Stut Theater is a special theatre company from Utrecht. Stut creates theatre performances about social issues, based on stories and experiences from the people it works with. Stut creates its performances to bring current events to light, to break the silence that surrounds taboos and to empower its participants. The performances are multidisciplinary – words are combined with music, dance, and visual art. Since its establishment in 1977 Stut has created 86 performances with 379 participants, performed 1.600 shows and reached 146.172 spectators.
Stut is deeply rooted in societally focussed ways of thinking, and lives from the stories and themes that circulate there. The performances are always based on actual events and stories. The participants are not professional actors, but people who are rarely, or not at all, involved in theatre and who would like to share their own story. This isn’t always easy. It requires a lot of courage to take to the stage and share your personal story with complete strangers. Stut is experienced with challenging, supporting and guiding these people. Stut embraces them and makes them aware of the strength they carry within themselves. In that way Stut involves the people it works with in its performances and activities for a long period of time, and contributes to the well-being of its participants and the world they live in.
Their method begins with the producer, who looks for people that are familiar with a specific theme or looks within a group of people for common experiences they share. Based on interviews and playful assignments a concept is created. These ideas will then be worked on to create an actual performance, with an intensive period of rehearsing in which visual artists and musicians are also involved. The process from concept to premiere often takes a year. Afterwards the performance can be seen for around a year both within and outside of Utrecht, and is, on average, performed about twenty times. Stut finds its audience in theatres and living rooms, but mainly in community and youth centres, schools, and welfare organisations. In this way the performances reach people that are normally hardly in touch with theatre and other forms of art. Stut strives to annually create and show one large and one small performance.
More information
http://www.stut.nl