Our Story

The Klein Libertas Theatre was founded by theatre lovers on 5 April 1960 as an amateur theatre club. The club, initially known as the Libertas Theatre Club, had its head office in the old Wine Cellar on the Vredelust farm in Dorp Street. Spectators had to bring their own chairs to sit on during performances and the dressing rooms for the actors were two giant wooden wine barrels. The club expanded with great success and later purchased chairs. In 1962 it moved to an old stable on the Bergzicht site, which was rented from the Stellenbosch municipality. In 1977 the name changed to Klein Libertas Theatre to distinguish it from the Oude Libertas Theatre of Distell.

When the arts councils expired in 1994, artists had to start creating work themselves and the Klein Libertas Theatre was suddenly increasingly used by professional artists as well. The theatre not only kept its amateur wing alive, but Amelda Brand and Francois Toerien also started to reach out to previously disadvantaged areas and farms where drama classes were offered with the aim of addressing social problems, such as alcohol abuse, by means of the drama-in-education method. In 2002, the first full-time theatre manager, Gigi Fourie, was appointed. In 2005, Carien Punt was appointed as Secretary and also took the community theatre under her wing. It brought about an unexpected boom and in 2007 the theatre became a registered non-profit company.

Large-scale additions and improvements were made in 2011. This enabled the theatre to host various community projects, conduct informal training, and produce regular professional performances. These productions were not only performed locally, but also at arts festivals and many of these actors received nominations and awards for their acting. Due to its high standard and quality of work, the Klein Libertas Theatre was regularly asked to produce educational productions. These productions created a continuous income for professional and amateur actors.

On 13 June 2015, a large part of the theatre burned down and the management has not been able to find a suitable replacement building since then. The Klein Libertas Theatre has a long history of innovation in theatre and has produced outstanding quality work since its inception, but without a theatre building, it can unfortunately currently only do projects and productions for which funding can be found.

Aim

The Klein Libertas Theatre commits itself to projects in the community in and around Stellenbosch with the aim to:

Keep the youth off the streets and accommodate those who do not have an interest in sports.
Motivate our youth and give them hope.
Build self-confidence and self-esteem.
Teach problem identifying and solving.
Develop leaders.
Stimulate creativity.
Develop concentration and the ability to listen with detail.
Build skills.
Contribute to a balanced and appropriate set of norms and values.
Create jobs for theatre practitioners (professional and amateur) and encourage entrepreneurship.

Mission

The Klein Libertas Theatre strives to serve the community of Stellenbosch and the surrounding area with cultural activities and the best performing arts. The theatre would like to offer actors and theatre practitioners the opportunity to get involved and build contact with the wider theatre world, especially the youth and promising young artists.

Vision

It is the vision of the Klein Libertas Theatre

to play a leading role in all the legs on which it functions, namely: community, children and youth, amateur and professional theatre;
to provide training in drama and theatre in underprivileged communities;
to provide work for actors, directors and producers;
to create an environment where artists can feel supported and where they can develop their talents.