The Samenwerkende Amsterdamse Straatartiesten

The Samenwerkende Amsterdamse Straatartiesten (literally: The Cooperating Amsterdam Street performers), the SAS, is a cooperation of street theatre performers, performing their circle act occasionally or regularly at the larger performing sites in the centre of Amsterdam, like Leidseplein square and Dam square.
The shows of the performers of the SAS are socalled circle acts. This type of performance is called after the actual style of performing: the performer collects the audience in a circle around his or her show, and then performs the structured show, with a begin, middle and end. Think about the juggler, clown or acrobat, who performs his or her skills in a theatrical style and holds the audience usually for 30-45 minutes.

Why the SAS?

The SAS was formed in 1995, after a change of the Amsterdam by-law (APV). With this new APV street performing was only allowed with a license. Although the performers had already organized themselves internally, now there was a need for representation towards the city council of Amsterdam.
By means of internal organisation and a dialogue with the city council, the SAS tries to create and maintain optimal circumstances for circle-show street theatre, with maximum possibilities for quality, creativity and diversity.

Why this web site?

End of 2003, the city council of Amsterdam announced -shortly said- not to issue licenses anymore to non-European street theatre performers. This is unacceptable for the SAS. Furthermore, this came on top of a long period of apathy from the city council, neglecting the street performers in Amsterdam.
On December 6th 2003, www.straattheater.info went up, as a protest against the general policy of the city council regarding street theatre, and specifically against the banning of non-European performers.
Since then, this web site has developed into a broader means to inform the public and the performers about the current situation and latest developments concerning street performing in Amsterdam.