SDSU's Twelfth Annual Theatre of the World Festival March 14, 2009

The Theatre of the World Festival is a celebration of arts for the whole family. This year's theme is Many Stories, Many Truths - Voices of the Middle East, highlighting the diversity and richness of Middle Eastern cultures and including numerous innovative and interactive arts events, such as plays, music, dance, and film in various venues. A free outdoor "Fringe Festival" will fill the Performing Arts Plaza and will include food, music, crafts, face painting, street performers, and a giant puppet parade.

A variety of local, national, and international performances are scheduled including the U.S. debut of Rising to the Pits, a large-scale production by the Jordanian National Center for Culture and Performed Arts. This black comedy takes the audience on a journey through the minds of characters with conflicting views and ambitions, all aspiring to live in dignity.

Other exciting festival offerings include an original play titled, 1001 Grains of Sand: A Young Person's Journey Around the Earth, featuring a collaboration of actors, musicians and dancers who tell a rich tale of imagination and memories through stories and song; and Inside Story: Middle Eastern Tales another original play utilizing live performance, music, video, and Egyptian-style shadow puppets to examine the nature of friendship and the significance of identity.

Music is also a large part of this year's festival, and includes a performance by Swarmius, a San Diego-based high-energy, interactive musical group whose mission is to create a multi-cultural music that is a natural result of today's rich cultural fabric. Their performance will explore the musical heritage of Iran, Iraq and Turkey as transmitted through nomadic Gypsies over the past 1,000 years.

Free parking is available in Lot 4 off of 55th Street. There will be ample directional signs leading from Lot 4 to the performance venues.

$20 Festival All Day Pass.

Official Website: http://tyme.sdsu.edu/index.php?page=totw2009