Kellertheater#

Cellar Theatres: The first Austrian cellar theatres (experimental theatres) were established soon after the Second World War. Young actors who could not expect to have an engagement and who were dissatisfied with the traditional repertory of the subsidized theatres and wanted to realise their ideas, created their own low-budget theatres. The forerunners of the cellar theatres in Vienna had already sprung up by the 1930s; small theatres in cellars with a maximum of 50 seats (larger theatres needed a license) were opened by committed theatre enthusiasts such as L. Eppwho was later to become the manager of the Vienna Volkstheater. Some cellar theatres were only short-lived enterprises but others managed to establish themselves as successful theatres. (e.g. Ateliertheater , Theater der Courage, Experiment am Liechtenwerd, die "Tribuene"). For many actors, directors and stage designers of the post-war generation the cellar theatres were their first artistic platforms. Sometimes even well-known actors performed in cellar theatres if they were offered attractive parts. Most of the plays written by emigre authors between 1938 and 1945 had their Vienna premières in cellar theatres. Today cellar theatres mostly show modern plays, which often do not get a chance of being performed in one of the larger theatres.