Beginning Monday 7 September 2026, Coolum Lions Club, 15 Russell Street, Coolum Beach.
Theatre people know something the rest of the world keeps mislaying: you cannot think your way into a character. You have to stand up.
You can read the script forty times and build a beautiful, airtight backstory. Then you walk on, open your mouth, and find that none of it was true until your body found it.
Now apply that to your own life.
It’s Theatre, With a Terrible Name
In 1921, J.L. Moreno opened a theatre in Vienna with no script. The audience brought that day’s arguments and unfinished business, and the company played it live. He called it the Theatre of Spontaneity.
What grew out of it became psychodrama — which, yes, sounds like something that happens to you rather than something you do on a Tuesday night with a few chairs and a group of people willing to have a go.
But it is theatre. Stage, director, protagonist, supporting company. Warm-ups. Scenes that fly and scenes that thud and get rebuilt on the spot. If you have done Meisner, Boal, or decent long-form improv, you will recognise the DNA — half of modern actor training runs on moves Moreno was using a century ago.
Someone’s situation goes up: this chair is the kitchen, this chair is the boss’s office, you stand in as the brother. Then role reversal — step into their shoes and speak as them. Doubling — someone stands behind you and voices what you can’t quite say. Mirroring — step off and watch someone else play you.
Afterwards, everyone sits and speaks about what it stirred in their own life. No critique, no advice, no analysis. That’s what makes it safe to go big.
Who Should Come
Actors, improvisers, drama teachers, community theatre stalwarts who’ve missed it for years. Therapists, counsellors, and anyone drawn to psychotherapy who wants to know action methods from the inside rather than the textbook. People who never acted and secretly always wanted to — no audition, no lines to learn, nobody watching from the dark. People stuck on something and frankly tired of talking about it. Educators and leaders carrying more than they let on.
No experience needed. Just a willingness to stand up.
The Details
Fortnightly. Monday evenings, 6.30-8.30pm, from 1 September 2026.
Coolum Lions Club. Free. Small group, capped.
Bring: clothes you can move in. That’s it.
Bring what you’re carrying. We’ll put it up on its feet.
Register your interest — places are limited.
