Happy World Theatre Day! Next Friday, March 27, the International Theatre Institute and theaters across the globe will celebrate the art form with various events and organized activities. Among them is the International Message, a reflection on theater and peace delivered this year by Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski. His words will be read in more than 20 languages for tens of thousands of spectators around the world.
“The true masters of the theater are most easily found far from the stage,” Warlikowski’s message begins. “And they generally have no interest in theater as a machine for replicating conventions and reproducing clichés. They search out the pulsing source, the living currents that tend to bypass performance halls and the throngs of people bent on copying some world or another. We copy instead of create worlds that are focused or even reliant on debate with an audience, on emotions that swell below the surface. And actually there is nothing that can reveal hidden passions better than the theater.”
In addition, the NYC World Theatre Day Coalition will present the third annual “Around the Globe Chain Play,” a script written by 18 playwrights in 16 different countries. Starting and ending in NYC, the play is constructed one-to-four pages at a time, as each playwright picks up the story where the previous contributor left off. Among the writers are American playwrights Kristoffer Diaz, Qui Nguyen, and Sarah Treem. A reading of the play, led by Romanian director Ana Margineanu, will take place on March 27 at 7 p.m. at the Lark Play Development Center.
To join the festivities, watch the reading of the “Around the Globe Chain Play” streamed live at innovativetheatre.org/live!
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