World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People – March 20, 2012

Today is World Day for Children and Young People across the globe. Please visit the special website created for this date to watch a moving video and read the wonderful message from Suzanne Lebeau.

Theatre Direct is proud to be a part of a global movement to engage, inspire and empower children through theatre!

March 20^th 2012

Dear friends,

I love the theatre.
I love the magic of this art where we are all together
in the same room, and yet unique….
Everyone has his story,
barefoot or luxury sandals
in the cold of the poles or the heat of the tropics.
Each according to his mood,
his family, his tastes, the colour of his skin, his problems, his dreams.

I loved the theatre even more
when the actress that I was came to meet young audiences.
I realised just how fine the line is between fiction and reality.
Who is telling the truth, if truth exists?
Who is lying?
Who speaks better and more tenderly from man to man ….
Reality or fiction?

The temptation is great to believe that reality is truth
and that fiction lies.
Why then would a slap in the face,
a simple slap on stage, have upset me so
the other day
while
yesterday I watched, unmoved, live images of war on television
telling me that tomorrow there would be a bigger catastrophe
more serious
more fraught.

Why?
The question is fantastic – and inexhaustible.
It is this mystery which makes the theatre so precious and so rare.
All of you sitting there – waiting for the lights to come on …
Tell me, where is the truth, if truth exists?
Tell me, where are the lies, if lies exist?

With all my warmest wishes,

Suzanne Lebeau