“We gather to weep and to remember; to laugh and to contemplate; to learn and to affirm and to imagine”  Message from Brett Bailey, theatre director, for World Theatre Day 2014 

World Theatre Day, initiated by the International Theatre Institute in 1961, is observed annually on March 27th by ITI centres and the international theatre community. Each year on March 27th – the opening day of the ITI festival Theatre of Nations in Paris in 1962 – various activities honour and celebrate the uniqueness of the theatre arts worldwide. Central to this is the annual message from a world-class theatre personality that addresses the social significance and impact of the theatre arts. 

The text is translated into numerous languages and distributed worldwide.  

The message for the first World Theatre Day was written by Jean Cocteau, while the ambassadors from following years have included, among others: Arthur Miller, Helene Weigel, Peter Brook, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Wole Soyinka, Vaclav Havel, Tankred Dorst, Ariane Mnouchkine, Victor Rascon Banda, Robert Lepage, Augusto Boal, John Malkovich, Dario Fo, Brett Bailey, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Anatoly  Vasilyev, Isabelle Huppert, Simon McBurney.

The previous messages for World Theatre Day. 

The message for World Theatre Day 2024 from author, playwright and Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse in English.