The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres Celebrates World Theatre Day

The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) invites all Canadians to celebrate World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People (March 20) and World Theatre Day (March 27).

Canadian theatre is as vital and engaging as ever. It could be a play telling an important home-grown story or it could be leading production Canadian artists are presenting in diverse countries around the world. Theatre in this country contributes to our understanding, our cohesion and the coming together of our audiences. That's why we celebrate it.

Over 41% of Canadians go to a theatre performance every year - that's over 14 million people.

PACT, together with its partners l'Association des théâtres francophones du Canada and the Playwrights Guild of Canada, invites Canadians to join in and experience the joy - and power - of theatre. This year's messenger, Nina Lee Aquino, an award-winning director and dramaturg and Artistic Director of Toronto's Factory Theatre, says "Theatre has, historically, played a big role in our civic lives. It can play an even bigger role if we can all collectively agree to allow it to. If we ascribe that value to it."

Ms. Aquino's message focuses on the power of theatre and its vitality for all humankind, "That is, after all, the job that is tasked to us as theatre artists: to ask our people, our community, our citizenship, to experience something together; something immediate and visceral and necessary. We remind people how big and important and complicated of a thing it is just to be human".

Ms. Aquino's message was translated into French by Djennie Laguerre, a Toronto-based actress and playwright of Haitian descent. We are proud to celebrate with translations into other languages of Canada and Turtle Island, particularly those of Canada theatrical productions including Mohawk, Plains Cree, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Jamaican Nation Language, Japanese, Korean, Spanish; Chuabo (Zambezia Province, Mozambique), Twi (Akan dialect, Ghana). All of these translations are available at www.pact.ca

PACT is also pleased to share the 2018 message written by Pablo Felices-Luna. Artistic Director of Manitoba Theatre for Young People. Mr. Felices-Luna states "The reason I love creating theatre for young people is that the audience is our inspiration. I believe work for young audiences cannot be created in the absence of young people. Think about it: we are the only discipline that defines itself by its audience. It is exhilarating to know who you are creating theatre for, to find the form and content that speaks to each segment of that audience, to know when you are challenging them and when they are leading you." The full message can be found on PACT website: https://pact.ca/wdtcyp-2018/

Background

World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People was created by ASSITEJ as a way to emphasize the value of theatre and the arts for children and reaffirm a commitment that every child has a right to artistic experiences created especially for them. An ASSITEJ program is "Take a child to theatre today!", occurring on March 20, which helps to encourage adults to take children to the theatre. ASSITEJ has more than 80 national member centres as well as Networks with affiliates across 100 countries, which provides great possibility for profile, visibility and advocacy.

World Theatre Day

Working together each year with l'Association des théâtres francophones du Canada (ATFC) and the Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC), PACT has once again commissioned a message to promote and celebrate World Theatre Day from a distinctly Canadian perspective.

Created in 1961 by UNESCO, World Theatre Day is marked annually on March 27 by theatre communities worldwide. It celebrates the power of theatre as an indispensable bridge-builder for mutual international understanding and peace and promotes and protects cultural diversity and identity. To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the International Theatre Institute and to underline the cross-cultural and international aspect of theatre five message authors have been selected to write a message for 2018 - one from each of the five UNESCO Regions: Africa, the Americas, Arab Countries, Asia Pacific and Europe. The international World Theatre Day messages can be found on the World Theatre Day website.

Further information and a toolkit for involvement can be found on the PACT website.

About PACT

PACT is a member-driven organization of professional Canadian theatres that serves as the collective voice of its members. We are a leader in the national performing arts community, and a devoted advocate for the value of live performance. Since 1979 we have focused on providing a community where theatre professionals (both artistic and administrative) can come together to discuss important issues and work together to create innovative solutions.

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