David Diamond

David Diamond

As a Co-founder in 1981 and Artistic Director since 1984 of Theatre for Living (formerly known as Headlines Theatre) David has directed over 550 community specific theatre projects and trainings throughout Canada, the US and Europe, as well as in Namibia, Rwanda, Australia, New Zealand, Palestine and Singapore. Subjects range from violence in all its forms to addiction, intergenerational conflict, mental health, language reclamation, the legacy of Canadian Native Residential Schools, homelessness, climate change, globalization, and species and habitat protection, to name just some. He has pioneered the development of live, interactive Forum television and web casting.

He is the originator of Theatre for Living, a merging of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, and his own life-long interest in systems theory. Theatre for Living recognizes communities are complexly integrated living organisms and invites them to engage in constructive social change, moving from various forms of violence to respectful engagement.

David is the recipient of numerous theatre and human rights awards, including an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley. In 2013 he was honoured with the Otto Rene Castillo Award for political theatre in New York and with the Mayor’s Arts Award for Community-Engaged Art in Vancouver. He is also a visiting Faculty Member, UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, U. of Innsbruck, in Austria and has recently been invited to join the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta where he will be conducting theatre workshops across the Faculty.

He is the author of many published articles and Theatre for Living: the art and science of community-based dialogue (winner of the American Alliance of Theatre and Education 2008 Distinguished Book Award), which has just been published in German by Ibidem under the title Theater Zum Leben. The book is also coming soon in Spanish.