Thalia Theater

The Thalia Theater in Halle (Saale) is a children’s and youth theatre founded in 1952 as the Theater der jungen Garde. It stands in a quiet street near the city centre, its main building dating from the 1960s. The theatre belongs to the Bühnen Halle group, sharing resources with opera and orchestra. Its history is unusual: it was the fourth specialist children’s theatre in the former East Germany and became the best-equipped of its kind. In the 1970s and 1980s it toured abroad to Portugal, Ethiopia and several African and Middle Eastern countries. Directors such as Konstanze Lauterbach and Peter Lange introduced poetic, imaginative productions that rejected political instruction. The house also staged the first rock musical in an East German children’s theatre. Inside, the foyer displays Hans Rothe’s large gesso intarsia of flight in fairy tales and utopia. The main auditorium seats 377 and has a tilting revolve and an overhead conveyor. Behind the scenes, the Kleine Thalia Theater offers experimental work for all ages. The theatre’s courtyard has been turned into a small cultural square, and a tiny amphitheatre sits in the Thaliapassage arcade.