Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis: Theatre in Oud-West

About Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis

Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis is an independent theatre with 115 seats on the WG-terrein in Amsterdam Oud-West. You go for small-scale productions by amateur and professional makers, in the former lecture hall of a hospital, on a site where a plague house stood in the 17th century.

The stage is 12 metres wide and 10 deep, not counting the seating, and full technical support is available on request. The theatre is deliberately unsubsidised apart from the occasional project grant for a youth show, a choice of principle: it wants artistic freedom without depending on government money. So every show, course and project relies on its audience, partners and participants.

The story here starts in 1985, when the old lecture hall of the Wilhelmina Gasthuis became Het Amfitheater. It went on to be Gasthuis Werkplaats & Theater from 1997 to 2008, then Frascati WG until 2013. In March 2014 Nanda Kling and Gertjan ten Thije took over and gave it its current name. Courses run alongside the shows: Het Jeugdtheaterhuis teaches children and teenagers from 6 to 18, De Theaterkamer teaches adults, and GreyVibes makes theatre with over-50s. The theatre opens for performances, so there are no regular opening hours.

The doors open 15 to 30 minutes before the start, and the box office usually opens at the same time. All 115 seats are unreserved. The theatre is not wheelchair accessible and has no lift. Tram 1 stops at J.P. Heijestraat and bus 15 at Bilderdijkstraat, both five minutes' walk away, and tram 3 at Kinkerstraat, ten minutes away. There is plenty of room nearby to leave a bike.