ASSITEJ World Day of Theatre and Performance for Children and Young People is an ASSITEJ campaign, promoted and celebrated through the message ‘Take a Child to the Theatre, Today’.
This focus enables National Centres, Affiliates, companies, arts organisations, academics, teachers, artists, practitioners and others interested in theatre for young audiences to connect with the idea of world day and ‘make the case’ for children’s entitlement to theatre and the arts.
All ASSITEJ members are invited to promote special world day messages written every year, and consider additional activity – large or small. Each year ASSITEJ Centres around the globe deliver activities ranging from conferences, performances, workshops and special media events connected to #takeachildtothetheatre. 
2025 World Day Message from Sue Giles, President of ASSITEJ International
Take a Child to the Theatre TODAY: or take the theatre to the child – live performance is part of life! Live performance is a shared experience that brings people together around ideas and emotions – a vital and necessary part of resilient communities and vibrant arts practice. The World Day of Theatre campaign Take a Child to the Theatre Today has been a long running focus on access for children and young people to their cultural rights. Children and young people are marginalised in most societies because of their age: their dependence on adults for shelter, safety, food, means that their own power, control and choice can be limited. This is most often the case when it comes to accessing culture. If we consider children and young people as cultural citizens, their contribution to culture their right to access art is made clear from the moment they enter the world. We know that access to theatre and performance for children and young people is in many places becoming harder and harder; because of lack of cultural policies; decreased or cut cultural funding; arts in education systems minimized or removed; or because of the collapse of inclusive societies through war, disaster; or as a result of the ideologies of governments. Our job therefore becomes more important and the need for what we offer increases. What we offer is shared experiences where strangers are next to each other in community, experiencing together work created for , with and by children and young people that open minds and hearts, that offer difference of interpretation, that allow for individual expression and feeling. Live theatre and performance takes each and every person, of every age, into a place that offers stories. Stories that are about us and our humanity; our frailty and our strength and people everywhere need to be reminded of our humanity. ASSITEJ International chooses to spotlight World Day of Theatre as a positive and optimistic call for those with power to fling open the doors for children and young people to access live theatre and performance, and for artists to make their work more visible, accessible and relevant to those with the most barriers to arts and culture. How we, the ASSITEJ community around the world, find ways to do this, is very important to share. Your own campaign and approach is inspiration for others, including national or regional projects, fundraising campaigns, awareness raising, surveys on value, audience responses, innovative presentation models, and more. Our toolkit has ways and means for you to expand your influence and we urge you to engage on March 20, to make some noise about theatre and performance for, with and by children and young people in the world.
