Hydeabad: World Theatre Day is celebrated on March 27 every year. This day honours theater as an art form and its social significance. The purpose of the day is to encourage theater's development and to increase public awareness of its importance in our lives.
The inaugural World Theatre Day was observed in 1962, marking the beginning of the event's history. In order to create a more beautiful, empathic world for all, theater believes in shattering accepted molds.
The goal of the stage productions is to embrace the angular truths and parallel realities of our day by stepping outside the circle of a limited existence. World Theatre Day was created as a way for theater professionals and aficionados to celebrate their craft. It is a proud tradition that aims to mimic the essence of life-stream.
WHAT IS THEATRE?
One can define "theater" as a building or other location where live or recorded performances occur. But in a larger sense, however, the theater is the
presentation of the performance itself. This presentation includes many facets — everything from the writing of a script to the staging and acting out of
the story. Theater has a long and illustrious history and it often changes according to the times and places of its presentation.
The word theater, or its alternate spelling of theatre, comes from the Greek word theatron, meaning seeing or viewing place.
INTERESTING FACTS:
- The first plays were performed in the Theatre of Dionysus, built in the shadow of the Acropolis in Athens at the beginning of the 5th century.
- The first movie theater to be built in India was Chaplin Cinema, also known as Elphinstone Picture Palace. Chaplin Cinema was built in 1907 by Jamshedji Framji Madan.
- Widely accepted as the oldest theatre in the world, the Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre) in Vicenza, Italy, hosted its first performance in March 1585.
- Seating just eight people, the Kremlhoftheater in Austria is the world’s smallest regularly-operating theatre.
- Running since 1988 with an estimated gross of $6 billion, ‘’The Phantom of the Opera’’ is the longest-running Broadway show in history, having been performed in 15 languages to over 140 million people in 35 countries, and 166 cities around the world.
- New York City is first amongst the theatre-crazy cities in the world, boasting 420 theatres, topping Paris, which has 353 theatres, Tokyo, with 230, and London with 214 theatres
HISTORY: The first plays were presented in the Acropolis of Athens around the beginning of the 5th century at the Theatre of Dionysus. The theaters gradually got famous and were so well-liked that they swiftly spread throughout Greece. Jean Cocteau delivered the first speech in 1962, and International Theatre Institute (ITI) is now situated in more than 85 locations worldwide.
SIGNIFICANCE: World Theatre Day is devoted to the global promotion of theater as an art form. Raising public awareness of the art form's importance and facilitating the dance and theater communities' ability to widely publicise their productions are the primary reasons for celebrating this day.
Enjoying theater for its 'own sake' is another goal of World Theatre Day. This day offers a chance to consider the themes of theater and a peaceful culture. It serves as a reminder that theater has the capacity to significantly advance intercultural harmony and understanding.
THEME FOR 2024: The ITI has set the theme of this year's World Theatre Day as "Theatre and a Culture of Peace" as it is essential to human existence because it offers a multitude of means to appreciate and comprehend life's beauty.
QUOTES: Here are a few famous quotes on the importance of theatre in our lives and why it should be celebrated.
- “Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.”
― Terrence Mann - "We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.” ― Tom Stoppard
- "A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it." ― Alfred Hitchcock
- "But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on." ― Francis Bacon
- “I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theatre is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.” ― Laurence Olivier.
It is important to look back at the seminal pieces from Hindustani theater traditions amidst the vibrant events and important programmes in the international theatre community. The thriving region of colossal tales has lauded different yarns from the Chitra (Rabindranath Tagore) to Tughlaq (Girish Karnad) to Gagan Damama Bajyo by Piyush Mishra among others.
