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World Theatre Day

World Theatre Day is an annual celebration of everything related to the stage. Started in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute, each year various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion.

Theatre captures the essence of our societies, our traditions, and our culture better than perhaps any other art-form, and though performances end, plays live on for as long as they are loved and cherished. They are preserved through repetition, or described in books, or captured on film and stored in archives.

These documents; be it the plays themselves, or everything that surrounds them, are an important part of our history. We’re proud to present these memories from the past, now made available again though EUscreen.

We hope you’ll enjoy these few fun and interesting clips about European theatre from the last few decades! Feel free to search our collection for plenty more videos about theatre, dance and performance, on EUscreen.eu!

Interview with Karl Farkas

The great actor talks about his life, profession and his passion for painting.

ORF/Austria, 1971 [German][04:06]

Nadja Tiller at a cocktail party

Footage of actress Nadja Tiller with her parents on her visit to Vienna in 1960.

ORF/Austria, 1960 [Silent][02:30]

Interview with Dame Peggy Ashcroft

Dame Peggy Ashcroft, one of Britain’s top stage actresses, on why she chose the theatre over TV.

BBC / United Kingdom, 1956 [English][02:20]

Interview with Radu Beligan

Radu Beligan talks about the tournament of the Comedy Theatre in Paris.

TVR/Romania 1965 [Romanian][01:45]

La Divina

Current trends in contemporary Polish theater.

NINA/Poland 2010 [Polish][26:13]

My Theater

Theater actress Halina Winiarska about her life and career.

NINA/Poland 2013 [Polish][11:27]

Dario Fo at the Comédie Française

Dario Fo stages Molière’s “The Flying Doctor” at the Comédie Française, in the tradition of the Commedia dell arte.

INA/France, 1990 [French][01:32]

Conversation with Eugène Ionesco

Eugène Ionesco on his youth spent between Romania and France, his theatre works, and the meaning of the word “absurd”.

INA/France, 1960 [French][07:37]

Centre Dramatique de l’Est in Alsace

The creation of the Centre Dramatique de l’Est in 1947 is testimony to the decentralization of the theatre after the war, and this theatre continues to thrive.

INA/France 1968 [French][04:50]

Theatre of the Czechoslovak Army

Backstage at the Theatre of the Czechoslovak Army where the actors are preparing for a performance, and an extract from the play “War with the Newts” by Pavel Kohout.

CT/Czech Republic 1963 [Czech][03:02]

The Bartered Bride in Mongolia

The State Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, presents the opera “The Bartered Bride”.

CT/Czech Republic 1983 [Czech][05:40]

Act one

A program about the entrance auditions at the Theater Institute in Barcelona.

TVC/Spain, 1996 [Spanish][28:00]

Eccentric dance

A captivating performance by ballet dancer Česlovas Žebrauskas.

LCVA/Lithuania, 1961 [Music][01:49]

Aliodija Ruzgaitė dances

Ballet dancer Aliodija Ruzgaitė performs choreographic miniatures full of humour and charm.

LCVA/Lithuania, 1961 [Music][03:45]

Interactive online theater
germany
Actor Herbert Fritsch stages “Hamlet” in Berlin as an interactive play, making Berlin’s Volksbühne the first German theater to combine theater with the Internet.

DW/Germany, 2001 [German][04:26]

Forbidden Fruit


Robert Ciulli stages a co-production of the Theater an der Ruhr and the Dramatic Arts Center in Tehran. It is the first Iranian-European co-production in 20 years.

DW/Germany, 2002 [German][24:56]

Theatre for children

nice
A performance of the puppet theatre play “Žogica Marogica”.

RTV SLO/Slovenia, 1963 [Silent][00:44]

15 years of puppets on stage


Puppets, puppeteers and a glimpse of what is happening under the stage.

RTV SLO/Slovenia, 1964 [Silent][00:54]

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