International Theatre for Children and Young People World Day

March 20th, 2010

Message from Orna Porat
 
DREAMS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY

The things that shape us, our character, are the ones that are locked in our memory – endeavors and events we have experienced and which have become memories.The things we remember sometimes originate in our fellows’ desire to remember. Even events at whose center we ourselves stood reach our memory through the memory of others.We gathered them to ourselves from the memory of others, from stories they related to us.

Those with a rich imagination are even likely to remember things they have not experienced at all, but which through the power of that same imaginative memory became a real and well-remembered personal experience.In the theatre we find all of those memories of ours anew, the real ones and the ones that are figments of personal and collective memory.

That is the power of the theatre – the power to raise consciousness, associations, emotions, blocks of memory.The theatre is one of the most important art forms in the cultural life of human society, for it is engaged in all the spheres of human life.In children’s theatre, the young audience encounters not only a familiar reality, but also a new and still unfamiliar one. They absorb refreshing impressions and discover new possibilities – the formation of a new life experience.

The theatre deepens and enriches the child’s sensitivity by means of the renewed encounter with a familiar, close world that is known to him.
The theatre broadens the child’s horizons by helping him to soar on the wings of imagination to unknown, distant, strange and enchanted worlds. A visit to the theatre creates in the young audience an emotional and intellectual collective memory – vestiges of linguistic, visual and ideological associations.

In the theatre, the child relives not only his memories and personal dreams, but also memories and dreams of the human family, of his ancestors, of his nation, of the entire human race! Children’s theatre in our multicultural world has a special role to play in laying common cultural foundations that will bring the other closer: through its universal values it can convey a message of the beauty in human beings, and through acting express the secret of joy, childhood, longing and hope.

MENSAJE DE ORNA PORAT

SUEÑOS DE LA FAMILIA HUMANA

Las cosas que nos dan forma, nuestro carácter, son aquellas que están guardadas en nuestra memoria – esfuerzos y eventos que hemos experimentado y que se convierten en recuerdos.
Las cosas que recordamos a veces originan en nuestros compañeros deseos de recordar. Incluso eventos en los que somos el centro llegan a nuestra memoria a través de la memoria de otros.
Los traemos a nosotros desde la memoria de los otros, desde historias que ellos relacionan con nosotros.
Aquellos con una rica imaginación tienen además la posibilidad de recordar cosas que no han experimentado en absoluto, pero que a través del poder de esa misma memoria imaginativa se vuelven reales,  como una experiencia personal bien recordada.
En el teatro nos reencontramos con todos esos recuerdos, los reales y los que son producto de la memoria personal y colectiva.
Ese es el poder del teatro – el poder de despertar conciencias, asociaciones, emociones, bloques de memoria.
El teatro es una de las formas artísticas más importantes en la vida cultural de la sociedad, ya que está comprometido con todas las esferas de la vida humana.
En el teatro para niños, las audiencias jóvenes encuentran no sólo una realidad que les es familiar, sino también otra nueva y aún desconocida. Ellos absorben impresiones estimulantes y descubren nuevas posibilidades – la formación de una nueva experiencia de vida.
El teatro profundiza y enriquece la sensibilidad del niño por medio del renovado encuentro con un mundo familiar y cercano que le es conocido.
El teatro amplía los horizontes del niño ayudándolo a planear con las alas de la imaginación hacia desconocidos, distantes, extraños y encantados mundos.
Una visita al teatro crea en las audiencias jóvenes una memoria colectiva emocional e intelectual – vestigios de asociaciones lingüísticas, visuales e ideológicas.
En el teatro, el niño revive no sólo sus recuerdos y sueños personales, sino también recuerdos y sueños de la familia humana, de sus ancestros, de su nación, ¡de toda la raza humana!
El teatro para niños juega, en nuestro mundo multicultural, un rol especial en tender cimientos culturales comunes que acercarán a los otros: a través de sus valores universales puede comunicar un mensaje sobre la belleza de los seres humanos, y a través de la actuación expresa el secreto de alegría, infancia, anhelo y esperanza.

Letter from Wolfgang Schneider

Listen everybody, look here everybody, create some space for independent thinking - and, not least, enjoy, everybody! Join in the joyous adventure - if only everybody could.

