Core Program

Drama

Mondays during term time

Junior Drama - 4:30-5:30pm

Led by two of our junior tutors, the junior drama class is an opportunity for primary aged students to build their performance skills. Classes cover improvisation, voice, and movement, and members collaborate to produce an original play for the annual showcase. Drama classes build confidence and allow young people to connect creatively in a fun and accessible space.

Senior Drama - 5:30-7:00pm

The D’faces senior performance troupe is an open space for secondary aged students, led by D’faces Creative Producer, playwright, and theatre director, Michal Hughes. In 2025 this group are kicking off with a major festival production (War of the Worlds). Senior drama students focus on building their acting toolkit and developing new work. Our troupe have toured shows to the Adelaide Fringe, presented in the Unearth Festival, and collaborated to write and produce major productions in our home base. In late 2025 our senior drama group will begin development for a 2026 Fringe production.

Dance

Tuesdays during term time

Junior Dance - 4:30-5:30pm

D’faces dance classes are an open and inclusive space - led by lifelong dancer and long time D’faces tutor, Ezra. Their class is a safe zone for young people of all experiences and abilities to move, create, and connect.

Senior Dance - 4:30-6:00pm

Our senior dancers have their own space to share, choreograph, and dance together. Our senior dancers come from all backgrounds and ability levels.

Circus

Wednesdays during term time

Junior Circus - 4:30-6:00pm

D’faces circus class is the space for young people who love to move, perform, and challenge themselves. Learn the ins and outs of circus with our talented tutors, from clowning, to simple acrobatics, and skills like juggling and unicycling. If you train hard enough you might even make it to doing tricks on our aerial equipment! Our circus classes are a lively and action packed space perfect for all ages.

Senior Training - 6:00-7:00pm

Senior students in the circus program are invited to stay for an extra hour of personal training time, in which they can collaborate to put together routines, try out new tricks, and perfect their skills.

Visual Art

Thursdays during term time

Art Class - 4:30-5:30pm

Every term our visual art class focusses on a new skill and medium - in the past students have learnt to sculpt, draw portraits, paint animals, and more. This class is open to all abilities and ages, the only rule is: Come ready to create! At the end of each term, our students put on an exhibition of their work for families and friends to view.

Open Session - 5:30-6:00pm

In 2025 we are introducing an open session, where students can stay late to finish what they are working on, or even try something new!

Pre School Program

Incubator - Mondays during term time - 10:00-10:45am

Our smallest members love playing make believe and telling stories, and so we are bringing back the Incubator program for 2025. Incubator uses storytelling, movement, and play to introduce young people to art and creativity. Participants will listen to stories, follow the paths of their favourite characters, and participate in guided art activities in music, dance, drama, and visual art to make their own take home piece of storytime treasure!

Kanga Gym - Thursdays during term time - 10:00-10:45am

After a long hiatus, Kanga Gym is back in term 1 of 2025! Think of it like a playgroup, meets a circus class! Our tiniest performers will skip, crawl, and balance their way through weekly obstacle courses and activities, designed to develop foundational circus skills, strength, and balance at an early age. Guided sessions will be followed by free play time in the D’faces space.

D’squad Development Program

Sundays fortnightly (by invitation)

2025 will see a doubled down investment in our Youth Mentor program. The teams of mentors from across our four core programs. The D’squad development program will see these young members receive essential training in first aid and working with children. Participants will be mentored directly by D’faces creative producer Michal Hughes to produce fundraising events for further training and development in their core fields, including engaging a professional circus artist for workshops, collaborating with local gymnastics instructors, hiring guest tutors in dance and drama, and facilitating new visual arts workshops.

These young members will also be trained (and paid as artists) to run for profit classes in their fields for the wider community in Dance and Circus, with the potential to branch into Visual Art and Drama subject to community interest.

Our development program students will also be tasked with assisting in planning and organising for our 2025 senior students camp. Location and details of camp will be planned after consultation with other senior members.

School Holiday Program

January School Holidays

This block of workshops will focus on War of the Worlds development with our senior theatre troupe, and some free come and try sessions for our pre school program.

April School Holidays

During the April break, D’faces will offer at least two workshops, including one visual art or craft workshop. These will be a mixture of free and paid activities for all school aged students.

July School Holidays

It’s a circus winter at D’faces! We will be running multiple circus based workshops throughout the two weeks. Other workshops may be announced closer to the date.

October School Holidays

D’faces plans to deliver a series of at least two workshops per week of the October school holidays.

Maj0r Projects

War of the Worlds - Adelaide Festival

March 7-15 at the Middleback Arts Centre

By Fleur Kilpatrick/ after H.G. Wells

D’faces of Youth Arts, Riverland Youth Theatre, Arena Theatre Company

The night before they came, I was watching a shooting star.

I snapped it. I said it was ‘beautiful’.

I didn’t know I was watching death coming. I should have known.

This shit always happens to us.

If they were ever going to come to Earth, of course it was now

In a groundbreaking collaboration spanning more than a thousand kilometres of mallee scrub and desert, country teens bunker down to survive The War of the Worlds.

