Cemil Topuzlu Open air Theatre
Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open air Theatre (or former name Harbiye Open Air Theatre) is an open theatre, concert and demonstration arena which is placed in İstanbul, Harbiye district, in Dolmabahçe valley, next to the İstanbul Hilton Hotel and Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Palace.
It has taken place in settlement plan prepared by urban expert M. Prost for İstanbul in 1930s. Theatre’s plan has been made by Nihad Yücel and Nahid Uysal. Its ground has been broken in July 1946 during Lütfü Kırdar was governor and major of İstanbul. For facing, color harmony was achieved by mixing sandstone and Uzunköprü stone. Pavement was made with Uzunköprü stone. Although the opening ceremony was made on 9th day of August 1947, it had its recent form, after making changes appropriate to Carl Ebert’s stage technique, who is one of the directors from Ankara State Conservatiore. All its imperfections could have been completed in 1950. With these additions, it costs about 900,000 TL. First performance at the open air theatre was a tragedy named King Oidipus, by Sofokles, which was performed by Ankara State Theatre artisans. In 1958, name of Cemil Topuzlu has been given to the theatre, who was one of the former majors of İstabul.
