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Training

Our Vision

D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective’s goal is to use theatre as a tool for reflection and social change, and we believe movement and interaction to be the most influential form of theatrical expression.

Together with live performances, we also want to bring our training methods to the heart of the community to generate discussion and incite action.

D.I.V.E.’s training program focuses on developing the dramatic and political potential in movement. Blending physical theatre (Meyerhold’s Biomechanics), political theatre (Theatre of the Oppressed), devising techniques (Composition) and immersive theatre practices (Augusto Boal’s Invisible Theatre), we place community engagement and the human body at the centre of the theatrical process.

Our programs are open for actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists, students, teachers and performing arts enthusiasts who want to develop their acting skills, body awareness, self-expression, voice and stage dynamics.

  • Training Membership

    Training Membership

    Training Membership

    The D.I.V.E. Training Membership offers an excellent opportunity for theatre lovers seeking regular engagement and advancement in their craft. Training members enjoy valuable benefits:

    • A year pass to all of D.I.V.E.'s 2024 training workshops (valued at $1100)

    • An exclusive discount on D.I.V.E. Collective show tickets in the 2024 Season

    • Chances to win access to special events throughout the year

    • A beautiful D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective tee shirt

    This membership is particularly well-suited for amateur and seasonal performers looking for a compelling way to enhance their body awareness, self-expression, voice, self-confidence, stage dynamics, social connections, and acting skills within a unique and creative experience.

    It also caters to both emerging and established artists who wish to undergo more intensive training and rejuvenate their skills through a comprehensive exploration of various methodologies and techniques employed by D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective. These include Meyerhold’s Biomechanics, Theatre of the Oppressed, Devising, Investigative Theatre, Immersive Theatre, and Composition.

    Join us and become a part of a vibrant community of like-minded creatives dedicated to fostering connections, stimulating exploration, and encouraging collaboration.

    What is included in the Training Membership:

    1. Registration for eight workshops in 2024 for a great value deal. Workshop dates, times and locations are available here. For a full description of each workshop, click on the links below.

    2. An exclusive discount on tickets for D.I.V.E.'s 2024 show in May.

    3. Chances to win access to special events throughout the year, including dress rehearsals, performances and events organised by D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective or their partners.

    4. A beautiful D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective tee shirt.

    Cost: $ 765 (payment plans available)

    Duration: The Training Membership is valid for all workshops from the date of purchase to December 2024.

    Terms and Conditions: Before proceeding with the registration for D.I.V.E.’s Training Membership, please carefully review the registration terms and conditions here.

    The D.I.V.E. training program is edgy, intimate and challenging in the best possible way.

    2023 Training participant

    Being part of a vibrant and passionate group of creative people was so much fun!!! And an embodied experience of learning on a deeper level about different theatre practices.

    2023 Training participant

    The training program opened a window on new skills unfamiliar to me. I developed greater understanding, confidence and passion to continue. 

    2023 Training participant

  • Theatre of the Oppressed

    Theatre of the Oppressed

    Theatre of the Oppressed

    Dates

    No event found!

    In this 5-day intensive workshop, you will learn how to use theatre to make sense of difficult life situations and will gain the strength and confidence to deal with circumstances of injustice in your personal life, workplace, family setting or local community. Our aim is to encourage debate through the language of theatre, present alternatives and empower people to take the lead and become the central characters in their own life stories.

    By acting out rather than just talking about challenging episodes that happen to people in their daily routines, you will develop your critical thinking, team-building and problem-solving capabilities. Through theatre, you can take risks, analyse issues from different perspectives, and share spaces and experiences with the other participants.

    First developed by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal in the 1970s, Theatre of the Oppressed is a very influential instrument for individual mindfulness and wellbeing, conflict resolution, community building, social and political activism, and government legislation. It has been used worldwide to rethink oppression situations and effect transformation in people's lives and their communities.

    This week-long intensive includes games and group exercises to develop the physical senses, rhythms, sounds, space awareness, relationships, memory, emotions and imagination.

