Junges Ensemble Stuttgart

What Junges Ensemble Stuttgart does

Junges Ensemble Stuttgart (JES) is a professional children's and youth theatre in Stuttgart, Germany, operated by the registered non-profit association Verein Kinder- und Jugendkultur e.V. The theatre stages theatrical plays, dance theatre, and performances for audiences from age 2 through adults, with programming organized by age segments (toddlers, kindergarten, early school, middle school, youth). It operates three in-house performance spaces — Theatersaal (180 seats), Probebühne (60 seats), and Oberes Foyer (60 seats) — plus studios, located at Eberhardstraße 61a, Stuttgart. JES also runs mobile productions that travel to schools and a kindergarten subscription project with approximately 20 municipal day-care centres in cooperation with the Stuttgart Youth Welfare Office, a program running continuously for over 15 years focused on language development. The current artistic director is Grete Pagan (since the 2022/23 season), succeeding founder-director Brigitte Dethier (2002–2022, recipient of the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg in 2014 and the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST in 2009).

The theatre's product surface spans core productions (e.g., Blutbuch, Der Lauf der Dinge, Eintritt auf eigene Gefahr, Fred und ich, WOW?!, dance theatre), educational add-ons (workshops, school partnership program, kindergarten subscription, downloadable Workshop To Go materials), and an extensive accessibility and inclusion layer including audio description, tactile tours, German Sign Language interpretation, sensory content warnings, and visual storyboards in Easy Language. Supporting infrastructure is modest: a WordPress website with Borlabs Cookie plugin, a Nextcloud-based 'JES Cloud' for content distribution, and standard Google Analytics/AdSense tooling — there is no proprietary platform, no app, and no AI/ML components.

Revenue is generated through three streams: direct ticket sales (children/youth €3-7, adults €5-14; mobile performances €10/person; workshops €60 per 90-minute group), operating funding from the City of Stuttgart Kulturamt (subject to municipal budget cycles), and donations via PayPal. Go-to-market is community- and event-driven: direct ticket sales via the website shop and box office, school and kindergarten partnerships with bundled workshop programs, teacher training courses, and mobile productions traveling to schools. Marketing spans the website, social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), email newsletter, and earned press coverage. The organization is privately held (no parent company, no external investors) and currently faces a funding headwind, having cancelled its 2025/26 dance theatre production due to cuts in the City of Stuttgart culture budget.

Name

Junges Ensemble Stuttgart

Legal name

Verein Kinder- und Jugendkultur e.V.

Website

https://jes-stuttgart.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Junges Ensemble Stuttgart is a professional children's and youth theatre in Stuttgart, Germany, operated by the non-profit Verein Kinder- und Jugendkultur e.V., producing theatrical plays, dance theatre, and educational programs for audiences aged 2 to adults, with subscription partnerships across approximately 20 municipal day-care centres.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Children's and Youth Theatre Services

NAICS

Theater Companies and Dinner Theaters (71111)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Children’s & Youth Theatre (MPAGABAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Touring Theatre Productions (MPAGABAC)

Keywords

• Children's theater productions
• Youth dance theater
• School theater workshops
• Cultural education programs
• Accessible theater services

Headquarters

HQ city

Stuttgart

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Ticket Sales: Direct ticket sales to individual and group audiences for theatre performances at various price points. Booking via website shop, PayPal, or box office.
2. Municipal Funding: Operating funding from the City of Stuttgart Kulturamt (Culture Department), which has faced budget cuts affecting productions
3. Donations: Accepts donations via PayPal for support of the theatre's programming

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Junges Ensemble Stuttgart is a professional children's and youth theatre that produces and stages theatrical plays, dance theatre, and musical performances for audiences aged two and above, presented across multiple in-house venues in Stuttgart and via mobile productions that travel to schools. Complementary offerings include school and kindergarten workshop and partnership programs, a long-running kindergarten subscription project for language development, accessible performances with audio description and German Sign Language interpretation, and the international Schöne Aussicht festival for children's and youth theatre.

