Figueres a Escena

A Day at Our Theatre School From Warm Up to Final Bow

The doors of ATEB, our training branch of Figueres a Escena, swing open well before the first class bell rings. Parents drop children in the arcaded streets near Teatre El Jardí, and students trickle in carrying notebooks, water bottles, and the quiet energy of a working day ahead. Inside, the morning is being prepared: ballet bars wiped down, mirrors aligned, rehearsal scripts laid out on chairs.

A full training day covers acting, voice, dance, and ensemble creation, with younger students rotating through structured sessions and older groups diving into longer rehearsal blocks. Visitors from Australian cities often compare the program to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth or NIDA in Sydney, and the daily rhythm at ATEB lives up to those references. The studios run on Catalan warmth and Mediterranean light, yet the practice feels familiar to anyone who has trained in Brisbane, Adelaide, or Melbourne.

What sets ATEB apart is the proximity to two functioning performance venues, El Jardí and Sala La Cate. Students rehearse in the same rooms where professional companies later present work, and the curtain call at the end of term is a real bow on a real stage. Adults returning to training, retraining professionals, and children taking their first steps share the building, giving the place a layered, intergenerational feel.

This is the shape of a single day, beginning with the loosening of bodies before sunrise and ending with a collective bow in front of friends and family. The next sections walk through the hours in order, from the first group warm-up to the late afternoon in-house showing that closes the schedule.

First hours in the studio

The earliest arrivals stretch quietly in the corridor, undoing shoelaces and swapping stories from the night before. By half past nine, the largest studio has filled with bodies in leotards, soft trousers, and the loose clothing favoured by senior students who already know the rigours of a long day. A teacher claps a steady tempo and the room inhales together; spines lengthen, shoulders settle, ribs lift away from the hips.

Students who have trained in the cooler studios of Sydney or Melbourne notice immediately how natural light shapes the warm-up. There are no harsh fluorescents here, only the wash of morning through tall windows facing the old town. Floor work follows standing exercises, then a quick round of partnering games designed to wake up attention. By the time voice work begins, every student has already committed something to the group.

Smaller groups then peel off. Younger children move to a dedicated classroom for rhythm games, while teens preparing for a term-end showcase head to the rehearsal hall. The corridors hum with the restrained energy any parent waiting outside a Brisbane or Perth performing arts college would recognise.

Voice, breath and text

Voice training at ATEB follows a precise sequence that begins with breath and ends with scene work. Students kneel on mats to map their diaphragms, learning to feel the ribs expand on inhale and contract on sound. The teacher circulates with a small tuning fork, tuning not pitch but intention, helping each student find where their natural resonance lives.

For English-speaking visitors, the text work often starts with monologues from the international canon before shifting into Catalan and Spanish repertoire. Theatre is a bilingual craft in Figueres, and the company encourages performers to hold both languages lightly. Audition preparation includes classical text, contemporary scenes, and physical storytelling rooted in clown and devised work.

Mid-morning brings a short pause for tea. Coffee culture is part of the school’s rhythm in the same way a flat white is part of an Adelaide morning. Teachers encourage students to hydrate, drink slowly, and socialise before the next block of work begins in the studios overlooking the square.

Movement and dance across genres

After voice, the day turns physical again. Dance classes at ATEB range from contemporary floor work to classical barre, and from Catalan folk material to hip-hop foundations. Younger students begin with structured coordination games; older groups move through Horton-based contemporary exercises and shift into partner choreography. Because Sala La Cate hosts circus and physical theatre year-round, several students also spend time on aerial conditioning and acro-balance.

Movement sessions feel different from those in cooler Australian training rooms. The warm climate lets studios stay open, and students often work barefoot, feeling the wooden floor as an instrument. Strength and articulation are built into each class so that technique grows gradually across the year.

For students drawn to a more performative end of the spectrum, the dance block often feeds directly into scene work. A short phrase learned in the studio becomes a recurring gesture in a Shakespeare monologue, then a motif in a devised piece. This integration of dance and text is one of the school’s signatures and a useful bridge for performers considering further study at Australian institutions such as the Victorian College of the Arts or QUT in Brisbane.

Scene study and ensemble creation

Lunch is short, social, and eaten communally in the small courtyard behind Sala La Cate. Families who have driven their children in from surrounding towns eat alongside students from Barcelona, Girona, and Perpignan. Sandwiches are wrapped in cloth, fruit is shared, and the conversation drifts between weekend plans and the rehearsal challenges of the afternoon.

Afternoon sessions split into scene work, audition preparation, and ensemble creation. Senior students receive new scripts in advance and arrive ready to block and run scenes with direction in real time. Younger groups work on devised material built around a shared theme chosen at the start of term, often inspired by local Figueres history, the legacy of Dalí, or stories gathered from neighbourhood interviews.

What makes the rehearsal room distinctive is the proximity to the professional season at Figueres a Escena. Students often watch company members warm up before evening performances at El Jardí, and directors occasionally invite advanced learners to understudy professional productions. Anyone curious about how a piece moves from page to performance can read more about this pipeline in play development journey, which traces a single work from first submission to opening night.

Closing rehearsals and the final bow

The final hours of the day return to where the morning began. Bodies are warm, focus is sharpened, and the rehearsal hall now runs scenes at performance tempo. Lighting cues are improvised, prop tables double as set pieces, and the director watches from a chair near the entrance. Students who arrived shy at nine o’clock are now making decisive choices about character and staging. The transformation accumulates across breath, voice, dance, scene study, and the unspoken trust built during group exercises.

Late afternoon brings the showcase. On certain days each week, parents and friends gather in the small black-box studio to watch short scenes and prepared pieces. Children perform solo pieces built across the term; teens run scenes from contemporary European plays; adults present audition monologues or group-devised work. Families often stay afterwards to share cake and feedback in the courtyard.

When the curtain falls on the final piece, students take a real bow, the kind given to professional applause rather than polite encouragement. It is a small ceremony that closes the loop of the day. New students leave with tired feet and quiet pride; returning students leave already planning tomorrow’s warm-up.

What a typical training day covers

Practices that quietly shape a performer

For families weighing enrolment, or adult students considering a return to training, the next step is a visit during an open session or a chat with the ATEB team. Public showcases run year-round, and visitors can book tickets to observe an open class or attend a closing showcase before deciding whether to enrol.