For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Joshua Henry Jenkins | [email protected]
Moisés Kaufman and Banna Desta Deliver World Theatre Day 2026 U.S. Messages
Accompanied by Willem Dafoe, who delivers the International World Theatre Day message.
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 theatres, artists, institutions, and audiences worldwide to celebrate World Theatre Day today, March 27, 2026.
Each year, a renowned theatre artist of international stature is invited by the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Worldwide to craft a global message marking the occasion. The 2026 International World Theatre Day message has been written by actor and theatremaker Willem Defoe.
“In a world that seems to get more divisive, controlling and violent, our challenge as theatre makers is to avoid the corruption of theatre solely as a commercial enterprise dedicated to the entertainment by distraction or as the dry institutional preserver of traditions, but rather to foster its strength to connect peoples, communities, cultures and above all to question where we are going.” - Willem Dafoe, International Message Author
The U.S. World Theatre Day message will be delivered by Moisés Kaufman, an internationally celebrated director and playwright. The U.S. Emergent Artist message will be delivered by playwright Banna Desta.
“Theatre does not provide solutions to global crises. It does something both more modest and more profound: it creates the conditions for intimate encounters. Within the space of a stage, we practice holding multiple truths. And we train in empathy.“ - Moisés Kaufman, U.S. Message Author
“The life of theatermakers, theaters and their audiences depends on us working collaboratively towards our united future. We must protect each other’s dignity.” - Banna Desta, U.S. Emergent Artist Author
Video recordings of both U.S. messages, along with translations, are now available on TCG’s website and will be shared on TCG’s social media throughout the day.
“World Theatre Day is an invitation to gather, to reflect, and to recommit to the power of storytelling. Through the voices of Moisés Kaufman and Banna Desta, we’re reminded that theatre is not only what happens onstage, but what we build together in community,” said Emilya Cachapero, Co-Executive Director of National and Global Programming at TCG. “We encourage theatremakers and audiences everywhere to celebrate World Theatre Day and carry forward the transformative power of theatre in shaping our futures.”
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 (2016). In 2025, the International World Theatre Day message was delivered by Theodoros Terzopoulos, with U.S. messages by Rosalba Rolón and Adam Ashraf Elsayigh.
To celebrate World Theatre Day, 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.
Willem Dafoe, Artistic Director of the Theatre Department at La Biennale di Venezia was among the founding members of The Wooster Group. Based at The Performing Garage in New York (1977-2004) they developed a distinctive approach to avant-garde theatre. He then went on to collaborate with Bob Wilson, Marina Abramovic, Richard Foreman and Romeo Castellucci. In the early 1980s, he also began working in cinema and since earned international acclaim for his versatility across both independent and mainstream films. He has received four Academy Award nominations and was awarded the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 2018. His commitment to theatre continues to shape his artistic vision and performance practice.
Moisés Kaufman received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016. He’s a Tony and Emmy-nominated director and playwright whose Broadway credits include Paradise Square (10 Tony Award nominations), Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams (Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Heiress with Jessica Chastain, 33 Variations with Jane Fonda (wrote and directed, Tony nomination Best Play), and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife (Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize). Other productions include: Pulitzer Prize finalist Here There Are Blueberries, Velour: A Drag Spectacular, Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard, Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk Award). He is the co-writer of The Laramie Project and the writer of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. He’s an Obie and Drama Desk award winner and a Guggenheim fellow.
Banna Desta (She/they) is an Eritrean and Ethiopian-American writer for the stage and screen who crafts stories about and for the African diaspora. She is the author of The Abyssinians (Audible); Midnight in Abyssinia (La MaMa’s CultureHub); Red Taxi; Bygone Fruit which premiered at the 2024 Women in Theater Festival and Pining which premiered at Rattlestick Theater and was published in Samuel French in 2019. Her work for the stage has been supported and workshopped by Atlantic Theater Company, The Apollo Theater, National Black Theatre, The New Group and the Dramatists Guild Foundation. She has held residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Art Omi, Marble House Project and Tofte Lake Center. She was a staff writer for the BET+ series First Wives Club (Netflix Top Ten). She has assisted multiple television series in both the writers room and on set, including FOX’s Filthy Rich, NBC’s This Is Us, and AMAZON’s Harlem. She has held fellowships with Sun Valley Writers Conference, Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film and The Gotham Film and Media Institute. She is a writing professor and arts educator at NYU, Rehabilitation through the Arts and Harlem Children's Zone.
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 help advance TCG’s global initiatives.
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 750 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and over 3,000 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 21 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 co-Executive Directors, Emilya Cachapero, LaTeshia Ellerson, and Alisha Tonsic.
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