"I consider this 10-Day TfL training (July 2024) to be one of the most important courses I have signed up for in my life so far. There are few people whose way of making theatre really makes me feel at home. Yours is one of them. I carry what I saw and experienced into my own work now." —Johanna Gremme
"David Diamond’s 10-day Theatre for Living Training Workshop was an amazing life changing experience. So glad I had the opportunity to do this."
Terri Madden, Founder & Managing Director, Playbuilders of Hawai’i Theater Company; Past-President, Hawai’i State Theater Council, August, 2024
"I highly recommend David’s 10-day Theatre for Living training. I found the new format of having levels one and two together incredibly useful. I did the levels one and two 10 years ago, and then started facilitating the workshops. Coming back with a level of experience and redoing the training was deeply profound. I got a much clearer sense of where I am a facilitator and can settle into myself. Theatre for Living is a strong, beautiful living community, I’m blessed to be part of it. David is a high master in this, and redoing the training was a real inspiration and an invigorating experience. I highly recommend it - whether you come from a community social organization perspective, teachers, faith leaders - really anybody who’s working with communities that want to look at underlying issues contributing to the struggles we face - struggles that are most influenced by human behavioural systems."
The (Irreverent) Reverend Meg Roberts
"The 10-day Theatre for Living training (August 2024) is a gift that keeps on giving. Exercises that we did, stories that you shared, and conversations with other participants continue to filter into my consciousness and change things. Previously, I'd understood intellectually that there is no 'us and them' but after participating in the TfL training, I 'get' this on a deeper level. We are all in this together and this awareness leads to different choices. Thank you for sharing Theatre for Living. I am grateful for your generosity, knowledge, humour, and clarity."
Laurie Anderson, Certified Professional Co-active Coach
The 26th Annual Theatre for Living (TfL) Trainings will be:
July 19, 2025 – July 29, 2025 (OPEN)
9AM – 5:30PM daily (The 25th is a day off)
10 days, 8 hours/day. 30 participants maximum
Where: Ukrainian Hall, 805 East Pender St, at Hawks Ave, Vancouver, BC
Join activists, artists, educators, mediators, anyone interested in stimulating authentic dialogue about issues facing humanity who come from around the world for these popular training sessions. NO THEATRE EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY.
Theatre for Living (TfL) has evolved from Brazilian Director Augusto Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed". Since 1989 TfL has slowly moved away from the binary language and model of "oppressor/oppressed" and now approaches community-based cultural work from a systems-based perspective that acknowledges a community (and all life on the planet) is a complexly integrated, living organism. At this time when polarization is deepening around the world, how do we build bridges of understanding and true collaboration - not walls?
"This is truly crossing the boundaries of our differences and moving toward a dance which celebrates and honours our diversity."
Lori Whiteman, Superintendent Aboriginal Education Unit, Saskatchewan Learning
What happens in this training?
The only way to give people Theatre for Living techniques is to do the work with them subjectively. As people come from around the world and from very different contexts, I have found over the years there is something we all will share. Be prepared to use your own life experiences as someone who works on or is interested in 'social justice / human / environmental rights' as subject matter in the training. This can apply inside your work, family or internally. Likely a combination of these! Because this is a training session, we will spend one hour each day (starting on day 2) looking objectively at the previous day's work.
The days (generally – this may change)
| DAY | ACTIVITY |
| 1 | Group building, issue investigation, Image Theatre, Circle |
| 2 | Discussion, Group building, issue investigation, Image Theatre, Circle |
| 3 | Discussion, Group building, issue investigation, Rainbow of Desire, Circle |
| 4 | Discussion, Group building, issue investigation, Forum Theatre structure, Play creation, Circle |
| 5 | Discussion, Group building, Play rehearsal, Circle |
| 6 | Discussion, Group building, Forum Theatre, Circle |
| 7 | DAY OFF |
| 8 | Discussion, Participants facilitate group building games and Images with feedback, Circle |
| 9 | Discussion, Participants facilitate group building games, Images and Forum Plays with feedback, Circle |
| 10 | Discussion, Participants facilitate group building games, Forum Plays with feedback, Circle |
| 11* | Discussion, Cops in the Head, Your Wildest Dream, Discussion, Circle *There is a group dinner, usually at the wonderful Afghan Horsemen Restaurant, in their pillow room, after the end of Day 11. |
Who is the Joker?
