The History of the Shymkent City Academic Kazakh Drama Theatre

The Shymkent City Academic Kazakh Drama Theatre is the cradle of professional theatre art in the southern region of our country and one of the foundational centres of our national culture. With a history spanning almost a century, this artistic company has made an immeasurable contribution to the formation and development of Kazakh theatre art.

Shymkent, regarded as Kazakhstan’s third-largest metropolis, is one of the country’s ancient cities, with a deep history and a rich cultural heritage. It was therefore only natural that theatre art took shape early in this region. The origins of the theatre — which today holds a distinctive place in the country’s cultural landscape — date back to the 1920s.