About
Born in
Florianópolis (Brazil) in 1984, Gustavo Dias-Vallejo has been working as a freelance
theatre practitioner (director/dramaturg/performer/teacher/facilitator) since
2014, collaborating across different contexts (fringe/experimental theatre,
professional industry, community environments and educational institutions).
I also teach and develop creative projects with specific communities, having worked with both trained and untrained performers (including children, young people, elderly groups and refugees).
My practice is based on the investigation of themes and artistic languages that interrogate the complexity of contemporary life: identity issues, latent struggles, unvoiced tensions and interconnections between micro/macro and local/global elements.
I often use interdisciplinary approaches to better engage with these issues.
Having graduated as a social scientist, he began his professional career
as a visual anthropologist. He trained and worked at NAVI, the Visual
Anthropology Centre of the Universidade
Federal de Santa Catarina, producing ethnographic videos with different
communities: traditional fishermen on the southern coast of Brazil,
homeless people in the city of Florianópolis, indigenous groups from the province
of Santa Catarina, and members of social movements such as the Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (MST), among others.
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In 2014, he turned from the university to the stage, working as assistant director for OXO Teatro, a traditional street theatre company in Buenos Aires. From here he moved to Madrid, where he complemented his training in physical and contemporary theatre, while collaborating with various theatre companies – as performer, dramaturg and director. In 2016, together with colleagues from the MA in Theatre and Performing Arts (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) he created Dorotea Teatro Company and The Tabacalera Project: the company was based at The Tabacalera Social Centre, an old 18th century tobacco factory building transformed in a famous self-sustaining community centre in the heart of Madrid. There, the company offered free/open theatre courses and workshops for the community and created a site-specific performance, La Línea del Horizonte.
He relocated to London in 2017, where he continued working as a freelance theatremaker while developing his practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (MA in Actor Training and Coaching). Since, he has collaborated with several artists/theatre companies in the UK and has taught and facilitated workshops at various educational environments (RCSSD, RADA, University of Northampton, Middlesex University). Alongside, he has worked with The Angel Shed Theatre Company, teaching and making theatre with children/young people in North London, and has collaborated with various other community projects (including working with elderly groups and refugees in London).
He is currently based in Northwest London with ongoing projects in and outside the UK.

In 2014, he turned from the university to the stage, working as assistant director for OXO Teatro, a traditional street theatre company in Buenos Aires. From here he moved to Madrid, where he complemented his training in physical and contemporary theatre, while collaborating with various theatre companies – as performer, dramaturg and director. In 2016, together with colleagues from the MA in Theatre and Performing Arts (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) he created Dorotea Teatro Company and The Tabacalera Project: the company was based at The Tabacalera Social Centre, an old 18th century tobacco factory building transformed in a famous self-sustaining community centre in the heart of Madrid. There, the company offered free/open theatre courses and workshops for the community and created a site-specific performance, La Línea del Horizonte.
He relocated to London in 2017, where he continued working as a freelance theatremaker while developing his practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (MA in Actor Training and Coaching). Since, he has collaborated with several artists/theatre companies in the UK and has taught and facilitated workshops at various educational environments (RCSSD, RADA, University of Northampton, Middlesex University). Alongside, he has worked with The Angel Shed Theatre Company, teaching and making theatre with children/young people in North London, and has collaborated with various other community projects (including working with elderly groups and refugees in London).
He is currently based in Northwest London with ongoing projects in and outside the UK.
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In 2022, Gustavo was selected one of the 10 most promising emerging theatre artists in the UK by Projek Europa. He is now part of PE’s Artistic Advisory Board (click here to know more about this)He is an Associate Artist at A Blind Bit of Difference and a current member of the Young Vic Directors Program
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