World Theatre Day was created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute, and is celebrated annually on March 27 by ITI Centers and the international theatre community, with the reading of a World Theatre Day Message and various national and international theatre events being organized to mark this occasion.

This year’s World Theatre Day celebrations will take place across the Lower Mainland throughout the month of March.

Each year a figure outstanding in theatre or from another field, is invited to share his or her reflections on theatre and international harmony.

What is known as the International Message is translated into more than 20 languages, read for tens of thousands of spectators before performances in theatres throughout the world and printed in hundreds of daily newspapers.

Colleagues in the audio-visual field lend a fraternal hand, with more than a hundred radio and television stations transmitting the Message to listeners in all corners of the world.

World Theatre Day is an occasion for theatre people to celebrate the power of the performing arts to bring people together, it is an opportunity to share with their audiences a certain vision of their art and its capacity to contribute to understanding and peace between peoples.

As well as the wide diffusion of the International Message the central feature of the Day, since its inception in 1961, is that it has included numerous events in all corners of the world, ranging from the almost intimate demonstration to the big popular celebration.

The International Theatre Institute was created in 1948 under the auspices of UNESCO, and it aims to promote cultural exchange and deepening mutual understanding between nations and thereby participate in the promotion of peace.