Celebrate World Theatre Day!
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International World Theatre Day, initiated in 1961 by the UNESCO International Theatre Institute (ITI), is celebrated annually on March 27.
Goals of World Theatre Day are
- to promote theatre to the world
- to make people aware of the value of theatre
- to enable the theatre community to promote their work on a broad scale, so that opinion leaders in the government and the political sphere are aware of the value of the art form and support it
- to enjoy theatre around the world
- to share joy with others.
Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark the occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which, at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature in theatre or a person outstanding in heart and spirit from another field shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace. This international message is translated into more than 20 languages, read for tens of thousands of spectators before performances in theatres throughout the world and printed in hundreds of daily newspapers. The 2016 international message is written by Russian director Anatoli Vassiliev and can be found here.
The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) along with l'Association des théâtres francophones du Canada (ATFC) and the Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) have commissioned a message to promote and celebrate World Theatre Day from a distinctly Canadian perspective. The 2016 Canadian World Theatre Day message is written by Sky Gilbert (novelist, poet, filmmaker, director, actor, and drag queen extraordinaire). The Canadian message can be found here.
The Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (GVPTA) has provided on their website a list of some of the ways you can celebrate World Theatre Day along with a range of social media messaging suggestions. Check out their website here for more details.
