This day, 59 years ago during the 9th meeting of the International theatre institute of UNESCO, marks the day of the first International Theatre day, which we – the arists, celebrate to this very day.
To honor this holiday, we’ve prepared 10 interesting facts regarding our craft. Here they are:
1. The first professional theatre in Bulgaria was named “Luxembourg” and was founded in 1881 in Plovdiv.
2. The oldest recorded play was named “The Persians”and can be dated back to 452 B.C.
3. The longest uninterrupted play ever recorded was named “The Bald Singer”. It lasted 22 hours, 33 minutes and 54 seconds and was performed on the 27th of July 2010 in New Jersey.
4. In 1982 the Westminster theatre performed the play “Jewelry store”. The curious fact is that the play was written by pope John Paul II.
5. Because of the unexpected death of the actor playing lady Mcbeth, Shakespeare himself had to portray the role.
6. The record for most costumes during a theatre performance is 1.2 million and is held by Walt Disney Wordl in Florida.
7. In his will Tchaikovsky left his own skeleton to the Royal Shakespeare Company. That very same skull was used as Yorick in the 2008 rendition of Hamlet.
8. The great primabalerina Anna Pavlova was so superstitious that she refused to look at her own statue before going onstage.
9. The Southport theatre was designed by an architect who usually designed supermarkets. He had forgotten to put in any dressing rooms.
10. In many theatres one single light bulb is always left on. That’s to ensure that the dead will always have a light to which they could perform their plays and thus will never curse the performances.
Those were our 10 interesting facts. Do you know any others? Share them with us in the comment section.
