World Theatre Day – March 27, 2012

International Message

“I am honored by the invitation of the UNESCO International Theatre Institute to greet the 50th anniversary of the first World Theatre Day. I will address a few brief thoughts to all my colleagues and friends in the theatres.

I wish your work to be compelling and original. I wish it to be profound, to move, to provoke reflection, to be unique. May it help us meditate on what it means to be human, and may this meditation be blessed with soul, sincerity, innocence and grace. I wish you to overcome adversity, censorship, poverty and nihilism, which many of you will surely be forced to do. I wish you to be blessed with the talent and rigor necessary to teach us the human heartbeat in all its complexity, as well as the modesty and curiosity necessary to make this your life's work. May the best among you - for only those, only rarely and only for a short time, will succeed - be able to illustrate the elementary question: "What is life like?". Good luck!" (John Malkovich)

John Malkovich

Biography: American actor, screenwriter and director, John Malkovich is primarily a stage actor. After discovering theater in the early 1970s at the University of Illinois, he founded the famous Steppenwolf theater company, along with Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry and Gary Sinise. He gained fame in cinema with his performance as Valmont in Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close. After this role, an important step in his career, he played in over 70 films, both in the US and abroad. His varied roles earned him two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, in Places in the Heart (1984) and In the Line of Fire (1993), and awards for his roles in Killing Fields, The Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich and Changeling.

In 2011 he directed his third theatrical production in Paris, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, at the Théâtre de l'Atelier, after the successes with Hysteria (Marigny, 2002) and The Good Canary (Comédie, 2007), for which he received the Molière Prize for direction.

National Message

“I don't think there is a more authentic way of relating to the realities of the nation in Romania today than theater. We are in the year of Caragiale and his characters constantly haunt us. In full development and decline, Romanian society is reflected in theater with an excess of measure. It is less than we would have expected and more than we would have imagined. If you go to the theater today, you are treated to a happy ending and catharsis, leaving home somewhat reconciled with the daily tragedy of transition.

„"The theater is the mirror of the world," Hamlet exclaimed, seeking salvation in his existential dilemma, "it shows virtue its face, sin its icon, and time and multitude their age, form, and limits."”

What more do you want?

Come to us, enjoy life, take what you like from our yard and head to the library – a haven where vanities are forbidden.

The theater has become the cradle of history where even the tormented citizen has his place, in a world full of "heroes" of our times.

Hello, my dears!” (Ion Caramitru – President of UNITER / Romanian ITI Center)