which had been built for people in Rotterdam who had lost their homes during the war.

In the early years of its life, the theatre, known at the time as the ‘Groote Schouwburg’ – in reference to the theatre in the centre of Rotterdam that no longer existed – attracted 100,000 visitors (indigenous Dutch) from Rotterdam, the islands of Zuid Holland and Zeeland, and Dordrecht and the surrounding area. It was a genuine regional theatre at which all the big names from the Dutch stage and the music and cabaret world performed. Following a major renovation that allowed the theatre to better fulfil its function as a regional theatre, it was give its current name, Theater Zuidplein, in 1978.

At this time, the Port of Rotterdam was undergoing rapid development. There was plenty of work, much of it in dirty conditions. The indigenous population showed little inclination to do such work, which is why ‘guest workers’ were taken on instead – initially from Zeeland, Brabant, Portugal, Italy, and later from Turkey, Morocco, Suriname, the Antilles and Cape Verde. Naturally, these guest workers had to have somewhere to live. They often received low wages and therefore lived in inexpensive, old rental accommodation. Because of the increasing level of prosperity, the size of the population of Rotterdam grew quickly, but so did people’s desires to build a future with a family. Surrounding towns built various new districts and, later, new theatres as well. Many people from Rotterdam went to live in these areas. Some moved because they felt less at ease in their neighbourhoods and city as a result of the arrival of the large numbers of people from outside Rotterdam. In turn, the houses vacated by people leaving the city were occupied by new guest workers. However, the places previously taken by members of the indigenous population in Theater Zuidplein were not taken over by the new arrivals. In recent decades, the ‘colour’ of Rotterdam had seen enormous changes, but this was not reflected in the theatre visitors in Rotterdam-Zuid, and indeed, the number of people coming to Theater Zuidplein at this time showed a structural decline. 

At the end of the 1990s, the Rotterdam City Council gave Theater Zuidplein the task of organising theatre productions and concerts for the ‘new’ residents of Rotterdam. After several years’ pioneering work, Theater Zuidplein can now justifiably describe itself as a colourful popular theatre for all the people of TODAY’s Rotterdam. It is firmly rooted in Rotterdam society and especially in Rotterdam-Zuid.

Our resident company: the RWT

Theater Zuidplein works very closely in this with the RWT (Rotterdams Wijktheater, or Rotterdam Community Theatre). This professional theatre company has been giving performances since 1992, both by and for residents of Rotterdam communities. They seek to generate interest in the theatre among new sections of society (www.rotterdamswijktheater.nl), and this fits perfectly with the Theater Zuidplein mission statement. The partnership was cemented on 1 January 2008 into a closer relationship: the RWT became the Theater Zuidplein resident company. This means that every two years, a joint production is put on for the larger auditorium, and exclusive to Theater Zuidplein, and that the RWT productions for the smaller auditorium can all be seen at Theater Zuidplein. This leads to a cross-pollination of new audiences. In addition, Theater Zuidplein hosts the leading International Community Art Festival, an RWT initiative, every three years.