The Castle Theatre in Celle (german: Schlosstheater Celle) is the court theatre which was established between 1670 and 1674/75 on the initiative of the opera lover, George William (1624-1705),

Prince of Lüneburg A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

from the House of Brunswick and Lüneburg, as part of the refurbishment and baroque restyling of

Celle Castle Celle Castle (german: Schloss Celle) or, less commonly, Celle Palace, in the German town of Celle in Lower Saxony, was one of the residences of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This quadrangular building is the largest castle in the souther ...

. This baroque theatre, which fell into disuse and neglect for a while, was comprehensively renovated in 1935 with a horseshoe-shaped

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

in the Italian style and is one of the oldest theatre buildings in Europe. The stalls and two circles of the auditorium, the second gallery being an 18th-century addition, has a total of 330 seats. Attached to the Castle Theatre is a smaller stage (''Studiobühne'') known as the ''Malersaal'' ("paint shop") with 40 seats.

Directors

From 1998 to 2008 Karin H. Veit was the director of the theatre. Since March 2008 it has been temporarily led by the

dramaturg A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults auth ...

, Bettina Wilts.

External links

Internet site for the Castle Theatre
Celle Celle {{Coord, 52, 37, 26, N, 10, 04, 39, E, type:landmark_region:DE-NI, display=title