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ABOUT DVA

DVA Theatre Company has been an established community theatre company for over 20 years. It is a company of adult performers with intellectual disability, working alongside volunteer facilitators and a professional Artistic Director. DVA meets weekly for a two-hour workshop throughout the year, with extended workshop and rehearsal hours in preparation for a performance.  We are based in the City of Banyule, but members are welcome from anywhere, with participants, volunteers and artists coming from across Melbourne, including the Darebin, Nillumbik, Manningham, Moreland, Yarra and Whittlesea areas.  Click here to see company bios

Over its life span DVA has created many public performances. In 2013 DVA presented the project 'A Cosmic Love', a project based in film and performance and presented at LaMama's Courthouse Theatre in collaboration with Platform Youth Arts. Click here to watch our first ever film A Royal Star.

Our most recent work, "Toast," In collaboration with Black Hole Theatre and La Mama Theatre, was presented in 2016. Toast told the quirky tale of two people and a surrounding neighborhood as they searched for love, hope, freedom and the secret and allusive ingredient to toast.
Brought to life through puppetry, dance, photography, light and shade, music and storytelling, this work told of the search for gold, the heart of gold, of finding and losing and loving. 

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DVA’s 25 participants range in age from 18 to 60. DVA is always open to new members and has no selection process based on audition, making it a truly accessible theatre company for all interested adults with intellectual disability.

DVA aims to dissolve prejudices towards those with intellectual disability through its public performances, which encourage audience participation and visibility of people with intellectual disability in public spaces.

The Company is a not-for-profit, incorporated association managed by a committee of volunteers. It is listed on the Register of Cultural Organisations and is eligible to receive tax deductible gifts. 

Project Funding is attained through successful grant submissions to local/state/federal government and philanthropy. Past projects have been awarded funding by; Arts Victoria, the Australia Council, the Reichstein Foundation, VICHealth, Banyule City Council, Nillumbik Shire Council, City of Darebin, the ANZ Trustees, the TAC and other bodies.

Click here to read the DVA Statement of Purpose 





Current News
Spin me a Yarn of the Ocean and the Invisible Dances   
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13th and 14th of July 2019 
Concord School Bundoora 


"Spin me a yarn of the ocean, 
​Spin me a colourful sky... 
Spin me around and upside down
and watch the birds go free...."

DVA Theatre Ensemble 


Come join DVA Theatre, in collaboration with Sanctum Studios and Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, as we spin a yarn of ocean preservation, breaking free and the place of community in healing and self- discovery. In world’s imagined and real, mythical and wild, gentle and brave, lonely and lost and found, see the centre starfish heart returned to a crying ocean in a story of restoration, release and love.
Come sail your ships to the Concord School Theatre for an ocean full of performance, sound stories, puppetry, music, visual arts and projection art.
Approximate Running time: 2 hours
Directed by Nicla Byrnes, Michael Buxton
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Performed by DVA Theatre Company Ensemble
Puppetry Artists: Lachlan Plain and Jasmine Powell
Music by Arcko Symphonic Ensemble; led by Tim Phillips Original music: Nicla Byrnes and Simone French
Singer: Siobhan Housden Stage Manager: Hayley Fox Photography Credit: Patti Green Graphic Design Credit: Declan Scott
Concord School Bundoora
411 Grimshaw Street, Bundoora
July 13 & 14 at 2pm
Tickets: $15 Full / $10 Concession
https://lamama.com.au/ticketing/buy-tickets#
ph: 03 9347 6948
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