A SPECIAL LOOK BACK TO OUR SEASONS 2006/2007

2006 marked a milestone in KELLEY THEATRE history. First, we set up a new record at the EUROPEAN TOURNAMENT OF PLAYS with our European Premiere of URINETOWN: never before in the history of the contest had a single show been awarded so many prizes and was nominated in so many categories: it received 31 nominations and won 12 Topper Awards. We thank everybody involved in the show and our incredible audience, that has made that success possible. All details on the AWARDS PAGES. Relive a bit of the URINETOWN-spark with the URINETOWN GALLERY or watch the URINETOWN-Video-TRAILER: WIN: High Quality, Low Quality - MAC: High Quality, Low Quality.

Then, after a major renovation during the summer, we could reopen the theatre with a new lobby and the new Broadway Café (watch the AFN report). The theatre now has a new entrance, a coat check, a nice and shiny new bar and a box office. During intermission and after the show, we now can offer fine pastry and coffee in our beautiful New-York-style coffehouse. A big THANK YOU goes out to Col. Juergens, who made the renovation possible and to his wife Gabi, who worked so hard to turn the Broadway Café into a real gem. For that grand re-opening, we chose to start the season 2006/2007 with one of the best musicals ever written:

LES MISÉRABLES: A HUGE SUCCESS!

Each night again, the audiences gave standing ovations to the cast, orchestra and crew of LES MISÉRABLES and praised the -quote- "amazing quality of this production". At that time, we were the only community theatre worldwide, who was allowed to do LES MISÉRABLES and were also asked to videotape a congratulation message to the current London Cast: during our run, LES MISÉRABLES became to longest running musical ever. Read more HERE.

25th ANNIVERSARY OF STUTTGART THEATRE CENTER

2005, the Stuttgart Theatre Center celebrated its 25th year of providing first-class entertainment, music and theatre to the community. Let's take the opportunity for a look back at the history of the Stuttgart Theatre Center.

In the early 1960s, there was an active theatre group on Patch Barracks. This group likely evolved into "The Kelley Players," a private organization which specialized in touring dinner theatre productions.

In 1975 a second theatre group premiered their first musical, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, at the Hilltop movie theater on Robinson Barracks. It was the first of many large musical productions which would run there over the next few years.

1980 saw the grand opening of the first Stuttgart Theatre Center at the 5th General Hospital in Bad Canstatt. The opening of the new theatre center featured a highly successful production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, which played 15 sold-out performances.

In the early 1990s the Entertainment Branch moved into the old Jayhawk Movie Theatre on Kelley Barracks and converted it to the space it is today. Originally built in the 1930s by the German government, it had been designed as a live theatre, and had since been converted to a movie theatre by the U.S. Military. This second Stuttgart Theatre Center opened with A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM in May 1993.

The tradition of excellence in theatre, which began here in Stuttgart 25 years ago is carried on today under the care of Entertainment Branch Director Alan Buxkemper, Artistic Director Brett Harwood, Technical Director Holger Schroeder and Raqi Barnett. Currently, the Stuttgart Theatre Center puts on between 5 and 8 productions per year. The 2004/2005 season was quite a success, with approximately 6,000 tickets sold, and over 300 active particpants committing a great deal of time and effort to making each and every show a memorable event.

The contributions of the people involved in the shows are extraordinary, and their commitment is the reason that the shows are always hits! Collectively, between the cast members, the orchestra and the crew, the amount of time dedicated to rehearsing and producing a show such as Oliver is around 15,600 hours! This dedication has earned the Stuttgart Theatre Center the Irving Berlin Award, which is given to programs that exhibit excellence in their music and theatre production, activities and services. These 25 years of community music and theatre represents the efforts of not only a long line of staff and volunteers, but also the support of the community. Here's to another 25 years!