Children are our future and Theatre for Children is a creative workshop for this future. In Theatre for Children, the future is explored: In stories of everyday life, as part of an arts education - a school of seeing, of watching, of social fantasies.

Theatre for Adults reaches but a small fraction of its potential audience. Theatre for Children reaches - at best - everyone - as part of their school or kindergarten groups. But not all schools and kindergartens are involved, not all take part. And that’s the reason why we need more Theatre for Children as a natural ingredient in children’s education from the very beginning: Access to dramatic arts for children and young people and the possibility to play, to act, to stage yourself. Children’s and young people’s theatre for all!

This is what we have to advocate on the Day of Theatre for Children and Young People, in almost 100 countries all over the world, in more than 10.000 theatres for children and young people on all continents, for more than 1.000.000.000 children and young people in South and North, East and West.

Keep it up - theatre artists of the world! And give change a chance!

La carta del Presidente
Día Mundial del Teatro para Niños y Adolescentes
20 de Marzo, 2010

Escuchen todos, miren todos hacia aquí, creen espacio para el pensamiento independiente –y, no menos importante, ¡Disfruten todos! Únanse a la alegre aventura – si sólo todos pudieran.
Los niños son nuestro futuro y el Teatro paran Niños es un taller creativo para este futuro. En el Teatro para Niños, se explora el futuro: En historias de la vida cotidiana, como parte de la educación en las artes – una escuela para ver, para observar, de fantasías sociales.
El Teatro para Adultos alcanza solo una pequeña fracción de su audiencia potencial. El Teatro para Niños alcanza a todos, como parte de los grupos del colegio o el jardín de infantes.
Pero no todos los colegios y jardines están involucrados, no todos forman parte. Y esa es la razón por la cual necesitamos más Teatro para Niños como un ingrediente natural en la educación de los niños desde el comienzo: Acceso a las artes dramáticas para niños y adolescentes y la posibilidad de jugar, actuar, estar en el escenario uno mismo. Teatro para niños y adolescentes para todos!
A esto nos debemos abocar en el Día del Teatro para Niños y Jóvenes, en casi 100 países alrededor del mundo, en más de 10.000 teatros para niños y jóvenes en todos los continentes, para más de 1.000.000.000 de niños y jóvenes de Sur a Norte y de Este a Oeste.
¡Sigan así, artistas de teatro del mundo! ¡Y denle una oportunidad al cambio!
 
 

March 20th, 2009

Letter from Wolfgang Schneider

Communication and Imagination

Normally theatre takes place in theatres. But it does not have to. Theatre can also take place on the streets, in buses or classrooms. Theatre spaces are theatre spaces wherever they might be. Theatre can take place on a stage with sets and props; theatre can also be performed on the front edge of a stage – with or without puppets. Theatre can even be produced without anything at all, in an empty space so to speak. This is not entirely true, of course, because theatre needs actors and active audiences. Nothing can take place without this partnership! The form of communication determines the space, the imagination and the dreams. This is art, theatre art, the nuts and bolts of acting. This is also the case for theatre for young people. And this unique live experience must be particularly fostered. Children and young people refuse to be taken for a ride. They are well acquainted with virtual worlds but they also appreciate the world of the theatre. We should not be supplying them with trite fantasies but social fantasies, not with escapist dreams but socially relevant visions. It's not about didactic theatrical theories but intelligent ways of telling stories. So switch on your brains please, and get ready to enjoy the sensuous pleasures of theatre. May the International Children's and Young People's Theatre Day help to make this possible!

Let us plead for interesting, innovative and inspiring material throughout the world. For, in the last analysis: all the world’s a stage.

Wolfgang Schneider
President

Message from Roberto Frabetti

Children have their own space and time.
It is not always the same as the space and time of adults.
Teenagers have another space and time.
And young children’s space and time is also different.
Space and time define a dimension.
Space and time are at the basis of rhythm.
And rhythm is at the basis of theatre, as well as of life.
At the basis of communication, with ourselves and with the others.
Doing theatre for children - of any age -, or doing theatre for teenagers or young people, means entering new spaces and times.
It means experiencing new rhythms to find a shared rhythm.

