Bryce Ives is an Australian artistic director, theatre maker, and composer whose work celebrates connection, community, and creative risk. His career spans theatre, music, and education, united by a deep belief that art can open new possibilities and reimagine how people live and work together.

As a former Artistic Director and Associate Creative Producer of Theatre Works St Kilda, Bryce led one of Australia’s most iconic independent theatre companies through a period of renewal and redefinition, curating programs that brought urgent and diverse voices to the stage. His 2019 artistic program achieved a 94 per cent increase in audience numbers, welcoming 13,396 audience members across 26 productions and supporting 352 artists. His work as an Associate Creative Producer included supporting works for FOLA (the Festival of Live Art) and the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Internationally, Bryce has served as Co-Artistic Director for the Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival in Cyprus, supporting artists exploring borders, identity, and belonging through performance. In 2020, he directed the landmark cross-cultural work περιμένω απάντηση / awaiting your response for Buffer Fringe, a meditation on communication, separation, and hope. In Australia, was a curator for Artlands, Regional Arts Australia’s national gathering of artists and cultural leaders, in 2018 (Bendigo & Castlemaine) and 2023 (Canberra), shaping national conversations on regional arts and creative renewal.

Bryce was the Co-Artistic Director of The Present Tense Ensemble with Nathan Gilkes, a partnership that has produced a distinctive body of immersive, sonic, and socially engaged work. Their critically acclaimed projects include Ricercar (Abbotsford Convent Spiritous Festival & Theatre Works), FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out (Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Melbourne Fringe), Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert (Theatre Works), Chants Des Catacombes (Castlemaine State Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne seasons), The Lovely War (Ballarat Arts Academy collaboration), and Forbidden Planet (Monash Academy of Performing Arts collaboration). Through Present Tense, Bryce has collaborated with some of Australia’s most significant cultural institutions, including Arts House, Tasmanian International Arts Festival, Melbourne Festival, Castlemaine State Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Arena Theatre, big hART, Theatre Works, and Rawcus Theatre. Internationally, the Ensemble has presented and participated in Operadagen Rotterdam, the Music Theatre Now Festival, and artistic exchanges in Japan with Arena Theatre. Their work has been described as “fearless, deeply musical, and wholly present,” theatre that engages the audience as co-creators.

Throughout his directing career, Bryce has created work for the Victorian College of the Arts, Federation University Australia, and the Ballarat Arts Academy, including student productions of Mother Courage and Her Children, Romeo and Juliet, Mad Forest, and Parade by Jason Robert Brown. His practice combines the precision of a director with the sensibility of a composer, creating experiences that are both emotionally resonant and structurally daring.

He has also directed new Australian musical theatre, including Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert, Lottie the Musical (OzMade Musicals), the AWGIE Award-winning Call Girl the Musical, Errol & Fidel, Between Sea and Sky, and HighTime, alongside large-scale mass choir works uniting hundreds of regional singers in Adelaide, Ballarat and Swan Hill.

As Director of the flagship creative arts programs at Federation University Australia, Bryce oversaw the Ballarat Arts Academy, the Post Office Gallery, the Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, the Switchback Gallery, and programs in visual arts, design, and performing arts. His leadership revitalised the Academy’s profile, strengthened its ties to the community, and expanded opportunities for creative collaboration across regional Victoria. A respected teacher and mentor, Bryce previously served as a sessional teacher in the School of Theatre (2012–2016), senior consultant in the Faculty of Education and Arts, and later as Director of the Arts Academy. His tenure exemplified his commitment to change leadership, educational innovation, and creative partnership-building.

Central to Bryce’s regional arts practice is his role as Artistic Director of the Fairfax Festival, one of Australia’s longest-running youth arts festivals. Based in Swan Hill and the Mallee, the Festival empowers young people to co-create performances with professional artists, drawing from local stories and landscapes. Under Bryce’s artistic direction, the Fairfax Festival has evolved into a participatory, place-based celebration of youth voice, cultural identity, and creative resilience, reaffirming his belief that great art begins in community and that rural creativity is a national strength.

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (Postgraduate Diploma in Performance Creation – Directing), Bryce has trained with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company (New York), is an alumnus of Directors Lab Chicago, and continues to develop his practice with Leisa Shelton (Fragment 31). He has taught and mentored emerging artists through the VCA, National Theatre Drama School, Federation University, and Monash University.

Bryce’s body of work, spanning independent theatre, large-scale community collaborations, regional festivals, and international exchanges, continues to expand the role of the artist in contemporary society, positioning performance as both a creative act and a civic one: a space where imagination and participation meet to create new possibilities for people and place.