About Tryater
Tryater, rooted in the Frisian community, produces high-quality Frisian and/or multilingual theatre for an audience of adults, children and young people inside and outside Fryslân. Tryater’s (co-)productions contribute significantly to the vitality, innovation, professionalisation and internationalisation of the Frisian cultural field and the language emancipation and diversity within the Dutch performing arts.
Multilingual and inclusive
Tryater is the multilingual theatre company of Fryslân and is part of the national cultural basic infrastructure. The Frisian language has an obvious place in our performances. We play approximately 235 performances per year, for about 23,000 children, young people and adults. Throughout Fryslân. Our performances are polyphonic, inclusive and accessible: we want to be there for all residents of Fryslân.
Nearby
We make location theatre, large and small, in places where communities come together: the canteen of the sports club, the open-air swimming pool, the school or the village square. Our performances respond to the human need for connection in a permanently uncertain time. We show how global, social developments have a local impact.
As a company, we work together with the community around the performance location or the performance subject during the production process. They are the source, co-player and mirror. We bring together different people and perspectives, across generations, cultural and social backgrounds. This creates new stories with a connecting power.
Breeding pond
Our artistic team is diverse (in terms of age, ethnicity, socio-cultural background, sexual orientation). All makers feel connected to Fryslân and have an affinity with our documentary working method. We continuously create space for talent, out of concern for the next generation of Frisian (language) theatre makers. Through our own talent development trajectories and collaborations with fellow institutions in the Northern Netherlands, such as Station Noord.
Sustainable
Tryater has a rich history as a theatre facility for Fryslân. In 2025 we will celebrate our 60th anniversary and we are already looking forward to 2085. Our business operations are focused on a sustainable future. This is reflected in the artistic choices we make, our audience approach, the collaborations we enter into, our talent development policy, the fulfillment of our employer role and the measures we take for nature and the environment.
Regional and international
Our reach is bigger than Fryslân alone. For example, we have partnerships with theatre companies and festivals in the Northern Netherlands and are the driving force behind a European network of theatre institutions that – like us – work multilingually in a regional context. From our unique regional position, we go out into the world.