Searching a shared rhythm means searching a neutral territory.
Not a no man’s land, floating in the middle of a conflict.
But a land that does not belong to anyone, and still free from conflicts, a free land.
Where nothing has to be defended, but where it is possible to finally share something.
A piece of knowledge, a question, a doubt, and even an emotion.
It is often said that one of the greatest illusions of man is to be able to share their emotions with others.
To reach a state of fusion, of empathic communion.
It is also said that this is impossible in real life, except when a love begins. Maybe we can be compassionate, live an emotion close to someone else, feel emotions at the same time. Which are, in any case, different emotions.
I can be glad that you are happy, but I am not “happy”, I am “glad”.
I sympathise while you live an intense emotion.
I can be sorry for your sorrow. But what I feel is not sorrow; it is something different, something lighter.
Maybe we can share an intense, collective emotion, just like the one that unites us in supporting a sport team, but it is hard to share a personal, deep emotion.
I like to think that the unattainable wish of the state of fusion is one of the reasons that brought mankind to need to do and live art.
In particular, a “live” kind of art; the art that needs the presence of actors and audience at the same time.
Like in music, dance and theatre.
In the fiction of theatre it may be possible to share deep, and therefore “real”, emotions.
If we watch Romeo and Juliet together, together we can wait for the sun to rise, knowing that it has already risen.
Being Juliet who detains, not wanting to; or being Romeo who stays, knowing what will happen.
If all alchemies work and if there is truthfulness.
Truthfulness is basic.
I mean the truthfulness of those who are aware they are living in a “free” land.
Which is neither mine, nor yours. It is a land of transit and meeting.
It is the truthfulness of a kind of theatre that does not celebrate actors and artists, but one where actors and artists live intensely what they do and the opportunity that life offered them: being able to set foot in free lands, where it is possible to glimpse fusion.
In doing theatre for children or young people, whatever their age, the free land is often visible. Because “they” have their own space and time. We cannot enclose them in our dimension, we should try to move and search for a new rhythm.
The rhythm of a meeting. The rhythm produced by trying and getting to know the others, their being unique, their being different.
This is one of the many and most important characteristics of theatre for children.
Which is not a “minor” kind of theatre, but a place of deep artistic and human research.
Because children have the right to interact with adults who respect them as human beings.
Art and theatre can represent a land where meetings are possible, where other spaces and times can entwine, full of amazement, allowing us to touch the chords of our deepest sensibility.

Roberto Frabetti
 

This document in PDF-format

International World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People March 20th, 2008

Introduction

On March 20th, every year since 2001, the World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People has been celebrated all over the world by the international community of theatre practitioners for children and young people.

The main purpose of the World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People is to attract attention of a wider public to the art of theatre for children and young people.

Events during the World Day may be special performances, open rehearsals, lectures, exhibitions, articles in newspapers and magazines etc, etc. Events are primarely organized by national ASSITEJ centres or by theatre companies or theatre organizations.



National centres have full freedom to organize the national events, but make sure to include general information on children and young people´s theatre, its history and importance to society and, of course, on ASSITEJ as an international organization.

It is important to inform the press and general media, as well as authorities and governmental bodies about your events.

The following package contains the World Day Message ‘Toward Globalization for the Theatre for Children and Young People’ written by Kim Woo Ok as well as the letter ‘Do it well, but do it differently!’ by the president of ASSITEJ International Wolfgang Schneider.

Please, send information and photos of your planned activities in order to post it on the ASSITEJ International web-site.
Thanks to ASSITEJ Bangladesh who sent us this picture of their World Day Event 2006.

Message for the ASSITEJ World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People March 20th 2008

