The Ljubljana City Theatre (Mestno gledališče ljubljansko) has been founded by the City of Ljubljana in 1949 as the second dramatic theatre in Ljubljana. Today, with an ensemble of 35 actors, 12 opening nights per season and over 100 people employed, the Ljubljana City Theatre is the second largest Slovenian theatre. Every year, our 400 to 450 performances are seen by the audience of over 90 000 people.
Throughout its history, the repertoire of the Ljubljana City Theatre has been a result of collaboration of the most relevant contemporary Slovene theatre practitioners. Some of the most important performances and the milestones of the Slovenian theatre history have been created on the stage of the Ljubljana City Theatre. Today, the repertoire politics are oriented toward a lively, polemical, contemporary dialogue with the present. The programme is a combination of classical and contemporary plays, directed by the currently most prominent Slovenian and some foreign directors. The classics being in minority, an increasing number of texts are being commissioned by the theatre for a specific project.
With our performances, the Ljubljana City Theatre wishes to offer its audience a wide choice of different theatre genres and performative principles. The great number of visitors each year implies a choice of ambitious yet communicative themes.
The building of the Ljubljana City Theatre lies in the heart of the city centre of Ljubljana. We have three venues: the Main Stage (327 seats), the Small Stage (80 seats) and the Studio (50 seats).
Publishing: Since 1958, Ljubljana City Theatre also holds an independent publishing house called Knjižnica MGL (Ljubljana City Theatre Library) that is specialized for publishing theatrical li¬terature. With minimum of two new volumes per year, the collection now includes over 170 titles: works by Patrice Pavis, Josette Féral, Valère Novarina, André Lepecki, Jens Roselt, as well as Slovenian authors. In 60 years, the collection Knjižnica MGL has published the majority of theatre literature, available in the Slovenian language.
Educational activities: The Ljubljana City Theatre offers a special programme for theatre education: educational performances that introduce children and teenagers to theatre history and seminars for school teachers. The theatre also holds a programme of staged readings with an emphasis on classical plays, interpreted by the actors of the ensemble.