    We will focus on two theatrical styles developed by Augusto Boal: IMAGE THEATRE and FORUM THEATRE. The first involves a series of exercises designed to reveal the hidden truths about societies and cultures without resorting to the spoken word. Forum theatre is a theatrical game in which a possible solution to a problem is enacted by the audience.

    Through practical activities, discussions and a historical overview of Boal’s TO methodology, participants will have an in-depth experience of how Image Theatre and Forum Theatre can be a tool for social reflection, action and change. There will also be opportunities for participants to engage as actors, spect-actors and jokers.

    The workshop is led by D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective’s Artistic Director Cesar Genaro, who was born and trained in Brazil, having used and disseminated TO’s techniques throughout his career as an actor and director in Brazil and Australia.

    Terms and Conditions: Before proceeding with the registration for D.I.V.E.’s Training Membership, please carefully review the registration terms and conditions here.

    Very experiential learning.

    2020 Workshop participant

    Fun, moving, informative, dynamic.

    2020 Workshop participant

    It gave me a deep understanding of Forum Theatre and a reminder of how much I love to play.

    2022 Workshop participant

    Tickets and Dates
  • Performer’s Arena

    Performer’s Arena

    Performer’s Arena

    Dates


    No event found!

    Performer's Arena is a series of day-long physical theatre workshops for anyone looking for a compelling way to escape from the stress of daily life, gain new perspectives and experience our ground-breaking approach to transforming intriguing social issues into beautiful poetic stories on the stage.

    Develop your body awareness, self-expression, voice, self-confidence, stage dynamics, social connections and acting skills in a unique creative experience. You will be invited into the D.I.V.E. Collective’s training room and will join our ensemble in the same warm-ups, activities and creative routines we follow to prepare for our shows. You will be introduced to a series of physical exercises and group dynamics focused on strengthening your precision, balance, coordination and discipline. No experience is required.

    In a relaxed and friendly environment, you will be guided to explore your body's full capacity through movement, synchronisation, gesture, proximity, repetition and presence. You will learn how to use your physicality as the main medium for storytelling in your daily routine and on the stage. This workshop will enable you to gain confidence, challenge yourself and get acquainted with your body through theatre experiences that will help you improve soft skills such as leadership, communication, collaboration, problem-solving and adaptability.

    The Performer’s Arena workshop encompasses an in-depth approach to several methodologies and techniques used by D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective, including Meyerhold’s Biomechanics, Theatre of the Oppressed, Devising, Immersive Theatre and Composition.

    We invite anyone interested in exploring the relationship between body, mind and the social space, from the occasional theatre enthusiast to professional performing artists. Join us and be part of an engaging community of like-minded creatives aimed at fostering connections, stimulating investigation and encouraging cooperation.

    At D.I.V.E., we are deeply committed to physical theatre training. This allows us to stay connected, strengthen our artistic community and develop a collective language whilst improving a set of shared tools and skills to be used during devising and rehearsal periods.

    The Performer’s Arena workshop series is divided into two day-long training blocks during the year and is aimed at participants aged 18+. You are welcome to join at the start of any training block. No experience is required.

    Terms and Conditions: Before proceeding with the registration for D.I.V.E.’s Training Membership, please carefully review the registration terms and conditions here.

    Great training, well taught by a master.

    2020 Workshop participant

    Fun, intense, enlightening, embodied.

    2021 Workshop Participant

    It helped me gain awareness of how my body moves and balances.

    2023 Workshop participant

    Tickets and Dates
  • Invisible Theatre

    Invisible Theatre

    Invisible Theatre

    Dates


    No event found!

    In this workshop, you will learn how theatre can be used to discuss and transform reality with concrete actions. Immerse yourself in a real scene, feel empowered to assume your role as a citizen and give visibility to situations of oppression in your personal context, workplace, family setting or local community that are invisible in daily life.

    First developed by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal in the 1970s, Invisible Theatre is an influential method to generate public discussion about social injustice and effect transformation in the lives of people and their communities.

