The theater has been one of the most popular forms of entertainment since the Greeks, and the acting industry today is a hard but potentially prosperous career. If you have ever been in theater or seen a live show, you know how fun theater can be. It may seem like a dying industry due to the movie industry taking its role, but for those who love the art of theater, then you should know about World Theater day! Let’s find out about this special holiday and celebrate it!
Learn about World Theater Day
World Theater Day has been created to pay tribute to this incredible form of entertainment. People have enjoyed going to the theater for many years now. It is a great way to spend time with loved ones and to witness live entertainment. There is just something magical about the theater, isn’t there?
History of World Theater Day
Initiated in 1961 by the International theater Institute (ITI), each year theaters across the world celebrate the value and importance of theater, and this holiday acts as a wake-up call for governments, politicians, and institutions to see its value to society and for economic growth. ITI also host a yearly message, spoken by a chosen famous theater performer, to share their reflections on the art of theater and its future. The first of those messages were spoken by Jean Cocteau in 1962.
This message is translated into over 50 languages, read for thousands of spectators, and printed in hundreds of newspapers. It also spreads the message by broadcast to all corners of the world through their institutions. Because ITI has over 90 centers throughout the world, the institute also encourages colleges, schools, and theater professionals to celebrate this holiday as well.
The date of this holiday also corresponds with the opening of the Theater of Nations season in Paris. The goals of this holiday, according to ITI, is to promote theater in all corners of the world, bring awareness to the value of theater in all its forms, to help promote local theater communities on a broader scale, and to share the love of theater with others.
How to Celebrate World Theater Day
While many of the celebrations happen at ITI locations, it doesn’t mean you can’t join them. You can contact and coordinate it with the ITI Centre or Cooperating Member in their country or region to participate. You can also read/hear the message of their chosen speaker and spread it across social media using the hashtag #worldtheaterday.
If you want to do something of your own, visit your local theater and support them by donating to their affiliated organizations and maybe buy tickets to see some of their hosted concerts. You can even join a theater program and learn music and acting in your local area. It’s lots of fun and you can even encourage your friends to join in on the action and make it a group activity.
One show that we recommend is Top Hat. If you can’t watch it at a theater near you, you can always watch the film! Irving Berlin is deemed one of the greatest ever songwriters in American history by a lot of people. The composer and lyricist lived a long and colourful life and the world was lucky enough to be blessed by his phenomenal talent.
When he passed away in 1989, at the grand age of 101, his legacy certainly did not die. Many still celebrate his achievements today and there is no better example of this then Top Hat the Musical. Top Hat the Musical achieved massive success. A lot of this success has derived from the incorporation of Berlin’s music. After all, he did write the original songs that were incorporated in the 1935 original film featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers.
In fact, this is deemed to be one of his most notable and loved works. Two of the songs – ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails’ – are now considered to be American classics. If you are looking for a great sing-a-long you are assured to love the musical version of Top Hat. It doesn’t matter whether you have seen the original or not. And don’t worry; the show is not merely about songs, the plot is fantastic and really funny too!
Or, what about We Will Rock You? One of the main reasons why this show created such a buzz is because of the fact that it incorporates an array of well-known and well-loved Queen songs. This is what immediately draws people to go to see the musical in the first place. Yet, once the reviews started pouring in people discovered that there was a lot more to this show than having a sing-a-long to the hits from the world-famous rock band.
And so those who are not even a fan of Queen started to go and see the show and they were as equally as impressed as the biggest Queen admirers were. Belting out iconic tunes by Freddie Mercury and co is by no means an easy challenge. Yet the cast does it to perfection. They have embodied the big anthem feel that Queen has with all of their songs and they manage to get the whole theaters and arenas rocking. When taking on such massive songs quite often it is easy to fall short, but it’s definitely not the case when it comes to this rocking musical.
And finally, for those of you who think talent shows are ruining the music industry, you will definitely love the plot of this show. It follows a world whereby rock has been killed and commercialized pop music runs riot. Many would say that we are not far off from this happening in the current day. Yet, it’s unlikely that all humans will have ID cards rather than names anytime soon – as they do in the musical.