FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 26, 2021 || PRESS CONTACTS: Corinna Schulenburg | cschulenburg@tcg.org | 212.609.5941
Helen Mirren Delivers International World Theatre Day Message 2021
Olga Garay-English Delivers U.S. World Theatre Day message
“The creative urge of writers, designers, dancers, singers, actors, musicians, directors, will never be suffocated and in the very near future will flourish again with a new energy and a new understanding of the world we all share.”
“As a refugee to this country, having fled the Cuban revolution in 1961, I have come to believe in the absolute power of the arts to build community between often disparate peoples. Artists can create human connection and understanding in a way that politicians cannot.”
New York, NY – 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 60th annual World Theatre Day on March 27, 2021. 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 British actress Helen Mirren, and the U.S. World Theatre Day message has been given by Olga Garay-English, global arts leader. Both messages have been translated into multiple languages. Read all the World Theatre Day Messages here.
“Olga Garay-English has been a tireless champion for the arts and for cultural exchange, and we’re thrilled to share her moving U.S. World Theatre Day message,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. “After a year of social-distancing, border closures, and immeasurable human loss, these messages fill us with renewed hope, and remind us of theatre’s power in working across both physical and virtual divides.”
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 (2017). In 2020, the International World Theatre Message was given by Shahid Nadeem, and the U.S. World Theatre Message by Nicholas Viselli of Theater Breaking Through Barriers.
To celebrate World Theatre Day 2021, 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, Twitter; for TCG: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn; for The Lab: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Born in Cuba, Olga Garay-English has dedicated herself to championing international cultural exchange and engagement throughout her career. She was the Founding Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, among other appointments. She has supported several theater-related projects during her career, including roles as co-founder of the 35 year-old Miami International Hispanic Theater Festival; co-conspirator in establishing the Under the Radar Festival in New York City and the Radar LA Festival; curator of Lincoln Center’s 2007 Ibero-American Theater Festival; and Senior Advisor for International Affairs for Chile’s Fundación Teatro a Mil and the Festival Internacional Santiago a Mil. For her work over the last three decades, Olga has received awards including The LA Weekly Theater Award for Special Achievement, the Queen of the Angels, for her contributions to LA’s theater sector (2012). In 2006 she was awarded a “Bessie,” the New York Dance and Performance Award, for sustained contribution to the field of dance. The Association of Performing Arts Presenters gave her its most prestigious award in 2003, the Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award, honoring individuals whose outstanding service, creative thinking, and leadership have had a significant impact on the profession of performing arts presenting. She was named a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2012 to recognize her “significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields.”
Helen Mirren is one of the best known and most respected actresses with an international career that spans stage, screen and television and has won many awards for her powerful and versatile performances, including the Academy Award in 2007 for her performance in The Queen.
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.).
In addition to TCG’s work with GTI, TCG’s Global Initiatives include: publishing extensive coverage of international work in American Theatre; issuing peer consultation letters for international visa petitions; and advocating for cultural exchange and artists’ rights worldwide. For decades, TCG has also supported cultural exchange through grantmaking, and by leading delegations of U.S. theatre practitioners to festivals worldwide. The Dr. Kerry English Global Connectivity Manager and International Cultural Exchange Grants will help advance TCG’s global initiatives over the next ten years. To further support this initiative and work of TCG, please contact Kevin Bitterman, director of Institutional Advancement & Partnerships, at kbitterman@tcg.org.
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. www.tcg.org.
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