ANOTHER SEASON AT CITY THEATERS CONCLUDES WITH APPLAUSE

The 2024-2025 theater season of the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality City Theaters, which began in October, concluded with the Youth Stage's performance of "Animal Farm." The City Theaters opened the curtains with nearly 350 performances, reaching an audience of approximately 90,000, including the plays they brought to Eskişehir's districts.

The City Theaters, which enriched its repertoire with diverse and new plays during the 2024-2025 theater season, opened the curtains six days a week since October. Throughout the season, the City Theaters brought a total of 25 different plays to Eskişehir audiences, including nine new premieres, 11 repertory plays from previous seasons, and five guest plays hosted in Eskişehir. The City Theaters opened the curtains with nearly 350 performances, reaching an audience of approximately 90,000, including the plays they brought to Eskişehir's districts. The City Theatres presented an average of 10 different plays each month. Along with "Animal Farm," the Youth Theatre also presented new plays such as "I Can Fly Too," "La Nona (Super Grandmother)," "Caucasian Chalk Circle," "I, the Architect Sinan," "One-Man City," "The Journey of the Phoenix - Birds," "Pompenya," and "You Are More Beautiful Than Istanbul."

The Children, Youth, and Puppet Theatre Festival, which has been running continuously for 16 years, was held in May this year and was a full-fledged event, touching every corner of the city. The Youth Theatre Courses, which have also been running continuously for nine years, had a very productive October-June training period. At the end of the course, the young trainees performed "Animal Farm," which was met with great acclaim.

The 2024-2025 season, which concluded at the City Theatres, was also remembered as a season of firsts. Examples of these firsts included performing plays in neighborhoods with a Puppet Theater in a trailer, providing drama training to high school students in their neighborhoods, and staging Bertolt Brecht's play "The Caucasian Chalk Circle."

During the season, the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality continued to increase its contributions to the city's cultural and artistic life with the opening of "Art Street." The City Theatres also added a puppet theater stage and the Genco Erkal Stage, named after the master actor Genco Erkal.

Throughout the season, the City Theatres staged plays through festivals and tours in various cities across Türkiye, including Istanbul, Bursa, Gaziantep, and Denizli. They invited residents of Eskişehir's districts to their performances free of charge, visited districts to introduce children's plays to young people, and organized festivals in the districts.

The City Theatres, which hosted NGOs, various public institutions, and disadvantaged groups as guests throughout the season as part of its social responsibility initiatives, fulfilled its artistic commitment by organizing free drama courses for children and young people, puppet production and performance workshops, and workshops covering various branches of art.

The Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality City Theatres received the Genco Erkal Special Award from the Theatre Critics Association's 2024 TEB Awards for its play "Ayak Bacak Fabrikası" (Foot and Leg Factory). The troupe also garnered various awards from the Eskişehir Art Association and the Quart Altın Sanat Awards.

As in previous years, the City Theatres is proud to know that all its artistic endeavors are met with praise and applause from Eskişehir art lovers. They are continuing their efforts to launch new projects for the 2025-2026 theatre season.