“The theater of epic vision, purpose, recovery, repair, and care needs new rituals. We don’t need to be entertained. We need to gather. We need to share space, and we need to cultivate shared space. We need protected spaces of deep listening and equality.” –Peter Sellars, International Message Author
“There is a beauty about us… those of us who have committed ourselves to this… this global family who uses theatre to unearth the best and worst of ourselves; the tragedy of our deepest fears and the comedy of our truest joy. “ –Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and Steven Sapp, U.S. Message Co-Authors
“Theater allows us to see each other, to hear each other….and by listening and witnessing each other, we can finally see ourselves.” –Jasmin Cardenas, U.S. Emergent Artist Author
The Global Theater Initiative (GTI), a partnership between Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (The Lab) at Georgetown University, invites all theatres, individual artists, institutions, and audiences to celebrate the 61st annual World Theatre Day on March 27, 2022. Each year, a renowned theatre artist of world stature is invited by the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Worldwide to craft an international message to mark the global occasion. This year the International message has been written by U.S. director Peter Sellars. The U.S. World Theatre Day message has been given by Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and Steven Sapp, co-founders and core members of UNIVERSES, here’s a video of their address:
The messages have been translated into multiple languages, and all of the messages can be found here.
For the first time ever, World Theatre Day will also feature more than 40 short videos of early-career artists from 30 countries, including the U.S. Emergent Artist message, which will be given by actress and activist Jasmin Cardenas. The videos will play through the day, beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET/14:00 Paris, and Cardenas’s video will be available here. Learn more about the Emergent Artists here.
“Amid the horrors of war, the role of artists in peace-building and cultural exchange has become even more urgent,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. “As we take inspiration from the messages of Peter Sellars and Mildred Ruiz Sapp and Steven Sapp, we must also pay special attention to the voices of artists in their early career. I encourage all theatre people to witness the visions of Jasmin Cardenas and more than 40 of her emergent artist peers from across the world.”
Since 1962, World Theatre Day has been celebrated by the circulation of the World Theatre Day Message. The first World Theatre Day international message was written by Jean Cocteau. Succeeding honorees have included Arthur Miller (1963), Ellen Stewart (1975), Vaclav Havel (1994), Ariane Mnouchkine (2005), Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi (2007), Augusto Boal (2009), Dame Judi Dench (2010), Jessica A. Kaahwa (2011), and Anatoli Vassiliev (2016). In 2021, the International World Theatre Message was given by Helen Mirren, and the U.S. World Theatre Message by Olga Garay-English.
To celebrate World Theatre Day 2022, GTI recommends sharing the international and U.S. messages on or around March 27 through online media; tweet about World Theatre Day using the hashtag #WorldTheatreDay; following TCG, The Lab, The Global Theatre Initiative, and ITI on social media platforms for updates and sharing World Theatre Day-related posts; and posting your own message to your network about World Theatre Day, championing the power of theatre to strengthen cultural exchange and mutual understanding across borders. Social handles for GTI: Facebook; for TCG: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn; for The Lab: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Peter Sellars, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) is an opera, theatre and festival director who has gained international renown for his ground-breaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of 20th century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative and performing artists. His work illuminates the power of art as a means of moral expression and social action. He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris and the Salzburg Festival, among others. Sellars has collaborated on the creation of many works with composer John Adams, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, and The Girls of the Golden West. Inspired by the compositions of Kaija Saariaho, he has guided the creation of productions of her work (L’Amour de loin, Adriana Mater, Only the Sound Remains) that have expanded the repertoire of modern opera. Recent (pre-pandemic) projects include a new production of Doctor Atomic at the Santa Fe Opera, a staging of Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus for Festival D’Automne (Paris), and a production of Mozart’s Idomeneo for the Salzburg Festival. Late in 2020 he conceived and directed “this body is so impermanent …” a film created in response to the global pandemic inspired by text from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Upcoming projects include a staging of the Roman du Fauvel in collaboration with musicologist and founder of the Sequentia Ensemble, Benjamin Bagby; a revival of Sellars’ acclaimed production of Tristan und Isolde, its story illuminated and deepened by the transcendent videography created by artist Bill Viola; and Perle Noire, meditations for Josephine, with music by composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey performed by the incomparable vocalist Julia Bullock. Sellars has led several major arts festivals, including the 1990 and 1993 Los Angeles Festivals and the 2002 Adelaide Arts Festival. In 2006 he was Artistic Director of New Crowned Hope, a festival in Vienna for which he invited emerging and established artists from diverse cultural backgrounds to create new work in the fields of music, theater, dance, film, the visual arts and architecture for the celebration of Mozart’s 250th birth anniversary. He served as the Music Director of the 2016 Ojai Music Festival. Sellars is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, the founding director of the Boethius Institute at UCLA, a resident curator of the Telluride Film Festival, and was a Mentor for the Rolex Arts Initiative. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, the Gish Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize and been named Artist of the Year by Musical America.
