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<TITLE>WORLD THEATRE DAY - 27TH MARCH 2000 INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica">International Theatre Institute</FONT></H2></CENTER>
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<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica">WORLD THEATRE DAY - 27th March 2001 </FONT></H2></CENTER>
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<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica">International Message </FONT></H2></CENTER>
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MESSAGE EN FRANCAIS</A>]</FONT></CENTER>
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<CENTER><B><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica"><FONT SIZE=+1>World Theatre Day
International Message 2001</FONT></FONT></B></CENTER>
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<B><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica"><FONT SIZE=+2><A HREF="http://www.iti-worldwide.org/pages/wtd/01wtdbio.htm">Iakovos
KAMPANELLIS</A></FONT></FONT></B></H1></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica"><FONT SIZE=+1>Playwright</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
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<P><FONT SIZE=+1>"I believe that Theatre will never cease to exist. I think,
even if this might sound paradoxical, that this ancient Art is also an
Art of the Future. Not because of the will of those who create Theatre
– playwrights, actors, directors - and all the other factors that contribute
to a performance, but because you, the people, the audience, will still
want it to exist in the future.</FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=+1>On what do I base this optimistic prediction about Theatre’s
future ? On the belief that the creation of Theatre stems from a person’s
psychical need, a need that will never be eradicated.</FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=+1>I invite you all today to share some thoughts that would
seem to justify my point of view. The fact that Man walked on the Moon
seems already an old story ! It no longer impresses us that a spaceship
went to planet Mars and brought back samples of its soil ! A huge
space station providing accommodation for space tourists and young couples
on their honeymoon is already under construction and spaceships exploring
distant planets and sending their photos back to Earth are now almost an
everyday occurrence !. </FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=+1>However, although we are living in a time when humanity
is conquering space, we still continue to go to the Theatre, and find ourselves
in a space belonging to an Art that has existed and functioned with the
same simple means, ever since measuring time with a sundial was thought
to be a great technical achievement. In my view, this evident, timeless
relation between human beings and theatre is an eternal one. This is because
I believe that while Theatre evolved into a social phenomenon, it was,
at the beginning, a natural one. Theatre dates from the time that the first
human beings began to memorize their experiences and represent them in
imagination, from the time that human beings began to plan their actions,
imagining how to accomplish them. The first theatre company and the first
theatrical performances took shape in the minds of men and women. Every
person has an innate need and ability to create performances. Have you
ever realized that each of us, without exception, has at his or her disposal
a private theatre company, in which we ourselves play the leading role
while at the same time being our own audience ? Very often, we are also
the playwright, the director and the set designer of this company. How
and when does this occur ? </FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=+1>Isn’t this in fact what we are doing, when, preparing
ourselves for an interesting or crucial meeting, we imagine the whole scene
in order to decide how we will behave. Aren’t our memories and even our
dreams, actually performances of our private company ? </FONT>
<P><FONT SIZE=+1>I think, therefore, that Theatre will never cease to exist
because I believe that men and women will never stop living without the
agony of self-knowledge, without the existential need to become spectators
of their selves and their actions, that is to say, without those elements
of the human psyche from which the Art of Theatre emerged, from which it
has been re-created for thousands of years and from which it will continue
to be reborn as long as human beings remain the natural fruit of love."</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica"><FONT SIZE=-1> [<A HREF="http://www.iti-worldwide.org/pages/wtd/00wtdmesf.htm">original
Greek]</A></FONT> </FONT>
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<FONT SIZE=-2> </FONT>You are welcome to use the World Theatre Day
texts and photograph and to circulate them. When you do so, please include
the following mention, and, if you display the material on Internet, we
ask you to add a link to the ITI site on Internet <A HREF="http://iti-worldwide.org">http://iti-worldwide.org</A>
<P>« WORLD THEATRE DAY was created in 1961 by the International Theatre
Institute (ITI). World Theatre Day is celebrated annually on the 27th March
by ITI Centres and the international theatre community, various national
and international theatre events being organized to mark this occasion.
One of the most important of these is the circulation of the International
Message traditionally written by a theatre personality of world stature
at the invitation of the International Theatre Institute. »
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