President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “We have increased the number of stages in state theatres from 23 when we took office to 77 today, and the number of supported private theatres from 59 to 328.”
President Erdoğan issued a message on the occasion of March 27, World Theatre Day.
In his message, President Erdoğan emphasised that theatre was one of the effective branches of art that brought the audience and the actor together under the same roof around a shared feeling when staging everything about life and people from the past to the present, and added, “Theatrical plays mirroring society and making audiences sometimes laugh and sometimes cry have earned the attention of people all over the world thanks to their various genres, such as tragedy, comedy, drama, opera, or musical, and various forms of stages.”
Expressing that they were pleased to see that theatre was enjoyed by people from all ages and segments in Türkiye, which had a rich history of theatre, President Erdoğan stated the following:
“We have provided solid support to the theatre sector, as in all other fields, for the development and spread of culture and art fed by our ancient civilisation and values in our country. We have increased the number of stages in state theatres from 23 when we took office to 77 today, and the number of supported private theatres from 59 to 328. Only in the 2020-2021 art season we have increased the amount of support we have provided to private theatres by 3.5 times compared to the previous season, hitting 21.5 million liras with digital theatre support. The support we have transferred to private theatres during the pandemic has reached 36.7 million liras as of today. In addition to the support packages, we have supported our theatres with concrete steps such as reducing VAT and halving the rental withholding tax rate. We will continue to strive to improve the conditions of the theatre industry and to enrich the culture and art world of our country.
I would like to express my gratitude to all our theatre artists who have recognised the great responsibility of theatre, made being role models for our society a philosophy for themselves, and contributed to the art life of our country by embracing our national and spiritual values along with our culture. I congratulate our theatre artists, staff and art lovers on World Theatre Day and greet all my citizens with my heartfelt feelings.”