HISTORY, WORK, AND VISION

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Teatret Zeppelin is a charming theatre house in the heart of Vesterbro. Since 1994, the theatre’s beautiful auditorium has set the stage for unique, captivating, and inventive theatre plays for the whole family. The theatre’s productions are of full magnitude – that is, with lighting, sound, scenography, and effects similar to the big stages, while also maintaining the intimacy and the respect for the audience.

The productions are at such a high level and so appraised that the country’s big theatre institutions can find themselves challenged by a serious competitor.

Teatret Zeppelin creates thought-provoking reinterpretations of children’s book classics (e.g. Astrid Lindgren), original drama, and unknown works that attracts attention. Our goal is to give families and school classes (age 7 and up) a different, shared theatre experience with stylistics and subject matters that evoke a deeper reflection and move people – children as well as adults – to the core.

The theatre plays address profound and often philosophical themes in a way that plants seeds for further conversations and thoughts. Maybe the children won’t understand everything in depth due to their current stage of life – but we believe that a more challenging storytelling can be good for the children as long as they are able to recognise something from their own reality in the stories.

THE YEAR AT ZEPPELIN

Twice a year, Teatret Zeppelin stages its own productions which typically run for 6-9 weeks. The rest of the year, we house guest performances by touring troupes or children’s theatres which run for 5-10 days each. You can read about our past productions in the production achieve and find more information about upcoming productions in our season programme. We also offer different events during the season, e.g. our annual Christmas Bazar on the first Saturday of December. Furthermore, we arrange theatre workshops, carry out presentations for students, and much more. You can read about all our offers here.

The work on our own productions begins 1½-2½ years before the premiere. The work process entails a long period of research where the story, the theme, the working methods, and the artistic team are considered, planned out, and put in motion. The relatively big production designs are built directly in our auditorium. The construction period lasts 4-6 weeks for new productions and 4-12 days for revivals of past productions.

TEATRET ZEPPELIN’S VISIONS

• We want to give children and their adults a different and deeply moving, shared theatre experience
• We want to leave a lasting impression on our audience – food for thought, conversations, and personal development
• We want to entertain and evoke laughter, but we welcome a puzzled frown
• We want to tell ‟big stories” that are relevant for both children and adults
• We want to shed light on the transition from childhood to youth and the associated identity issues
• We want to create an ’intimacy of full magnitude’ allowing the audience to be close to the actors
• We want to employ big visual and technical effects that impress and enthrall
• We select the guest performances that complement our own productions in the best possible way
• We look for guest performances that ‛deliver something different’ than our own productions (other target groups, genres etc.)
• We work in close cooperation with the schools through letters, conversations, feedback etc.
• We put a lot of effort into producing teaching material tailored to the class in question
• We are continuously in close dialogue with local cultural institutions, schools, and businesses
• We cooperate with the country’s acting schools and offer traineeship to 1-3 students a year
• We engage in the world of performing arts, including industry initiatives and political joint actions
• We aim to run the organization in a financially suitable way in accordance with our reality

THE THEATRE BEFORE AND NOW

Teatret Zeppelin is one of the Små Storbyteatre publicly funded by Københavns Kommune. In 1994 after 20 years as a touring troupe (called Teaterbutikken & Søn), Teatret Zeppelin opened the doors to a permanent children’s theatre house at Valdemarsgade in Vesterbro, Copenhagen.

Teatret Zeppelin was given its name by the theatre’s founders in the summer of 1993. After receiving funds to open the new theatre house and finding the right building, the small team of future Zeppeliners pondered what to name the theatre. They were sitting in the pasture, looking up at the summer sky, while discussing possible names – and suddenly, a Zeppelin appeared in the sky! The airship was the key to unlocking the name; it was destiny.

Today, the theatre is run by artistic director Mie Brandt and theatre manager Lasse Frank.

Learn more about the theatre here:
Photographs of the theatre
Wikipedia article