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World Theatre Day Address

By Walter Borden
2026 Canadian World Theatre Day Ambassador

It gives me great pleasure, as the Canadian World Theatre Day Ambassador for 2026, to share this day not only with the theatre makers, organizers, audiences, supporters and policy makers who make up our extraordinary Canadian theatre community, but also with our fellow theatre communities around the world.

We all know that we are currently trying to do our best to make our way through some turbulent and perilous times, and we are often overwhelmed with feelings of isolation, confusion, despair and helplessness. Yet, it is in the midst of this chaos that we are celebrating theatre and it seems to me the precise moment in time when we should be. That theatre is ever the great antidote against all that would seek to rob us of our very being is not a romantic notion, but rather a truth verified by history. When spiritual decontamination is in order, theatre comes knocking at the door. It raps loudly and urgently at the door of the theatre makers and in deference to its purpose, it must be greeted with truth, humility, sincerity, honesty, simplicity, passion and compassion, sympathy and empathy, sharing and caring, understanding, joy and infinite love. These are the tools that theatre artists use to fashion each and every performance. Without them, as my acting teacher told me long ago, you're not acting; you're merely acting up.

This year's theme for Canada World Theatre Day celebrates the Canadian Identities and the enhancement of the illumination of their contributions to Canadian Theatre. It is too convenient, too easy, to think of one Canadian identity. We are inconveniently Canadian. There are forty-one million voices that can tell forty-one million stories in this nation of ours, each story no less valid or no less vital than any other. Collectively they tell our Canadian story; without them our story remains incomplete. Each one is essential to lifting up our Canadian sovereignty. These voices come from a myriad of Groupings or Identities, each distinguished by its own uniqueness. Therefore, the stories that they tell are likewise endowed.

Now it has been wisely said that we are more alike than we are unalike, and with that I have no dispute. But I would suggest most strongly that it is in the realm of the unalike where the heart beats its greatest truth and the most luminous threads of our greater self are spun. That is why we seek to gain access to that mystery and wonderment. It is in all those ways that we are unalike, that we are unique – that is where Canadian Theatre lives and asks questions. And where we must continue to push to make room for those stories to find their spotlight.

Enter the vanguard of the theatre makers: the playwright, the dramaturg, designers, producers, the director, choreographers, and the actors, each armed with same essential tools along with those specific to their craft. The essentials for all these artists are the ability to Look and SEE with the third eye and to Listen and HEAR with the third ear; the eye and ear of the heart and soul. A staggering amount of artistic creativity ultimately produces the final product but the genesis

International Theatre Institute ITI
World Organization for the Performing Arts

Message from World Theatre Day 2026 Ambassador:
Willem DAFOE, USA, Actor, Theatre Maker

I am an actor principally know as a film actor. But my roots are deeply in the theatre. I was a member of the Wooster Group from 1977-2003 creating and performing original pieces at The Performing Garage in NYC and touring throughout the world. I have also worked with Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci. Now, I am the Artistic Director of The Venice Theatre Biennale. This appointment, the events in the world, and my desire to return to theatre work has strongly formed my belief in the unique positive power and importance of the theatre.

At the humble beginning of my time in The Wooster Group, the NY based theatre company, we would often get very little public at some of the performances at our theatre. Often the rule was if there were more performers than public we could choose to cancel. But we never did. Many of the company were not trained in the theatre but were people of different disciplines that came together to make theatre- so “the show must go on” was not really our mantra, however we felt an obligation to keep our meeting with the public.

We would also often rehearse during the day and in the evening show the material as a work in progress. We would sometimes spend years on a show while sustaining ourselves with touring of older performances. Working years on a piece would often become tedious for me and I found rehearsals somewhat trying but these works in progress showings were always exciting- even if the tiny public was a damning judgment of the level of interest in what we were doing. It just made me realize how no matter how few people, the audience as witness gave the theatre its meaning and life.

Like the sign in the gambling hall says “YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN.” Shared experience in real time of an act of creation, that may be scored and designed but is always different, is certainly the obvious strength of the theatre. Socially, politically, theatre has never been so important and vital to our understanding of ourselves and the world.