With the hope that theatres will open again soon all over the world

On the occasion of the World Theatre Selfie Day

With the hope that theatres will open again soon all over the world

International message by Vito Minoia,

President of the International University Theatre Association (AITU-IUTA)

Educational and Inclusive Theatre Scholar at the Carlo Bo University in Urbino

On 20 April 2021 we celebrate World Theatre Selfie Day. This celebration was first introduced in 2019 in Russia by director and journalist Marina Merkoulova and promoted by "Media-project ARTIST" and the International Union of Theatre Festivals.

Since then, on 20 April every year everyone who wants to participate can take a photo with a theater in the background and share it online with the hashtag #TheatreSelfieDay (#ТеатрСелфи2021 in Russian).

In its first year the initiative was promoted with the aim of raising awareness towards theatre culture and to develop its digital memory. The title of this year’s event is "Theater, a collection of treasures''. It represents a step towards a deeper knowledge of international theater with an initiative that is educational and humanitarian at the same time. It sees the voluntary participation of students from the Faculty of Journalism of the Institute of Mass Media and Advertising of the Russian State University. 56 theatrical institutions, festivals and theater personalities from 14 countries have joined the event with the famous actress Daria Yurskaya of the Moscow Art Theater as the initiative's ambassador for Russia.

Vito Minoia was also invited as international ambassador of the event. President of the International University Theatre Association - AITU/IUTA, he took office in Moscow in 2018, during the XII World Congress of the association. He is an expert in educational and inclusive theater at the Carlo Bo University in Urbino where he founded Aenigma University Theater over 30 years ago; in 1996 he also founded the European Review "Catarsi Teatri delle Diversità".

Minoia chose to share his message from Cartoceto, a small village framed in the gentle hills of the Marche region, with the Teatro del Trionfo in the background. The theatre is to be reopened to the public after a long restoration process nearing completion. It has already been the location of important international initiatives such as a session of the VI World Congress of University Theatre held at the University of Urbino in 2006 with hundreds of students and university theatre groups from 35 countries. He stated in his message:

«Theater is the beating heart of a community. It is an educational practice that focuses on the construction of shared values which allow human growth and solidarity based on both "plurality" and "diversity". Diversity is a treasure and theater can unveil its value.

I wish that all theaters of the world will open as soon as possible, and I encourage all theatergoers to go in front of a theater and to take a lot of pictures with theatre as a background.» He also added «Thanks to theater activities, theatrical language can implement educational work addressed to all age groups, to citizens of all nationalities in an inclusive way. An active community that takes action to recover its own theatrical space, as in the case of Cartoceto, can represent a treasure, the symbol of rebirth after this dramatic pandemic that made us more aware of our common destiny. »

Further information and documentation can be found on the websites www.teatroaenigma.it and www.artistchannel.ru and on the Youtube channel “ArtistMediaChannel”. The video message is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzTjNeqcKA