"My" World Theatre Day :)

Every year, on the 27th of march we celebrate The World Theatre Day; and before any theatre performance, it is a well known custom (among the theatre people) a message is read...you can see it in the previous post. This year, me and a coleague of mine, read both the national and int. messages before the premiere of a children show started. Enjoy the pics! 

And HAPPY WORLD THEATRE DAY!!!

Love, Gab~

celebrating theatre...

THE WORLD THEATRE DAY MESSAGE 2011

The author of this year’s WTD11 message is Jessica A. Kaahwa.

A Case for Theatre in Service of Humanity

Jessica A. Kaahwa, Uganda

Today’s gathering is a true reflection of the immense potential of theatre to mobilize communities and bridge the divides.

Have you ever imagined that theatre could be a powerful tool for peace and reconciliation? While nations spend colossal sums of money on peace-keeping missions in violent conflict areas of the world, little attention is given to theatre as a one-on-one alternative for conflict transformation and management. How can the citizens of mother-earth achieve universal peace when the instruments employed come from outside and seemingly repressive powers?

Theatre subtly permeates the human soul gripped by fear and suspicion, by altering the image of self – and opening a world of alternatives for the individual and hence the community. It can give meaning to daily realities while forestalling an uncertain future. It can engage in the politics of peoples’ situations in simple straightforward ways. Because it is inclusive, theatre can present an experience capable of transcending previously held misconceptions.

Additionally, theatre is a proven means of advocating and advancing ideas that we collectively hold and are willing to fight for when violated.

To anticipate a peaceful future, we must begin by using peaceful means that seek to understand, respect and recognize the contributions of every human being in the enterprise of harnessing peace. Theatre is that universal language by which we can advance messages of peace and reconciliation.

By actively engaging participants, theatre can bring many-a-soul to deconstruct previously held perceptions, and, in this way, gives an individual the chance of rebirth in order to make choices based on rediscovered knowledge and reality. For theatre to thrive, among other art forms, we must take the bold step forward by incorporating it into daily life, dealing with critical issues of conflict and peace.

In pursuance of social transformation and reformation of communities, theatre already exists in war-torn areas and among populations suffering from chronic poverty or disease. There are a growing number of success stories where theatre has been able to mobilize publics to build awareness and to assist post-war trauma victims. Cultural platforms such as the “International Theatre Institute” which aims at “consolidating peace and friendship between peoples” are already in place.

It is therefore a travesty to keep quiet in times like ours, in the knowledge of the power of theatre, and let gun wielders and bomb launchers be the peacekeepers of our world. How can tools of alienation possibly double as instruments of peace and reconciliation?

I urge you on this World Theatre Day to ponder this prospect and to put theatre forth as a universal tool for dialogue, social transformation and reform. While the United Nations spends colossal amount of monies on peacekeeping missions around the world, through the use of arms, theatre is a spontaneous, human, less costly and by far a more powerful alternative.

While it may not be the only answer for bringing peace, theatre should surely be incorporated as an effective tool in peacekeeping missions.

About Jessica Kaahwa: Ph.D., possesses a long and varied career in facilitation and designing of participatory communication methodology for development. She currently lectures in the Departments of Drama and Literature at Makerere University, which is where she also received her Masters degree. Widely traveled, Dr. Kaahwa’s undergraduate degree is from University of Benin, Nigeria where she also worked as a broadcaster with the External Service – Radio of Nigeria. Dr. Kaahwa went on to study Theatre History, Theory and Criticism at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she received her Ph.D. in 2001. Dr. Kaahwa has been the architect of a number of national initiatives that have sought to use theatre and media as a constructive force in conflict settings and for health improvement. She has and continues to experiment with theories that expand the discourse on theatre practice. A good example is her recent experimentation with “Theatre for Personal Meaning” and “Theatre for Conflict Communication.” She is currently working on integrating “Process Theory” into Theatre Therapy practice.

Dr. Kaahwa is a great believer in “teaching by doing” and has in recent years, conducted training facilitation for both international and national organizations.

Source here 

HAPPY WORLD THEATRE DAY!!!

and the premiere...

I've celebrated World Theatre Day on stage, as every actor should. Remember the play I was talking about in the last posts? Well...we finally came out with it. "The Wonderful World of Dissocia" it's written by Anthony Neilson about a young woman suffering from dissociative disorder. Working on it was not easy...all by yourself... but after 2 months it came out and the spectators liked it. Plus, my mom came a 9 hours train way from home to see it(me)! And I was really glad, it's always reconfortating when seeing family among the public! And God knows, I needed her smile so much! Thanks Mom! The best!

So in this play, I'm Jane...man...I don't know how to describe her in order to be "politically correct"... Well, she's going to save Lisa ( the damaged girl) from the sexual abuse that The Goat Man was going to apply to her... :)) So I'm taking over (the Goat man) for good! :D

It's interesting to see and funny at the same time. Soon I'll maybe post a video on the blog...

Will keep you in touch with that!

Enjoy the pics, and if you have questions, I'll be glad to answer!