Mildred Ruiz-Sapp is a poet, playwright, actor, singer, songwriter, and co-founder/core member of UNIVERSES. Playwriting/Acting credits include: AmericUS (Directed/Developed by Joan Herrington); UNISON (Directed/Developed by Robert O’Hara); PARTY PEOPLE (Directed/Developed by Liesl Tommy); AMERIVILLE (Directed/Developed by Chay Yew); The Denver Project (Director Dee Covington); One Shot in Lotus Position (Director Bonnie Metzger); BLUE SUITE (Directed/Developed by Chay Yew ); RHYTHMICITY (Directed by Steven Sapp); SLANGUAGE (Directed/Developed by Jo Bonney); THE RIDE (Directed by Steven Sapp). Acting only credits include: DJ Latinidad (Directed by Mark Valdez); The Comedy of Errors (Directed by Kent Gash); The Unfortunates (Directed by Shana Cooper); Alfred Jarry’s UBU: Enchained (Director Steven Sapp). Awards/Affiliations: 2020 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program recipient; 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (Theatre); Oregon Shakespeare Festival Acting Company Member ( 2012-2017) and Ensemble in Residence; 2008 U.S. Cultural Ambassador w/ the U.S. State Dept./Jazz at Lincoln Center – Rhythm Road Tour; 2008 TCG Peter Zeisler Award; 2006 Career Advancement Fellowship from the Ford foundation through Pregones Theater; 2002-2004 and 1999-2001 TCG National Theater Artist Residency Program Award; BRIO Awards (Bronx Recognizes its own-Singing); Co-Founder of The Point CDC; Former Board Member (National Performance Network – NPN) and (Network of Ensemble Theaters-NET); New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect; BARD College, BA ’92 (Literature/Language). Publications: UNIVERSES’ The Revolution will be Live! (2021 release- TCG Books); SLANGUAGE in The Fire This Time (TCG Books); BLUE SUITE in The Goodman Theatre’s Festival Latino – Six Plays (Northwestern University Press); PARTY PEOPLE in The Manifesto Anthology (Rain City Projects- Fall 2014); Featured on the covers of American Theatre magazine 2004 and The Source Magazine 2000. Member: Actors Equity Association (AEA).
Steven Sapp is a co-founder/core member of UNIVERSES. Playwriting/Acting credits include: AmericUS (Directed/Developed by Joan Herrington); UNISON (Directed/Developed by Robert O’Hara); PARTY PEOPLE (Directed/Developed by Liesl Tommy); AMERIVILLE (Directed/Developed by Chay Yew); The Denver Project (Director Dee Covington); One Shot in Lotus Position (Director Bonnie Metzger); BLUE SUITE (Directed/Developed by Chay Yew); SLANGUAGE (Directed/Developed by Jo Bonney); RHYTHMICITY (Playwright/Actor/Director); THE RIDE (Playwright/Actor/Director). Acting only credits include: The Comedy of Errors (Directed by Kent Gash). Directing only credits include: Passover by Antoinette Nwandu (Director); SWOPERA by Carpetbag Theatre (Director); Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman (Director); THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS (Assistant Director to Chay Yew); Will Powers’ THE SEVEN (Director-The Univ. of Iowa); Alfred Jarry’s UBU: Enchained (Director-Teatre Polski, Poland). Awards/Affiliations: 2020 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program recipient; 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (Theatre); Oregon Shakespeare Festival Acting Company Member (3 Seasons:’12-‘14); 2008 U.S. Cultural Ambassador w/ the U.S. State Dept./Jazz at Lincoln Center – Rhythm Road Tour; 2008 TCG Peter Zeisler Award; 2002 TCG National Directors Award; 2002-2004 and 1999-2001 TCG National Theater Artist Residency Program Award; 1998 and 2002 BRIO Awards (Bronx Recognizes its own-Performance); Van Lier Fellowship w/ New Dramatists; Co-Founder of The Point CDC; New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect; BARD College, BA ’89 – Theater. Publications: UNIVERSES’ The Revolution will be Live! (2021 release- TCG Books); SLANGUAGE in The Fire This Time (TCG Books); BLUE SUITE in The Goodman Theatre’s Festival Latino – Six Plays (Northwestern University Press); PARTY PEOPLE in The Manifesto Anthology (Rain City Projects- Fall 2014); Featured on the covers of American Theater Magazine 2004 and The Source Magazine 2000. Member: Actors Equity Association (AEA)
Jasmin Cardenas is a theatermaker who uses teatro and play to create spaces where people can connect, tell their story, and spark change. A proud daughter of Colombian immigrants, Jasmin was inspired by El Teatro Campesino when she began using Theater of the Oppressed to devise original scenes with working people in the fight for workers rights. Together they co-founded WorkersTEATRO in Chicago, IL to amplify wage worker stories by engaging the public. Recognized for her arts and civic engagement work she was awarded a 2020-2022 international LAB Fellowship by The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. In 2020 she added filmmaker to her skills when she produced her first short DOC Film about essential workers, Essential?…Tengo que Trabajar/ I have to Work. Screened at Collaboraction’s 2020 PeaceBOOK Festival and 2021 Screening Scholarship Media Festival CAMRA. Recently commissioned by 1st Stage Theater in Tysons, Virginia Jasmin is currently writing her newest solo play DISPOSABLE, a Documentary Style theater piece. Her first one woman show ¿Niña Buena?