Endla Theatre
Pärnu's repertory theatre, founded in 1911, in a 1967 building on the central square of the seaside town.
Estonian-language theatre in Pärnu goes back to 1875, when the amateur singing and acting society Endla was founded and named after a lake in central Estonia. The society opened its own theatre house in 1911 with a staging of August Kitzberg's play The Werewolf. The Estonian declaration of independence was read from its balcony on 23 February 1918, a day before the proclamation in Tallinn. That building burned in 1944 and its remains were blown up by the Soviet authorities in 1961.
The present theatre was completed in 1967 on the central square, one of only three purpose-built theatre houses raised in Estonia during the Soviet decades. A renovation in 2001 added a black-box studio called Küün, the Estonian word for barn, recalling the company's nineteenth-century beginnings. The main auditorium seats about 570 and the studio around 150. Endla works as a year-round repertory company, staging drama, comedy, dance and occasional musicals, and also takes productions on tour.
Highlights
- Independence proclaimed from the old theatre's balcony in February 1918
- One of three theatre houses built in Estonia during the Soviet decades
- Auditorium of about 570 seats plus the Küün black-box studio
- Year-round repertory of drama, comedy and dance
