Grillo-Theater

In the location's words:

The Grillo Theater in Essen is one of the oldest theaters in the Ruhr region. It owes its name to a generous benefactor, the industrialist Friedrich Grillo, born in 1825 to an Essen merchant family. Grillo was one of the most important entrepreneurs and company founders of the 19th century in the Ruhr area and had a significant influence on the economic and structural development of the region.

But art was also very close to Friedrich Grillo's heart: in October 1887, he informed the Essen city council that he wanted to donate half a million marks, or even more if necessary, to his hometown for the construction of a theater and to pay for its upkeep for the rest of his life. However, before an official donation agreement was signed, Friedrich Grillo died in Düsseldorf on April 16, 1888. However, his widow Wilhelmine Grillo kept her husband's promise. She donated the land for the building in I. Hagen and paid more than two thirds of the total costs, which amounted to 937,997 marks. On September 16, 1892, the house, built by the well-known Berlin theater architect Heinrich Seeling in the neo-baroque style, opened with Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm".

In 1933, the Grillo Theater - like all other theaters in Germany - came under the terror of the Nazi regime and lost more than just its Wilhelmine ornate façade during the Second World War. After an unprecedented reconstruction, the Grillo was reopened in 1950, now with a strictly functional neoclassical façade.

In the mid-1980s, the building, which was in need of renovation, was threatened with closure due to safety issues. However, the director of the theater at the time, Hansgünther Heyme, successfully prevented this in 1988. The renowned architect Werner Ruhnau was brought in to carry out the extensive renovation work. Ruhnau reduced the number of seats from 670 to 400, creating a modern, variable space theater that reopened in September 1990 with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Since the 2023/2024 season, Schauspiel Essen has been managed by artistic directors Selen Kara and Christina Zintl.

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