Theater on Stilts

Our Story

Die Stelzer is a unique ensemble composed of approximately twenty actors, performing theatre with acrobatic skill on the smallest stage possible – the stilt. The theatre aims to inspire and reach people living in remote areas or on the margins of society through their performances. We do not make use of technical effects, sound engineering, or even a stage. Instead, actors turn streets and squares into theatre halls and perform on stilts up to a height of 5.25 feet, demonstrating perfect body control in addition to theatrical talent.

The inspiration for this theater performance technique came from actors who participated in productions with the “Freies Theater München”, or FTM. The FTM, founded in 1970 by George Froscher and Kurt Bildstein, was one of the best known and radical independent theatre groups, which started out with «stilting» as one of the major parts of their repertoire of these «Theatre pirates». In 1983, two actors Wolgang Tietze and Rheinhold Behling formed the first independent theater ensemble under the name “Lechwehrtheater”. The ensemble underwent organizational changes and since 1994 has been known as “Die Stelzer”, with Wolfgang Tietze, Wolfgang Hauck and Peter Pruchniewitz as directors.

1999: erfolgte die Umfirmierung in eine GbR, die von Wolfgang Hauck und Peter Pruchniewitz vertreten wird.
2018: hat sich die Vertretung mit Leonard Mandl und Wolfgang Hauck neu formiert.

With more than 14 productions of very different character, the ensemble has marked and developed this genre considerably since their start in 1983 and have become internationally known.

Biographie
1983 Gründung der Theatergruppe als Lechwehrtheater
1994 Umbenennung und Gründung als Theatergruppe “Die Stelzer”
1999 Ausweitung der professionellen und internationalen Arbeit
2004 Open-Air-Theater Tournee «Discorsi»
2005 Internationale Jugendprojekte in Marokko
2008 Open-Air-Theater Tournee «Rheingold»
2011 Open-Air-Theater «Licca Line» mit 40 jungen Stelzenläufern
2013 Jugendprojekte im Kosovo und Österreich
2014 Jugendprojekte in der Türkei, Irland, und Kosovo
2014 Cultural Relief Program  – Teaching the trainer, Türkei
2015 Erasmus+ Social Circus mit internationalen Partnern
2017 Produktion “Arturo Ui” in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Theater Wasserburg
2018 Creative Times – Ausbildungsangebote Türkei, Workshops in Afghanistan
2018 Niederlassung in Berlin und Kooperation mit dem Circus Cabuwazi
2019 25-jähriges Jubiläum “Die Stelzer”