Youth drama group builds confidence in aspiring Adelaide performers
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
Several Salvation Army corps in the Adelaide region have collaborated to form a youth drama club for young people seeking an alternative to costly community theatre memberships.
The club, which hosts gatherings at Unley Corps, performed for the first time at Easter, with a modern take on the Biblical story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The club is the design of Majors Gaye and Richard Day, corps officers at Arndale Corps, and Auxiliary-Lieutenant Colin Sampson, Corps Officer at Unley Corps and wife Marion Sampson, who also works at the corps.
Gaye said the idea came up while the group were socialising over the Christmas period, and reminiscing about how they used to perform ‘Psalty’ musicals as children.
“It all kind of emerged from there,” Gaye said. “I know of at least 500 kids involved in different theatre companies [in this area]. So, we thought drama’s quite a big thing, but we also know how much it costs to be in those theatre groups. So we thought maybe we can reach some kids [who] wouldn’t be able to access the fees for the professional companies but would like to get involved in something.”
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Additional to Unley and Arndale, staff at Adelaide Congress Hall have supported the
effort by encouraging their youth to get involved. Gaye said the team decided to use Unley Corps because it was a convenient location, but that the group was facing challenges in getting children to and from rehearsals.
“That’s probably our biggest issue at the moment – the logistics of where do we hold it to connect with the most kids,” she said.
Gaye said even though the group had only been operating for a few months, one participant had already developed the confidence to audition for her school musical. This had previously felt out of reach.
Gaye said the team was also helping the children to learn technical skills such as sound and lighting, and the group was responding very positively and quickly taking charge of coming up with the ideas.
“It’s not about putting on a show,” Gaye said. “It}s about teaching them the skills of how to sing, how to act, how to dance.
“The kids are actually guiding where it goes.”
