To all my friends the theatre artists from around the world,
I write this message to you on World Theatre Day, and as much as I feel overwhelmed with
happiness that I am speaking to you, every fibre of my being trembles under the weight of
what we all suffer - theatre and non-theatre artists - from the grinding pressures and mixed
feelings amidst the state of the world today. Instability is a direct result of what our world is
going through today in terms of conflicts, wars and natural disasters that have had devastating
effects not only on our material world, but also on our spiritual world and our psychological
peace.
I am talking to you today while I have the feeling that the whole world has become like isolated
islands, or like ships fleeing in a fog-filled horizon, each of them spreading its sails and sailing
without guidance, not seeing anything on the horizon that guides it, and despite that, it
continues to sail, hoping to reach a safe harbour that contains it after its long wanderings in
the midst of a roaring sea.
Our world has never been more closely connected to each other than it is today, but at the
same time it was never been more dissonant and farther from each other than it is
today. Herein lies the dramatic paradox that our contemporary world imposes on us.
Despite
what we are all witnessing in terms of the convergence in the circulation of news and modern
communications that broke all the barriers of geographical borders, the conflicts and tensions
the world is witnessing exceeded the limits of logical perception and created, amidst this
apparent convergence, a fundamental divergence that distances us from the true essence of
humanity in its simplest form.
Theatre in its original essence is a purely human act based on the true essence of humanity,
which is life. In the words of the great pioneer Konstantin Stanislavsky, "Never come into the
theatre with mud on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside.
Check your little worries,
squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing – all the things that ruin your life and
draw your attention away from your art – at the door." When we ascend the stage, we ascend
it with only one life within us for one human being, but this life has a great ability to divide and
2 of 2 pages
reproduce to turn into many lives that we broadcast in this world so that it comes to life,
flourishes and spreads its fragrance to others.
What we do in the world of theatre as playwrights, directors, actors, scenographers, poets,
musicians, choreographers and technicians, all of us without exception, is an act of creating life
that did not exist before we got on stage.
This life deserves a caring hand that holds it, a loving
chest that embraces it, a kind heart that sympathizes with it, and a sober mind that provides it
with the reasons it needs to continue and survive.
I am not exaggerating when I say that what we do on stage is the act of life itself and
generating it from nothingness, like a burning ember that sparkles in the darkness, lighting the
darkness of the night and warming its coldness. We are the ones who give life its splendor. We
are the ones who embody it. We are the ones who make it vibrant and meaningful. And we are
the ones who provide the reasons to understand it. We are the ones who use the light of art
to confront the darkness of ignorance and extremism. We are the ones who embrace the
doctrine of life, so that life may spread in this world.
For this, we exert our effort, time, sweat,
tears, blood, and nerves, everything we have to do in order to achieve this lofty message,
defending the values of truth, goodness, and beauty, and truly believing that life deserves to
be lived.
I am speaking to you today, not just to speak, or even to celebrate the father of all arts,
“theatre,” on his world day. Rather, I invite you to stand together, all of us, hand in hand and
shoulder to shoulder, to call out at the top of our voices, as we are accustomed to on the
stages of our theatres, and to let our words come out to awaken the conscience of the entire
world, to search within you for the lost essence of humanity. The free, tolerant, loving,
sympathetic, gentle and accepting human. And to let you reject this vile image of brutality,
racism, bloody conflicts, unilateral thinking, and extremism. humans have walked on this earth
and under this sky for thousands of years, and will continue to walk.
So take your feet out of
the mire of wars and bloody conflicts, and leave them at the door of the stage. Perhaps them
our humanity, which has become clouded in doubt, will once again become a categorical
certainty that makes us all truly qualified to be proud that we are humans and that we are all
brothers and sisters in humanity.
It is our mission, us playwrights, the bearers of the torch of enlightenment, since the first
appearance of the first actor on the first stage, to be at the forefront of confronting everything
that is ugly, bloody, and inhuman. We confront it with everything that is beautiful, pure, and
human. We, and no one else, have the ability to spread life. Let us spread together for the
sake of one world and one humanity.