Product overview

Junges Ensemble Stuttgart (JES) is a children's and youth theater operating as a program of the legal entity 'Verein Kinder- und Jugendkultur e.V.' Located in Stuttgart, Germany, JES offers a portfolio of theatrical productions, dance theater performances, and educational programs for audiences ranging from age 2 to adults. The core product consists of staged theater performances including productions like 'Blutbuch', 'Der Lauf der Dinge', 'Eintritt auf eigene Gefahr', 'Fred und ich', 'Der Hoffnungsvogel', 'WOW?!', and dance theater works. Supporting modules include school and kindergarten programs (workshops, partnership programs, kindergarten subscription for language development), accessibility services (wheelchair access, audio description, German Sign Language interpretation, sensory guides), the JES Cloud platform for educational materials, and various inclusive club activities. The theater also organizes the international 'Schöne Aussicht' festival.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Children's and Youth Theatre Performances Staged theatrical plays, dance theatre, and musical performances for audiences aged 2 through young adults across the Theatersaal (180 seats), Probebühne (60 seats), and Oberes Foyer venues at JES Stuttgart.
• WOW?! Theatre production for audiences aged 9 and up premiered during the 2025/26 JES season.
• Der Lauf der Dinge Solo theatre piece with audience participation about self-efficacy, persistence and problem-solving through a marble run construction, for ages 3 and up, performed in the Oberes Foyer.
• Eintritt auf eigene Gefahr Farce for all ages about rules, safety, freedom and responsibility, for ages 5+, kindergarten to grade 4, eligible for the Erstklässler-Gutschein (first-grader voucher).
• Fred und ich Mobile and stationary production about first love, understanding and identity based on Lena Hach's book, for grades 5-7 (ages 11+), with a 20-minute post-show segment.
• Blutbuch Theatre production based on Kim de l'Horizon's 2022 German Book Prize-winning novel 'Blutbuch', exploring imprinting, queerness and family, for 65 minutes on the Probebühne.
• Der Hoffnungsvogel Musical narrative based on Kirsten Boie's book for grades 3-6, scheduled for final performances 11-15 July 2026.
• Ein Tanztheaterstück (Dance Theatre Production) Dance theatre production about loneliness, created with choreographer Tabea Martin for audiences aged 12+, performed in the Theatersaal (180 seats).
• School and Kindergarten Educational Programs Workshops, preparation and follow-up sessions, JES Partnership program for schools (discounted tickets and early booking), and a kindergarten subscription project for language development involving approximately 20 municipal day-care centres and the Stuttgart Youth Welfare Office.
• Accessibility and Inclusion Services Comprehensive accessibility services covering wheelchair access, live audio description with transmitters and headphones, tactile guidance tours, German Sign Language interpretation, sensory content warnings, and visual storyboards in Einfache Sprache.
• Schöne Aussicht Festival An international festival for children's and youth theatre organised by Junges Ensemble Stuttgart.

Quantifiable outcome

• Accessible performances available with German Sign Language, audio description, and wheelchair seating
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Stuttgart Municipal Day-Care Centres (approximately 20 institutions)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing cooperation with approximately 20 municipal day-care centres and the Youth Welfare Office of the City of Stuttgart in the kindergarten subscription project for language development. Children attend four performances per year, accompanied by theatre pedagogy workshops at the day-care centres.
• Youth Welfare Office of the City of StuttgartcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCooperation partner in the kindergarten subscription project for pre-school language development. The project includes theatre visits, workshops, and educator training.
• Studio CabriominorOthersGraphic design services for the theatre's visual identity and promotional materials.
• Various Photographers (Adrian Schmidt, Alex Wunsch, Julia Sang Nguyen, Andreas Etter, Alicia Hoffmann, Sebastian Brummer)minorOthersPhotography services for productions and promotional materials.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• GRIPS Theater Berlin: Long-established dedicated children's and youth theatre in Berlin with a similar age-banded programming approach and strong educational outreach (school matinees, workshops). Highly comparable to JES in terms of mission and target audience.
• moks junges theater Bremen: Bremen's dedicated children's and youth theatre producing contemporary works for young audiences. JES's own deputy artistic director previously worked there, signalling that it operates as a direct peer in the same talent and programming network.
• Theater an der Parkaue: Berlin's largest dedicated children's and youth theatre, producing plays, dance, and music theatre for young audiences. It is the closest direct analogue to JES in terms of mission (professional youth theatre) and programming breadth across age cohorts.
• Junges Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf: Dedicated young-audiences theatre in Düsseldorf producing plays and dance-theatre works for children and youth with school-outreach programming. Comparable to JES as a mid-sized, mission-driven German youth theatre.
• Junges LTT Tübingen: Tübingen's youth-theatre division, mentioned directly in JES artistic-director Grete Pagan's career history. Operates in the Baden-Württemberg region with a comparable children's/youth programming model and school-outreach focus.
• Schauburg München: Munich's dedicated children's and youth theatre with multiple performance spaces, contemporary social-theme programming, and a parallel educational/outreach function. Directly comparable to JES in scale, programming philosophy, and youth-accessibility focus.
• Theaterhaus Stuttgart: Stuttgart's major venue operator, with dedicated G7/G9 programming for young audiences. Operates in the same city as JES and competes directly for school partnerships, family audiences, and city-level cultural funding.

Regional players

• Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe: State theatre in Karlsruhe (≈1 hour from Stuttgart) with a dedicated Junge Staatstheater division for young audiences. Comparable in scope of youth programming, but serves a different metropolitan catchment within Baden-Württemberg.
• Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern: Regional state theatre in Rhineland-Palatinate with its own youth programming line ('Junges Pfalztheater'). Comparable in mission and reach to JES, but operates in a different federal state with its own funding dynamics.

Broad incumbents

• Staatstheater Stuttgart: Baden-Württemberg's state theatre, also located in Stuttgart, with its own Junges Staatstheater division offering children's and youth programming. Overlaps JES on audience and educational partnerships but as part of a much larger state-funded portfolio.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC3oeBLZUamt3DRrRZC39ztA
• Facebookfacebook.com/JESStuttgart
• Instagraminstagram.com/jesstuttgart?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
• Xx.com/jes_stuttgart
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/junges-ensemble-stuttgart

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Junges Ensemble Stuttgart