Theater Artists March Despite Prevention: Art Cannot be Prevented

* Photographs and videos: Pınar Tarcan - bianet

Click to read the article in Turkish

Today is March 27 World Theater Day. On this occasion, theater artists have gathered in Kadıköy, İstanbul and marched from the Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center to the Süreyya Opera House despite the restriction previously announced by the District Governorship of Kadıköy. Artists have chanted the slogan, "Stages are ours, streets are ours."

CLICK - 'We Will Not Bow to the Ban Without a Ban'

Though the district governorship demanded that artists hold their march in the Tuesday Bazaar Area for "reasons of security ahead of local elections" and due to "the possibility that it could affect pedestrian traffic negatively," the people of Kadıköy have also participated in the march.

Mayor of Kadıköy also attended the march

Organized by the Kadıköy Theaters Platform and supported by the Union of Theater and Movie Artists (Oyuncular Sendikası), the march has been attended by artists Genco Erkal, Enis Fosforoğlu, Pervin Bağdat, Serdar Opçin, Taner Rumeli, Orhan Aydın, Teoman Kumbaracıbaşı and Cansu Fırıncı as well as Mayor of Kadıköy Aykurt Nuhoğlu.

Ending their march in front of the Süreyya Opera House near the District Governorship of Kadıköy, Volkan Yosunlu, a member of the Kadıköy Theaters Platform, has made a speech on behalf of the platform.

In his speech, Yosunlu has stated the following:

'We reject all types of attacks against art'

"March 27 is celebrated as the Theater Day in several parts of the world. Celebrations, marches and demonstrations are organized, telling how the art of theater changes people with people.

"On the other side, theater halls are closed, theater plays are prohibited, artists are investigated or imprisoned.

"We, the Kadıköy Theaters Platform, reject all types of attacks against art."

'Don't give up on the stage or yourself'

Afterwards, theater actor Enis Fosforoğlu has read out the statement of the platform. Some of the highlights from the statement were as follows:

"The world changes with a single cue, with a single outcry.

"When you think that you live the darkest, the most silent moment, do not ever give up on the street, the life, the stage or yourself.

"Take your strength from Pişekar, Kavuklu, Prometheus, Antigone, Romeo, Juliet, Zilha, Nazım, which defy the time; get your strength from your neighborhood, from your homeland; watch, do, be a part of this river flowing for centuries, turn your face towards the stage.

"March 27 World Theater Day is ours, it is the day of all of us!"

'It hurts us when we see artists sentenced to prison'

Serdar Orçin from the Unions of Theater and Movie Artists has also read a statement on behalf of the union:

"Today, we celebrate March 27 World Theater Day with different feelings.

"Over the last years, our theaters and theater artists have been facing bans, preventions and pressures which have taken totally different forms. Yes, the art of theater is perhaps always targeted by political and social power in every period of history and in almost every geography.

"Because theater cures people, it cures the eyes and consciences which the ones holding power try to blind.

"...For the last years, there are theater plays prevented with covert tactics in disguise of 'free market' dynamics; there are artists who can either not find themselves a theater hall due to pressures or the theater halls allocated to them are taken away because of unending 'repair' works.

"There are our artist friends who are sentenced to prison due to the opinions that they express on social media or the comments that they make on theater pieces played for centuries. It hurts us when we see them."

Referring to the restriction imposed on the March of World Theater Day by Kadıköy District Governorship, Orçin has ended his remarks by saying, "Long live the organized solidarity, long live free theater..." (PT/SD)