Performed simultaneously in three locations by exceptional local casts, young people across two states hold tight to their friends, their noise cancelling headphones and whatever scraps of news they can get.

Part sci-fi thriller and part love letter to the resilience of today’s teens, experience the invasion from Whyalla, Barmera or Bendigo; whichever is closest for you.

Why Not Art Prize

May-July

Our Biannual art prize is back again in 2025, after a super successful fun in 2023. Young artists (under 26) are invited to submit their artwork for the chance to win cash prizes!

Entries will be due in late June for a July exhibition where artists will be able to list their work for sale to the public.

Total prize pool of $1000

In previous years, the Why Not Art Prize has attracted up to 150 entries from young regional South Australians. The entries are judged on a matrix based on the following criteria:

Artistic Concept – The artist's idea, plan or intention expressed in the work and how this is explored/conveyed by the artistic choice of materials, context, style, medium and process.

Creativity – The use of imagination and original ideas by the artist to create the artwork.

Execution – The skill, ability and craft in the making of the work

Cursebreaker

October 31 - 8:00pm

Halloween themed Scavenger hunt/Amazing race.

For decades a curse has lain on the sleepy village of Howella. Only on all the eve exactly one hundred years since the curse was placed can it be lifted, when the barrier between this life and the next is at its thinnest. Uncover the secrets and decode the clues to free us from the witches plight.

Follow the clues and break the curse in our spooky halloween event! Our drama group will work through term 3 to develop and produce the spookiest night of the year, with character interactions and immersive sets and props.

We invite young people aged 12+ to be part of this new, gothic project, get their hands gory, and make some screams with us!

Audience tickets will be available for cursebreaker in early October for a Halloween night one off performance.

End of Year Showcase

November 15 - 6:00pm

Every year D’faces have done a small showcase of work from the year, but in 2025 this will be our biggest showcase yet, with work from all four D’faces classes on the stage for all to see.

See our actors acting, our dancers dancing, our aerialists flying, and our clowns clowning around, all amongst art, sets, and costumes made in collaboration with the D’faces visual art class. The end of year showcase promises to be a celebration of a year of incredible work, with excerpts from performances, and brand new performances from all classes.

Entry to the 2025 showcase will be by donation, so patrons can pay what they want for a night of fun, talent, and chaos.

Building Upgrades

The Shed Project

Thanks to Carclew and Whyalla City Council, in 2025 we will be solving our storage problems and erecting a shed on our premises to store our overflow of circus and kanga gym equipment.

Building Repaint

Our beloved facade is looking a little sad and in need of a facelift. In 2025 D’faces will collaborate with an independent artist to begin the steps to makeover our home!

For Profit Programs

PLAY Classes for Adults

Weekly from April - December

PLAY classes are a sub branch of our D’squad program, in which our young mentors will share their skills and expertise with adults interested in their craft. PLAY classes will begin with an adults circus fitness class, in which participants will be invited to learn simple circus skills, and begin strengthening, stretching, and conditioning their bodies to perform more complex tricks and skills. We will then introduce classes throughout the year in our other core areas. Prices per class are yet to be announced. Classes will commence at the beginning of term 2, 2025.

Sign up for updates at www.dfaces.org/play or contact admin@dfaces.net

Hall Hire

Year Round

Our hall is available year round for birthday parties, meetings, and events. Hire rates range from hourly to daily. All hires are subject to availability of the space.

D’faces are centrally located with a large hall, full air conditioning, kitchen, accessible toilet, chairs, and tables.

Kanga Gym Parties

Year Round

We know how important birthdays are and we are committed to assist you in creating a special day for you and your family. The D’faces hall set up with a range of Kanga Gym equipment for the enjoyment of your guests. Access to the kitchen that is well appointed with fridges oven etc. All the things you need to feed the crew and where you can make yourself a well-earned cuppa.

Kanga Gym Parties Include:

Hire of the hall and Kanga Gym equipment set up and eating area with tables and chairs

Facilitator to supervise the play area for the duration of the party.

Sound system included in hire.

also available for an added cost: facilitated party games, party bags, themed invitations, balloon twisters

Schools Workshops

Year Round

Schools workshops are customisable and tailored to each group. Workshops are available at primary and secondary level. All facilitators have WWC clearances and RHAAN-EC training. Please see below the list of workshops currently available, or contact us if you would like to book something custom. Book a workshop by contacting art@dfaces.net today.

• Drama

• Dance

• Circus

• Visual Art

• Craft

• Film Making

Register Now for 2025

What We Do:

We create art with young people.

We employ professional artists and arts workers to collaborate with young people to deliver workshops, develop short term projects and events and present performances and installations. These activities encourage young people to:

• Express themselves in creative and innovative ways

• Explore ideas and emotions associated with their own

identity, their community and the world around them

• Experiment, learn and innovate

• Grapple with challenges and develop solutions

• Work both collaboratively and independently

• Have fun, make friends and socialize.

• Enjoy a sense of belonging