Toward Globalization for the Theatre for Children and Young People

The Webster’s English Dictionary defines globalization as, among others, “greater international cultural exchange”. What I intend to stress by quoting the term globalization here is that we should have more active exchange of the theatre for children and young people among nations and regions of the world to lift the theatre movement out of its current state of affairs.
An exchange is premised on the assumption that partners involved have something of more or less equal value to offer. Regrettably, the development of the theatre for children and young people is deplorably uneven from country to country, region to region. Theatre activities are largely concentrated in one or two areas, precluding any plausible attempt to launch a serious program of global exchange.
The situation does not bode well at all for the future of the theatre for children and young people. We must find a way to remedy this imbalance. Only then we will be able to launch a truly global exchange program in the theatre for children and young people.
I hope that the currently less active countries lead the way in this effort. They have a rich field as yet little explored. They could create their own idiosyncratic theatres that would enrich the diversity of the world theatre.
The countries currently more active will equally benefit from the advent of such a rich, diverse theatre. They ought to support the effort in more consistent and systematic ways.
When we reach the goals of global theatre, the greatest beneficiary will be the children and young people of the world. They will be better prepared to deal with the complexity of the world of 21st century thanks to their exposure to the diversity of world cultures. This is globalization in the truest sense of the word for the theatre for children and young people.
Imagine a day when troupes from all corners of the world tour the world, delighting and amazing children and young people everywhere they go with their rich, diverse creations. A distant dream, perhaps, but hardly just a dream.
ASSITEJ celebrates the 43rd anniversary today. I extend my hearty congratulation on its long list of contributions and on its still longer list of achievements to come.
Kim Woo Ok, Performance Director

Kim Woo OK was President of ASSITEJ Korea and founding artistic director of Seoul Performing Arts Festival for Young Audiences. He was Dean, School of Drama, the Korean National University of Arts. He served as an E.C. Member of ASSITEJ International for 14 years from 1991 to 2005 and he is also an awardee of the ASSITEJ International Honorary President´s Award.

The President’s Letter for the World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People

Do it well, but do it differently!

That sounds interesting, I wonder… According to Theatre for Children and Young People, it's possible to tackle things in a different way.

And now, I ask myself, what could possibly be different? Theatre for young spectators is per se different. It defines itself by its target group, an audience that demands to be taken account of in the artistic process, in the production, distribution and reception.

The themes it tackles don't have to be different from the usual ones seen in theatre for adults. You also don't need to create new theatre forms. And in no way should you be childish or infantile: or even try to do justice to what you think children might like. In other words, you shouldn't regard challenges as being different simply because you're playing to a special audience. So tackling things differently must be meant in another way. Perhaps in the sense of the dictionary I always love to consult when I want to express myself precisely, when individual words are meant to say something, when I need an interpretation about what others might have meant or not. The first thing I read is the following definition: "abandoning an earlier individual characteristic and becoming fundamentally different." But that couldn't have been what was meant by changing things, could it? Doing something in another way than was previously planned or introduced, shaping it in another way, is a further variation of the discourse. Such an action would be remarkable, particularly in our case where planning plays a very important role, and is even postulated as being programmatic.

Perhaps it has more to do with the variety of meanings inherent in the concept. We should think in a different way! Not produce theatre from a literary basis, not make theatre dependent on the school curriculum, not reduce theatre to plays with a cast of one!

Or maybe we should present our shows in another form of language? Theatre shot through with breathtaking choreography, theatre as a complex system of codes, or even inspirational theatre from abroad! Or should we make “being different” the basis for our work? Theatre based on article 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights" – does this hold true for all people in the first, second and third world?! Theatre about intercultural dialogues, about national core cultures, about the things we have in common, about differences and how we master these challenges in our everyday life – or not?! Theatre that understands itself as society in dialogue with itself, and therefore talks about finding identities in a period of globalisation. How much different do we have to be? When we are confronted by people who think and believe in different ways, when we meet other people with different characteristics, who are the reverse of what we are, or have completely different opinions.

Cultural diversity is the theme being discussed at the moment by UNESCO. The Convention on the "Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions" came into power almost exactly one year ago, on the 18th of March 2007: it must however be lived out, it has to get to people and, for this reason be reflected in the theatre.

Children and young people know exactly what "tackling things in a different way" means. They have set out on their path through life and this will certainly not be straight ahead non-stop. They'll be forced to find their way out of dead ends, clear hurdles and make detours. Time and time again they will have to think and try out alternatives. Doing things another way could become a principle in life. The theatre can show that, the theatre can en-courage its audiences to be open to that, everything can be done differently in the theatre. In this sense, on the occasion of World Children's Theatre Day 2008, I should like to leave you all – artists, children and not least cultural politicians – with the following wish. Do it well, but do it differently!

Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schneider
President of the International Association of Theatre for Children And Young People