Third Theatre of Pécs was founded by János Vincze at the end of the 1980s in the cultural centre of the closed uranium mine. This theatre, organized as a grassroots effort driven by the changes at the time, achieved significant professional recognition by the mid-1990s with their operations creating workshop opportunities for art collectives producing performances and their successful shows—Örkény trilogy: Pisti a vérzivatarban (Steve in the Blood Storm), Kulcskeresők (Key Finders), Forgatókönyv (Script); János Pilinszky: Gyerekek és katonák (Children and Soldiers); Sławomir Mrożek: Emigránsok (Emigrants); György Spiró: Csirkefej (Chicken Head); Milán Füst: Boldogtalanok (The Unhappy Ones). Although they were not a professional company, several of their performances were featured in the competition programme of national theatre festivals, which brought a very important change, a break in the Hungarian theatrical structure at the time. Based on their operation and results, according to the decision of the first freely elected general assembly of the city of Pécs, on 1 January 1995, the Third Theatre of Pécs became a hosting theatre without a resident company with a production-based organizational system receiving support from the local government as well as aid from the central budget.

Ten of their productions have been included in the competition programme of national theatre festivals over twenty years: Csirkefej (Chicken Head), Halleluja (Hallelujah), Boldogtalanok (The Unhappy Ones), Tóték (The Tót Family), A gondnok (The Caretaker), Kvartett (Quartet), Elnöknők (Lady Presidents), Szappanopera (Soap Opera), Macskajáték (Cat’s Play), A Gézagyerek (That Géza Boy). Their shows were have been awarded on 9 occasions: Best Performace, Best Direction, Best Dramaturge, Best Costumes, Best Female Supporting Role x2, Best Male Supporting Role x2, Special Prize x1. All their competition shows were directed by János Vincze, who was awarded the Jászai Prize in 2001 for establishing the Third Theatre of Pécs and the “staging of high artistic quality” of Hungarian plays. As István Nánay wrote in his essay published in Jelenkor magazine: “There is a theatre that can be called the workshop of Hungarian drama without any pompousness or exaggeration. It is the Third Theatre of Pécs, which has been steadily working for its goals for twenty years—always keeping the focus of its repertoire on performing Hungarian plays. Their theatre programmes feature both premieres of beginner playwrights and replays of classic works. Not to mention that in Pécs, in this great city, the Third Theatre also plays for children, and their shows are almost exclusively written by Hungarian authors.”