Leikfélag Akureyrar
Hafnarstræti 57
IS-600 Akureyri
Tel. office: (+354) 450 1010
Email: mak@mak.is
Website: www.mak.is
The Akureyri Theatre Company is the only professional theatre in the country outside of the Reykjavík area. It´s operation is supported by the municipality of Akureyri based on an agreement with the Ministry of culture and education. The history of the theatre company goes back a century but the company became a professional theatre in 1973.
The Akureyri Theatre Company, which is now the theatre department of Akureyri Cultural Society (ACS), is mainly based in a beautiful house close to the heart of Akureyri, Samkomuhúsið, with seating for 210 people. Samkomuhúsið is a traditional theatre with a stage, risings and balcony. The theatre department of ACS will also stage their projects on the stages of Hof, Hamraborg and Hamrar. The theatre company projects have through the years been very diverse, classical Icelandic and foreign plays, new Icelandic and foreign plays, children´s plays and musicals. The theatre department of ACS produces three to seven productions of its own and in collaboration with others, in addition to many shorter productions and smaller events. A lot of new Icelandic productions have premièred at the company and the artists of ACS theatre department work with artist focusing on original creation. The number of actors residing with the company varies from 4-11. The guests of the ACS come from all over the country and Akureyri has through the years been a popular place for theatre trips the company offers.
In addition to the production of plays the Akureyri Theatre Company has run a theatre school from 2009. The ACS theatre department now runs the theatre company theatre school. The school is intended for young people aged 9-16. The school is now located in Hof. The ACS theatre department collaborates with a number of other parties, schools and educational institutions in carrying out various courses, production of plays and other things.
The ACS theatre department offes workshops with performance artists. The objective is to use the superb facilities to attract Icelandic and foreign performance artists to work in Akureyri all year round. The ACS theatre department thus contributes to innovation in the performance arts, strenghtens the connections within the country and outside the country and strenghtens the infrastructure of the performance arts in the northeast part of Iceland.