…the joys and challenges of being Latina y Americana, was produced by Links Hall and toured regionally and internationally to Susana Alexander International Theater Festival in Puebla, Mexico. A proud member of Dramatists Guild of America Jasmin just performed her first bilingual Adaptation of a children’s book, Maybe Something Beautiful with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the puppet film version with the Chicago Children’s Theater. A professional bilingual storyteller, Jasmin has performed at The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN, and tours as a featured teller around the country. Winner of the 2018 OUTSTANDING STORYTELLER ALTA Award, Jasmin was recognized by the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists of Chicago. A proud SAG-AFTRA actress, she has guest starred on The CHI (Showtime) and Chicago Fire (NBC) in addition to acting on many Chicago theater stages including Steppenwolf (The Compass), Goodman (The Fair, Electricidad), UrbanTheater (Devil Land, Beauty of the Father), Adventure Stage Chicago (Blue House) and Teatro Luna (Maria Chronicles, Generic Latina, Kita y Fernanda). www.JasminCardenas.com or Insta @1JasminCardenas
The Global Theater Initiative (GTI) was launched in February 2016 by Theatre Communications Group and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (the Lab), based in Washington, DC at Georgetown University. By combining the unique reach of TCG’s international programming with the Lab’s distinctive experience in humanizing global politics through the power of performance, GTI strengthens, nurtures, and promotes global citizenship and international collaboration in the U.S. professional and educational theatre field. It also honors and intersects with the work so many theatre colleagues have invested in cross-cultural exchange and understanding. Through the alignment of programming and resources, the GTI partners serve as a hub of global exchange with three core areas of focus: connecting practitioners with resources, knowledge, and partnerships to strengthen their work; promoting cultural collaboration as essential for international peace and mutual understanding; and innovating new strategies to maximize the global theatre field’s opportunities and impact. GTI also serves as the collaborative leadership of the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI/U.S.).
International Theatre Institute (ITI) was formed in 1948, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) joined with world-renowned theatre experts to form an international non-governmental organization in the field of the performing arts. The mission of ITI is to “promote international exchange of knowledge and practice in theatre arts in order to consolidate peace and friendship between peoples, to deepen mutual understanding and to increase creative cooperation between all people in the theatre arts.” Today, ITI consists of approximately 90 Centers worldwide. An ITI Center is made up of professionals active in the theatre life of a country and representative of all branches of the performing arts. For more information, visit www.iti-worldwide.org.
The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics harnesses the power of performance to humanize global politics. Since 2012, we have created and presented innovative, high-quality work from around the world that is at the intersection of politics and performance. The Lab’s signature approach raises voices rarely heard in Washington, DC through compelling, authentic narratives, and engages policymakers, artists, and wider audiences in forums that cast critical issues in a new light. As a signature joint-initiative between the School of Foreign Service and the Georgetown College, The Lab is passionate about helping to train the next generation of innovators to use their artistry and voices to shape new understandings and to humanize others in pursuit of a better, more just world. In Spring 2019, The Lab launched CrossCurrents, a DC-wide biennial festival, that will feature dynamic, socially-engaged performances from around the world and will catalyze conversations around critical topics like the global refugee crisis, climate change, and the rise of hate and polarization. For more information, please visit: GlobalLab.Georgetown.edu or @TheLabGU.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology. Since its founding in 1961, TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and over 7,000 Individual Members. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year. TCG offers networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the annual TCG National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people; awards grants and scholarships to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and through the Global Theater Initiative, TCG’s partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute. TCG is North America’s largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 18 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. TCG believes its vision of “a better world for theatre, and a better world because of theatre” can be achieved through individual and collective action, adaptive and responsive leadership, and equitable representation in all areas of practice. TCG is led by executive director and CEO Teresa Eyring and deputy director and COO Adrian Budhu.
Further information from TCG: www.tcg.org
