Letter to Cecile Alvarez affirms significance of World Theater Congress

International Theater Institute Secretary General Jennifer M. Walpole writes the following thank-you letter to Cecile Guidote Alvarez, president of the ITI Philippine Center, member of the ITI executive council, Presidential Adviser for Culture, and NCCA executive director. The letter affirms the over-all significance of the 31st World Theater Congress, the first-ever held in Asia, which Mrs. Alvarez organized and initiated.

Dear Ms. Alvarez, Dear Cecil,

On behalf of the Executive Council and all ITI members, I would like to express heartfelt thanks to the Philippine Centre – chaired by Dr. Alejandro Roces and under your presidency – and its national partners, for the organization of the 31st International Theatre Institute World Congress: "From Ancestral Roots to new Artistic Routes of Expression: Mobilizing Cultural diversity to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals in Manila, from 22 to 28 May 2006.

ITI was greatly encouraged by the support of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her personal involvement in this Congress and commitment in its theme, and immensely honoured by the warm and generous welcome reception she gave, during which she addressed the delegates.

We thank most sincerely the Inter-Agency Committee led by the NCCA, supervised by the Department of Education with the Department of Foreign Affairs as co-convenors, with Mayor Atienza as host. We much appreciated the assistance generously provided by the Manila Hotel, the CCP, WOW Intramuros and Emilio Aguinaldo College.

We realize the extent of the gigantic task you carried out and the amount of coordination needed to make this Congress happen, and we appreciate profoundly all the work done over such a long period by yourself in cooperation with so many other individuals and organizations.

As hoped and planned, this was indeed an exceptional Congress which broke new ground in affirming the relation between theatre and life in a new way by highlighting the potential of the performing arts for achieving vitally necessary social change. For the first time in an ITI World Congress, social intervention theater was given center stage. ITI has always insisted that Theater and Culture in general are essential for sustainable development, but this time the focus was explicitly on theatre as an instrument for alleviating universal social problems and making a contribution to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals – in particular the elimination of extreme poverty.

The Theatre Olympics of the Nations festival, which involved the current professional work of many ITI members, also gave the Congress a new dimension, many ITI members having an opportunity for the first time to share their artistic creation on topics of local, national and universal social concern both with each other and Philippine audiences.

The lively and colourful zarzuela "Something to Crow About" directed by yourself and based on a story by Dr. Roces was an ideal opening performance for the Olympics. It was an exemplary illustration of cooperation between numerous artists and institutions that not only introduced delegates to several important aspects of Philippine cultural life and character (importance of music, singing and cockfighting) but was directly relevant to the UN MDGs, showing the amelioration of relations evolve in a couple as the husband’s behaviour is changed with a little help from their friends, and the wife regains her dignity and rightful place in the couple.

The Colloquium on the Congress theme organized by Marilou Jacob, Secretary General of the Philippine ITI Centre, enabled us to hear from delegates both from the Philippines and other continents. Herculean efforts were made to ensure a significant presence from Africa – from Congo, Sierra Leone, Togo and Burkina Faso – in spite of severe travel difficulties, and we thus had the privilege of hearing about their praxis and theory of theatre work for the MDGs while delegates from Nepal, Bangladesh, Costa Rica and Colombia enlightened us about the potential of ancient cultural and religious traditions for modern theatre practice and for helping young people establish their cultural identity.

The considerable effort made by the Philippines to widen participation in this event far beyond current ITI membership and draw in representatives from many countries not yet members of ITI met with great success. This farsighted policy led to consolidation of Asian and Arab countries’ participation in ITI and even went as far as enabling for the first time during a Congress, the on-the-spot adhesion of a new member (Pakistan) which fulfilled all conditions for membership and was thus immediately granted full voting rights in the General Assembly.

The Philippines ITI Centre thus brilliantly demonstrated its capacity to spearhead ITI outreach in the Asia-Pacific regions, to firmly link cultural activity with all forms of genuine development of a country and to introduce the performing arts as an effective instrument in these processes. The pioneering nationwide programme of "Theater for All", a unique project developed in collaboration with the ITI/UNESCO Chair "Theater and Culture of Civilizations", was a resounding success and spread the impact of Congress events and the goals of UNESCO and ITI far beyond the capital and into the various provinces of the country. In this context, we would like to add a special word of thanks to Arsenio (Nick) Lizaso, coordinator of the Congress Educational Programme and the ITI/UNESCO Chair Schools festival events.

We warmly congratulate the Philippines as the venue for the creation of a special bureau of the ITI/UNESCO Chair for the Programmes of "Theatre for All" and the "Training of Trainers" in the Asia Pacific region.

The Congress organizers must also be particularly congratulated on the delicate balance maintained between the national and international. While the international delegates had an opportunity to become aware of important social issues in the Philippines and the measures being taken regarding these, at the same time, delegates’ own attempts to alleviate social problems worldwide – in their own through the use of theatre were accorded a new importance and urgency.

The active presence of political, social and artistic leaders in the Leaders Forum and in the Congress in general meant that a whole network of new contacts and potential partnerships was opened up for participants at both an artistic and socio-political level. We were particularly privileged to have the presence of ASEAN leaders and to hear Secretary General Ong Keng Yong and envisage cooperation with this organization. Our deep thanks go to the Philippine Centre organizers of the Congress for facilitating and encouraging these contacts which will now be consolidated and developed by ITI Centres, Regional Bureaus, Programme Committees, and the Executive Council at national, regional and international levels. The reverberations of the positive aspects of this Congress will certainly be amplified and continue long after the event.

We congratulate the Philippine Centre on the successful collaboration organized with UNESCO and thank you for the manner in which you so dynamically and carefully implicated the Director General of UNESCO in this event, planning a programme that enabled him to have a first-hand hands-on understanding of the capacities and potential of ITI as a partner in working to achieve UNESCO’s goals.

Our thanks go also to the Philippine Delegation at UNESCO under the leadership of former Ambassador Hector Villaroel, to the Philippines UNESCO National Commission led by educational expert, Ambassador Preciosa Soliven, and the UNESCO Secretariat.

The special Message from UN SG Kofi Anan and the presence of the UN Resident Coordinator Ms. Noble at our final General Assembly, bringing the support of the UN agencies, were an honour and inspiration for ITI.

Last but not least, we greatly appreciated the key role played by our sister organization PEN and our deep thanks go to its leader Dr. Isagani Cruz for his fraternal support and to ITI/PEN secretariat members.

Please pass on our gratitude and thank each and every one of those persons who worked so tirelessly day and night, giving generously of their time and energy for the various events of this Congress – those whom we met and got to know and appreciate personally, and also those who worked constantly behind the scenes.

In conclusion, I wish to convey to you formally, but also personally, the resolution of thanks from the International Theatre Institute to the Philippine Government and the Philippine ITI that was unanimously approved with a standing ovation by the General Assembly of the 31st ITI World Congress at its final session on 28th May 2006.

With my own warm thanks to you yourself, dear Cecile, for your inestimable personal investment in this Congress and my congratulations on a remarkable success.

Yours sincerely,

(Sgd.) JENNIFER M. WALPOLE
Secretary General