Big hug, Gabriela

some romanian stuff about the show:

http://www.glasulmaramuresului.ro/view_article.php?show=18718&name=De_Ziua_Mondiala_a_Teatrului_la_Municipal_sa_jucat_Minunata_lume_nebuna

http://www.informatia-zilei.ro/mm/2010/03/28/actorii-teatrului-municipal-au-incantat-publicul-cu-spectacolul-minunata-lume-nebuna/

2010 WORLD THEATRE DAY MESSAGE: DAME JUDI DENCH

Theatre artists/lovers should consider this day as closest as their birth day...

Here it is the 2010 Theatre Day message for us:

"World Theatre Day is an opportunity to celebrate Theatre in all its myriad forms. Theatre is a source of entertainment and inspiration and has the ability to unify the many diverse cultures and peoples that exist throughout the world. But theatre is more than that and also provides opportunities to educate and inform.

Theatre is performed throughout the world and not always in a traditional theatre setting. Performances can occur in a small village in Africa, next to a mountain in Armenia, on a tiny island in the Pacific. All it needs is a space and an audience. Theatre has the ability to make us smile, to make us cry, but should also make us think and reflect.

Theatre comes about through team work. Actors are the people who are seen, but there is an amazing set of people who are not seen. They are equally as important as the actors and their differing and specialist skills make it possible for a production to take place. They too must share in any triumphs and successes that may hopefully occur.

March 27 is always the official World Theatre Day. In many ways every day should be considered a theatre day, as we have a responsibility to continue the tradition to entertain, to educate and to enlighten our audiences, without whom we couldn’t exist."

WORLD THEATRE DAY

For people like actors, directors, stage designers, anyone who acts in or for theatre, this day, the 27'th of march, it's like our second bithday... We all celebrate the WORLD THEATRE DAY. This is how it started:

World Theatre Day was created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute, and is celebrated annually on March 27 by ITI Centers and the international theatre community, with the reading of a World Theater Day Message and various national and international theatre events being organized to mark this occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the International Message traditionally written by a theatre personality of world stature at the invitation of the International Theatre Institute. The first such message was written by Jean Cocteau in 1962.

This year the World Theatre Day Message will be written by Augusto Boal . He is a Brazilian theatre director, writer and activist. He delivered the 2009 World Theatre Day message on March 25, 2009 at a celebration at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. He is the creator of Theatre of the Oppressed , a well-known form of performance-activitism. This is his message for us:

"All human societies are "spectacular” in their daily life and produce “spectacles” at special moments. They are “spectacular” as a form of social organization and produce “spectacles” like the one you have come to see.
Even if one is unaware of it, human relationships are structured in a theatrical way. The use of space, body language, choice of words and voice modulation, the confrontation of ideas and passions, everything that we demonstrate on the stage, we live in our lives. We are theatre!
Weddings and funerals are “spectacles”, but so, also, are daily rituals so familiar that we are not conscious of this. Occasions of pomp and circumstance, but also the morning coffee, the exchanged good-mornings, timid love and storms of passion, a senate session or a diplomatic meeting - all is theatre.
One of the main functions of our art is to make people sensitive to the “spectacles” of daily life in which the actors are their own spectators, performances in which the stage and the stalls coincide. We are all artists. By doing theatre, we learn to see what is obvious but what we usually can’t see because we are only used to looking at it. What is familiar to us becomes unseen: doing theatre throws light on the stage of daily life.
Last September, we were surprised by a theatrical revelation: we, who thought that we were living in a safe world, despite wars, genocide, slaughter and torture which certainly exist, but far from us in remote and wild places. We, who were living in security with our money invested in some respectable bank or in some honest trader’s hands in the stock exchange were told that this money did not exist, that it was virtual, a fictitious invention by some economists who were not fictitious at all and neither reliable nor respectable. Everything was just bad theatre, a dark plot in which a few people won a lot and many people lost all. Some politicians from rich countries held secret meetings in which they found some magic solutions. And we, the victims of their decisions, have remained spectators in the last row of the balcony.
Twenty years ago, I staged Racine’s Phèdre in Rio de Janeiro. The stage setting was poor: cow skins on the ground, bamboos around. Before each presentation, I used to say to my actors: “The fiction created day by day is over. When you cross those bamboos, none of you will have the right to lie. Theatre is the Hidden Truth”.
When we look beyond appearances, we see oppressors and oppressed people, in all societies, ethnic groups, genders, social classes and casts; we see an unfair and cruel world. We have to create another world because we know it is possible. But it is up to us to build this other world with our hands and by acting on the stage and in our own life.
Participate in the “spectacle” which is about to begin and once you are back home, with your friends act your own plays and look at what you were never able to see: that which is obvious. Theatre is not just an event; it is a way of life!
We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it. "
Augusto Boal

I will be celebrating this day by going to see a play at the theatre I work in and my boyfriend - who's an actor too- is going to read Augusto Boal's Message to the audience before the play starts... so...

Happy World Theatre Day!!!