Young People & The Performing Arts

Kid Stakes 2024

One thing I took away from The Georgy awards last night was the talent displayed by young people in that region. The exerts they performed from their shows were wonderful and I am sure some of them have very bright careers in Theatre. They obviously have strong school based performing arts programs in place, and it showed. What else I took away from the night and my reflections after was how proud I was and still am of the team of young people who worked with me on Kid Stakes. Ayshia and Oscar who ran the lighting and sound and the youngest member Jasper who played an important role in the stage crew. They all are as talented in their areas as any and in spite of not having the same opportunities as those who performed last night are as passionate about the performing arts as anybody I have seen in my forty plus year involvement.

I thought after we spent seven long years busting a gut to get the Performing Arts Centre built we would be able to partner with and support secondary school based performing arts in Mansfield but alas that is no longer the case. So it looks like MMuDS will need to step up to support our communities young people. We have done it in the past, I am an product of that, and we can do it again. I am confident that we have a group of younger committee members who also feel passionate about creating opportunities. This post was not a whinge. It is a half glass full post. Achieving this would be the best award of all.