Theatre venues in the Netherlands

An interactive, diachronic map of all theatre venues in the Netherlands.

Milco Feijnenbuik, Theatre Collection Allard Pierson

I. (Ivan) Kisjes, Create Lab, University of Amsterdam

Rob van der Zalm, Theatre Studies, University of Amsterdam

A map of all the theatres in the Netherlands, marking the locations with a (semi-) professional theatre over an extended time period: although the project was quickly conceived, it turned out to be a long road to the final result presented here.

Starting points for this project were the publication Theaters in Nederland sinds de zeventiende eeuw (Theatres in the Netherlands since the seventeenth century) by Bob Logger and Eric Alexander (2007), and the interactive, diachronic map of Theatres in Amsterdam (2019) realised by Charlotte Vrielink (pre-PHD) as part of Create, Creative Amsterdam, an e-humanities perspective and the project Onstage. Important information (and inspiration) was additionally drawn from the CinemaContext website, and the resulting research on Dutch cinema¹. Theatres often passed into the hands of cinema operators in the past. And some cinema operators also programmed theatre or theatre acts.

Another important source for the list of our 1100-plus theatre venues was the digital Theater Encyclopaedia. Again, the initial starting point for this was Theaters in Nederland sinds de zeventiende eeuw (Theatres in the Netherlands since the seventeenth century), but volunteers and the website's 'community' have added dozens of new locations in recent years, from large to small and from old to new locations.

However, because the Theater encyclopedia uses the wiki principle, and because the sources used are not always mentioned or traceable, this information also posed some problems or at least questions: how precise are the supplied dates (years/location)? What was the status of the venue in question? Were only amateur performances hosted there or was there professional theatres as well? And did this happen incidentally or structurally?

Between 2020 and 2022, the entire, raw list was critically scrutinised and the data entries were supplemented or made more precise where possible. The process involved thorough research via newspaper archives Delpher and through contact with theatre venues themselves and was supported by students of theatre studies from the University of Amsterdam².

In the end, it became a motley collection of all kinds of venues. To avoid comparing apples with oranges too much, we have added a number of additional characteristics that can also be sorted:

• - Type of venue: a distinction was made between theatre buildings, theatre halls (included in a larger complex like industrial buildings, hotels, churches, conference centres) and open-air theatres.
• - Number of venues
• - Spectator capacity
• - Membership VSCD (Vereniging Schouwburg en Concertgebouw Directies / Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Management)

We eventually deleted some venues, for instance because they had been used as concert or cinema halls, but hardly at all as theatres, or because only amateur performances are/were shown. Or simply because we could not verify their existence or nature.

Some concluding remarks on the data:

The sources mentioned provided us with the address details and years of opening and closing of a large proportion of theatres in the Netherlands. For many theatres, however, even preliminary information such as the exact location, date/year of opening and closing were not always accurately determined.

The locations were verified based on available addresses and their corresponding postal codes. If a theatre was demolished or destroyed or the street plan altered, the postal code closest to the original location was chosen. In such cases, the location is additionally marked as 'approximate' in the comments.

Precise dates of opening (performances) or closing were more often not possible to find out. So in almost all cases, we ended up with annual dates. Here, too, there are still relatively many uncertainties and gaps. This is taken into account in the comments as 'approximate year of opening'.

This map remains a dynamic one, in that theatres continue to be built and shut down in the Netherlands. This map reflects the situation as of September 2023.

Our ambition is to integrate these changes into the map via an annual update. Naturally, we hope that this diachronic theatre map will invite historians to investigate further. We would be pleased to be informed about the results.

To the map

Contact:
R.G.C.vanderZalm@uva.nl
theaterencyclopedie@uva.nl