David Diamond. David is the recipient of many theatre and human rights awards. He has over 40 years of history working in more than 650 communities throughout BC and across Canada and the USA, also in Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Brazil, Namibia, Ethiopia and Singapore and with numerous Indigenous Nations (Gitxsan, Wet'suwet'en, Haida, Sto:Lo, Nu-chah-nuulth, Mohawk, Passamaquoddy, Ute, and many others).
David was also Visiting Faculty in UNESCO Peace Studies Program, U of Innsbruck, Austria, until the program changed it’s focus and was for many years the Visiting Theatre Director, Arts & Humanities in Health & Medicine Program, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, U of Alberta.
He continues his Theatre for Living work offering Trainings and directing workshops and community projects when invited and is stepping back when possible into his first artistic love, acting.
2025 Registration Details
2025 Workshop Dates:
July 19, 2025 – July 29, 2025 (OPEN)
9AM – 5:30PM daily
Where: Ukrainian Hall, 805 East Pender St, at Hawks Ave, Vancouver, BC
To register, contact David at hello@theatreforliving.com.
How Much?
$900.00 + $45 Federal Goods and Services Tax (5% GST) = $945.00/person (CAN $).
$100.00 Deposit* is required to secure a space.
*Deposit is non-refundable after June 21.
Discounts are available on a limited basis.
Accommodations and other handy information for out-of-town trainees
Please click on the link above for accommodations information regarding how to book your stay at a hostel or elsewhere.
Accommodation in Vancouver has become very expensive since Covid-19. Affordable accommodation also books very far in advance. Do it now – you can cancel if needed!
I have access to a VERY limited number of Theatre for Living Training alumni who may be willing to open up their apartments as homestays for TfL Trainees coming from outside Vancouver. I cannot guarantee any homestay until quite close to the actual training dates. There are always more requests for this than there will be openings, so please ONLY IF YOUR NEED IS URGENT, contact me at: hello@theatreforliving.com.
"I've just finished the Theatre for Living 10-day training intensive, and I haven't been this happy in ages. It's good, meaningful work that can make a difference in a fractured world."
Sheila Christie, Associate Professor of English and Drama, Cape Breton University, August 2024
"The 6-day Level 1 Theatre for Living training (in Biel, Switzerland in 2023) meant a lot to me and it still echoes in many ways. It was a key insight to hear how you developed Boal's approaches further, beyond the oppressor/oppressed duality, to a more nuanced way of working on conflict, also structural conflict. It is obvious how the world urgently needs methods and approaches to deal with polarization and social divide. In these harsh times TfL is an crucial inspiration."
Andrea Zellhuber, Theatre for Living Training participant
"The Theatre for Living training was excellent; it has impacted my outlook on life and work. David is an excellent role model. His honesty was something that struck me as so powerful, because he was asking us to be honest and he was being honest first. He modeled what he was training us to do each and every step of the way.
I feel that the idea that everything and everyone is complex, something we try to "do" via conflict analysis, has become ingrained inside my mind and is something of which I am constantly aware. I liked the fact that we did not name one character "the oppressor" and the other "the oppressed" - I liked that there were more layers to it than that - that we all harbor the oppressor and the oppressed. Also, I liked the fact that in Forum Theatre, the interventions were being carried out to create more "safety" or to create more "respect" and that this is what was being explored. It may sound fuzzy, but in fact I think it is revolutionary - because it doesn't pit us against "them", but considers that we are all in this mess and can all do something about it."
Neslihan Ozgunes, Theatre for Living Training participant
Feel free to use the information on this website, but credit Theatre for Living, please! Copyright © David Diamond. Website Graphic Work: Dafne Blanco