Actors mark World Theater Day amid pandemic

ISTANBUL/ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Turkey's actors on March 27 marked the World Theater Day by releasing videos on social media and encouraging people to stay at home as the novel coronavirus continues spreading across the globe.

Veteran Turkish actress Çolpan İlhan and her son Kerem Alışık, who is also an actor and general art director of Sadri Alışık Theater in Istanbul, marked the World Theater day in a statement.

The meaning of love and theater are the same, they said: “Because theaters do not only open their stage curtains, they also open the curtains of our hearts.”

“The Alışık Theater could not open its curtains for the first time in 25 years,” the statement noted, and added: “Please stay at home and so stay healthy.”

Another Turkish actress Hatice Aslan, who played many films among Three Monkeys, which brought Turkey’s one of the most important director Nuri Bilge Ceylan Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival in 2008, took also social media to celebrate the World Theater Day.

“We believe that this period will end and we will be together again,” Aslan said.

Another veteran Turkish actor Ali Poyrazoğlu released a video on YouTube to mark the occasion: “This time I am clapping you,” he said, addressing theatergoers.

Meanwhile, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy marked the World Theater Day in a statement.

“While celebrating the World Theater Day for artists and art lovers, I hope that the curtains will open to our lives forever with its glory and richness,” he added.

World Theater Day has been celebrated across the world since 1962.