On the Nes, downtown's theater state, stands a building with a history dating back to 1342. Once a tobacco auction, it is now a national monument that brings theater, music and commercial events under one roof. TOBACCO Theater opened in 1983 as a theater and has since devised a model you don't find everywhere: no subsidies, just make your own money. Conferences, product presentations and corporate parties pay the rent, and those proceeds go directly to free space for cultural programming. Director Erik van Wilsum directs that whole circus.
The building has nine auditoriums, with capacity from twenty to six hundred people. The main theater seats three hundred and fifty people in theater form. But then there is the kitchen. Hidden in the building's so-called hidden catacombs is a hospitality kitchen headed by Michelin-starred chef Dennis Huwaë. Working with fresh, local ingredients, he provides breakfast, lunch and dinner for those who want it. That's not an afterthought. A star chef in a theater kitchen, in the middle of a national monument, that demands attention.
The industrial, historic look of the building is immediately felt when you step inside. High ceilings, rough materials, the atmosphere of a building that has been through a lot. On the outside, artist Sef Hansen has put a street art piece on the facade, so you recognize the theater from afar. Commercial Manager Liza Henzen and Location Manager Julia van der Kolk make sure the halls stay filled, on the commercial and cultural side. Juul Dorreboom keeps the marketing in hand, together with graphic designer Alisa te Nijenhuis.
Commercial events foot the bill so that culture can do its thing for free: that's the model of TOBACCO in a sentence.
Commercial events foot the bill, so culture can do its thing for free: that's the model of TOBACCO in a sentence. Whether you come for a jazz night with Sabrina Starke, a concert through TOBACCO LIVE, or just want to eat at Dennis Huwaë's, the building on the Nes offers something different every time. A theater that supports itself while making room for others. That's not nothing.