Theatre camp and Horizon’s youth program for Steven

Gunnedah’s Steven Hopwood has continued his path in the performance arts during the summer holidays.

The now 15-year-old was involved in the Summer Drama Camp which was held collaboratively by the Australian Theatre for Young People and Orana Arts.

The camp had children and teens from regional areas involved to either be introduced into the art, or expand on their skills and work on their staging.

This was Steven’s second time experiencing the five-day workshop which was held this year at Coonabarabran High School.

A performance to showcase their strengthened skills from the previous four days finished off the camp workshop.

The class was split into juniors and seniors with Steven involved in the latter.

The juniors put on a performance of what would happen at a camp with no mobile phones.

Steven’s group took a deeper approach, touching on topics such as death and experimenting with a multitude of emotions.

Todd McKenny and Steven Hopwood. Photo: supplied

“There was just a mix of emotions and it was awesome,” Steven said.

“It was like a very well structured play.”

The students were able to choose the scene they wanted to perform.

Steven played the head of the ‘Youtuber boys’, vlogging their fear of the supernatural in a chapel that burns down.

Steven said that having experiences such as this helps build the skills to adapt when working with new people and different crowds.

“Working with new people is always good because it teaches you the differences [in performers],” he said.

“I have so much experience with TAS [The Armidale School], most of the time I am with TAS when I am performing.

“Having some people from the previous year come [back to the camp] again and working with new people, it is just really cool.”

Working with new people and building confidence to perform with them, along with performing to a new crowd were all new take-aways for him.

“All of the crowd pretty much came from Coonabarabran, Coolah, Dunedoo, nobody from Gunnedah except for my mum,” he said.

Steven was also privileged to sing with the Gunnedah Conservatorium choir and Todd McKenney at the Australia Day awards in Gunnedah.

Read about the Gunnedah Conservatorium Choir singing with Todd McKenny here: Star performance from young singers – Gunnedah Times

Children from the shire and nearby were excited to be involved in a ceremony with a performing artist from the city.

Steven was also accepted into Horizons Youth Project last week, which is hosted by the Regional Arts Network.

He will have the opportunity to be paired with a practising artist or a creative industries person and work on a collaborative showcase that addresses issues for regional young people.