MEHMET BİRKİYE HAS BECOME THE NEW CURATOR OF THE ISTANBUL THEATRE FESTIVAL

The curator for the 28th and 29th editions of the Istanbul Theater Festival, to be held in 2024 and 2025, has been announced as Prof. Mehmet Birkiye, director-actor and Head of our Drama and Acting Department. 

Mehmet Birkiye, one of the important representatives of the long-standing tradition of Kent Oyuncuları, who has directed numerous plays throughout his career and made significant contributions to academia both at Istanbul University State Conservatory and at the Department of Drama and Acting at Istanbul Aydın University, which he co-founded, will serve as the curator of the Istanbul Theater Festival for two years.

Mehmet Birkiye said of his new role, “The Istanbul Theater Festival is a gateway to world theater. Many theater artists have passed through this gateway and become acquainted with world theater. At least I can say this with confidence for myself. Now, thinking that I will also contribute to keeping this door open is an exciting responsibility. I hope we can bring our theater artists and audiences through this door and introduce them to the beauties of world theater.”

The 28th Istanbul Theater Festival, with a packed program curated by Mehmet Birkiye, will meet art lovers in October-November 2024, sponsored by Aygaz, Entek, Opet, and Tüpraş.

The Istanbul Theater Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), restructured its program in 2022 and decided that, starting this year, the festival program would be curated by a curator from the performing arts field. Işıl Kasapoğlu became the first curator of the Istanbul Theater Festival; the 26th and 27th Istanbul Theater Festivals, curated by Kasapoğlu in 2022 and 2023, brought many new productions featuring special projects designed for the festival, original texts, and different approaches to audiences.