On March 27, World Theater Day is celebrated all over the world – a professional holiday for theater artists.
In 1961 in Vienna (Austria) at the ninth World Congress of the International Theater Institute (ITI), the president of the Finnish center of the International Theater Institute, Arvi Kivimaa, proposed establishing this holiday. The proposal was supported by the Scandinavian countries and adopted by Congress.
Since then, March 27 (on this day in 1962, the Paris season of the World Theater Festival of the Theater of Nations was inaugurated) has been celebrated as World Theater Day.
This is a holiday of theater workers; it is also celebrated by theater lovers, theater universities, academies and schools.
MIT was created in 1948 on the initiative of the first Director General of UNESCO, Julian Huxley, together with the British novelist and playwright John Priestley. The goal of MIT's founders was to create an organization that would be consistent with UNESCO's goals in the fields of culture, education and the arts and would focus its efforts on raising the status of all members of the performing professions.
MIT is now the world's largest performing arts organization, with more than 90 centers on all continents.
The USSR became a member of the International Theater Institute (MIT) in 1959, when the Soviet National Center of MIT was created in Moscow, on the basis of the All-Russian Theater Society. Its presidents at different times were People's Artists of the USSR Mikhail Tsarev and Mikhail Ulyanov.
Since 2009, the President of MIT in Russia has been People's Artist of the USSR, artistic director of the Maly Theater Yuri Solomin (1935-2024).
Every year, by decision of the MIT Executive Board, on the occasion of World Theater Day, major figures of world culture address the world theater community. The first author of the international message for Theater Day was the French writer, artist and film director Jean Cocteau (1962). Among its authors were also four Russian cultural figures: composer Dmitry Shostakovich (1970), artists Mikhail Tsarev (1984) and Kirill Lavrov (1990), director Anatoly Vasiliev (2016).
It is translated into more than 50 languages, read to tens of thousands of audiences before performances in theaters around the world, and printed in hundreds of daily newspapers.
In 2024, the author of the message was the Norwegian writer and playwright John Foss. In it, he especially noted the ability of art to unite people: “Art, good art, amazingly knows how to combine the completely unique with the universal. This allows us to understand what is different, what is alien – as universal. Thus, art overcomes boundaries between languages and geographical regions , countries. It unites not only the individual qualities of each person, but also, in another sense, the individual characteristics of each group of people, each nation.”
Currently there are about 647 professional theaters operating in Russia.
In Russia, on World Theater Day, the “Theater Day” campaign is held annually. On this day, premiere performances are shown, awards are presented, and spectators are invited to meet the actors and look behind the scenes.
Moscow traditionally hosts the “Night of Theaters” event. It was held for the first time in 2013. As part of the project, theaters are open late or until the morning. Spectators can attend premiere performances, unusual excursions, immersive performances, master classes, lectures and creative meetings.
In 2024, the “Night of Theaters” event will be held for the 12th time. 70 theaters will take part in it. The program includes more than 80 events: performances, open readings of contemporary drama, creative meetings, excursions and much more.
Thus, the Et Cetera theater prepared a poetry program dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the birth of the poet Alexander Pushkin. This evening, in different locations of the theater, the actors will read excerpts from Marina Tsvetaeva’s essay “My Pushkin” and a chapter from “Eugene Onegin”. In the Fomenko Workshop at 23:00 on the Old Stage of the theater the concert “Music is not on the table – 3”, staged by the actor, musician and composer of the Workshop Nikolai Orlovsky, will begin. The “School of Dramatic Art” theater will show the play “Veteran” based on the story of the same name by Boris Vasiliev, as well as the creative evening of the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Igor Yatsko “Lessons of Pushkin.” The Pushkin Theater, the Taganka Theater, the Ermolova Theater, “Lenkom Mark Zakharov” prepared their programs. Satire Theater and others. All Theater Night events are free, but pre-registration is required.
The material was prepared on the basis of information and open sources
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