    Through a series of physical, sensory and memory theatre exercises, you will first be led to de-mechanise your body, ears and mind. This will enable you to develop your physical senses, rhythms, sounds, space awareness, relationships, memory, emotions and imagination. You will then be introduced to image games and character-building techniques used in theatre practice.

    This weekend-long experience will culminate in an “invisible” short performance that will be staged in a public space, where involuntary viewers become active participants in a real situation of oppression. In this way, spectators are real contributors, spontaneously reacting and giving opinions about the discussion provoked by the performers. It is theatre that takes place in a non-traditional performance space with an audience that does not know it is an audience.

    The workshop is led by D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective’s Artistic Director Cesar Genaro, who was born and trained in Brazil, having used and disseminated Invisible Theatre techniques throughout his career as an actor and director in Brazil and Australia.

    Terms and Conditions: Before proceeding with the registration for D.I.V.E.’s Training Membership, please carefully review the registration terms and conditions here.

    This was a great introduction to the philosophy and ideas behind theatre of the oppressed. The facilitator had a deep knowledge of this theatre style and it was fantastic to work with such open and creative people.

    2020 Workshop participant

    The workshop gave me the confidence to articulate oppression and intervene when necessary.

    2022 Workshop participant

    Edgy. Intimate. Challenging in the best possible way.

    2023 Workshop participant

    Tickets and Dates
  • Dancing With Words

    Dancing With Words

    Dancing With Words

    Dates and Tickets

    No event found!

    It was a lovely experience and fantastic to discover bits of myself and ways to express and engage with others.

    2023 Workshop participant

    The workshop helped me to find my voice, experiment with sounds and be creative.

    2023 Workshop participant

    It increased my awareness of the writing process.

    2023 Workshop participant

    Build your creative writing talents through guided movement routines, role plays and writing exercises, and apply them to the composition of expressive and poetic scenes, stories and poems for the stage, a book or an artistic project.

    This workshop series offers hands-on practice of creative writing, focusing on the contemporary stage and an in-depth exploration of sounds, words, sentences and texts in English and other languages. We offer an inclusive space that encourages participants of any linguistic background to explore their awareness of the relationship between spoken word, written language and physical body from their own cultural perspective.

    D.I.V.E. Theatre Collective’s unique approach to creative writing for the stage encompasses theatre games and exercises to relax your body/mind and sharpen the five senses. You will play and experiment with movements, relationships, time and the performance space. Then you will gradually see how sounds, words, sentences and dialogue naturally take shape on the stage without any conscious effort to make them occur. This is when theatrical poetry starts to materialise and the real craft of the creative writer begins.

    In a fun and relaxed environment, you will be encouraged to be an active creator by devising scenes, discovering movements to express spoken and written sentences, crafting texts, developing social connections and thinking creatively.

    The workshop is entirely conducted by the group's insights, creations and material, and guided by the directorship of Priscila Da Cunha, who has facilitated creative writing and theatre experiences in schools, community groups and arts organisations in Brazil and Australia for the last 15 years. She has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature, has published academic articles and edited several anthologies of short stories for young people.

    Dancing With Words is divided into four modules during the year. Each session is an independent unit; participants are encouraged to join anytime. This workshop is aimed at participants 18+.

    Modules

    Module 1: Dancing with sounds
    Discover your inner voice and explore with your body, pen and paper the expressive essence of the sounds in our language.

    Module 2: Dancing with words
    Find out how movement and relationships can lead words to naturally materialise onstage. Dive deep into these small acts of language and give wings to your free-spirited prose on paper.

    Module 3: Dancing with sentences
    Explore through theatre exercises and movement the four sentence archetypes (statement,
    command, exclamation and question) and guide them to craft your word power on paper.

    Module 4: Dancing with texts
    Devise short scenes for the stage and add colour to them through beautiful poetic texts, using juxtaposition and metaphors as a creative writing principle.

    Price: $60 per module or $210 for all four modules

    Terms and Conditions: Before proceeding with the registration for D.I.V.E.’s Training Membership, please carefully review the registration terms and conditions here.

    Tickets and Dates

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