World Theatre Day and Dionysia

Hello my lovelies, how are you? I hope you are staying safe and staying home as much as you can. Today is World Theatre Day, and I’ve been waiting for it since last year because it is the perfect day to introduce Dionysia. I was asked to create a theatre inspired art doll for a theatre loving young lady!

Theatre is a performing art which is really an expression of our basic human need or instinct even, to mimic and tell stories, real or made up, to ourselves and others! We can see this in its purest form when children play and act out real or imagined characters. I remember being part of school plays and loving it. Once I was a sparrow, the star of the show mind you, another time the mother in Jack and the Beanstalk. But my favourite role, in my own private theatre, was being the winner of the Eurovision song contest. Hem, hem, but I digress. Even in some of the oldest human societies there is evidence of rituals that resembled theatre, way before the foundations of modern theatre in Ancient Greece!

Theatre gathers people together to watch the unfolding of a play, musical, drama, comedy, and share a performance that may be emotional, funny, moving, thought-provoking. Without an audience there can be no theatre. Every audience is different and brings its own vibe and energy to the performance. No two performances are the same, and that makes them truly magical and unique!

Ancient Kourion, Cyprus

”

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances

– William Shakespeare, from As You Like It

I really wanted to include the stage, curtains and seating, as well as, the traditional tragedy and comedy masks which are a symbol for drama. Apparently, the masks are also a symbol of Dionysus, the Greek God of wine, depicting the happy and sad emotions wine drinking may bring!

We can compare theatre to our lives. Sometimes we feel we’ve got the lead role and are the star of the show, sometimes not. Whatever the plot, it’s up to us to choose what story we want to tell and what role to play. The important thing is that as much as we can we should try and stay true to our own script. Although, sometimes, it is good to improvise!

One of the obvious ways to celebrate World Theatre Day would be to go to the theatre. Coronavirus has decided otherwise. But, I am excited to see that, some theatres are starting to offer free streaming on YouTube. For example, the National Theatre in the UK will be offering their productions for free, on YouTube, every Thursday starting April 2nd. “We will be streaming each production at the same time each week in order to recreate, where possible, the communal viewing experience and we hope this will be an opportunity for people to share their enjoyment together online.”

So, that’s all from me and Dionysia today. We leave you with this:

“To stay, or not to stay home: that is the question.”

We all know the answer.

Filakia, Sophie

#staysafe #protecteachother #stayhome

 

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