How will you be celebrating Theatre Day this year?

Guest writer Chris Fung wishes a Happy Theatre Day to all Victorians working in the Arts. And to everyone else who wants to partake in the celebrations…

Very few people in the world today understand the powerful thrill of proclaiming things.

Gone are the days when a man could simply poke a flag into the earth and proclaim that all who live here must henceforth pay taxes.

Now we have democracy. If you tried that, people would ask you questions filled with ‘W’s. They would give you precedents and pontificate and pose exceptions and politely ask you what you were doing in their backyard.

Horrid isn’t it? I put it to you: is anybody actually “happier” now that everybody has a reason for doing things? Oh how simple and bliss-filled and happy would it be to return to those heady days of senseless proclaiming. How our world has decayed at the hands of this global obsession with LOGIC and REASON.

Good reader, I say that it is never too late! You can – and should – begin right now.

For, on this day 28 years ago, Winsome McCaughey proclaimed that all theatre makers should be given a kitten and vodka*.

That theatre makers should be kissed and hoisted onto shoulders to be spun around with abandon*.

That theatre makers should have a day where everybody listened intently to everything that they had to say about themselves*.

And that day should always be, for a very precise and important reason, the third Tuesday in every February.

WHY?

Shut up with your ‘why’.

Winsome McCaughey, then Lord Mayor of Melbourne, intended his decree to be enforceable only within the bounds of his rule. But I ask you good citizen: why must there be limitations upon his proclamation?

Why must the Victorians have all of the fun?

There is a war going on between Melbourne and the rest of Australia. It is a war for ownership of one man’s long-since spoken proclamation, and the right to do things in the name of it.

Pick a side and post your pictures/stories using the hashtag #TheatreDay2015 on social media. We want to see all of the festivities across Australia! (And we will collate them all in a special Theatre Day photo feature on AussieTheatre.com!) 

It’s Theatre Day! How are you going to celebrate yours?

*There is no mention of kittens or vodka, kisses or shoulder rides in the proclamation. However, it might exist in the fine print…