Award winning actor, director and arts educator Matilda Ridgeway educated 13 students from Trangie Central School on all things performing and storytelling during the July school holidays and Trangie's youngsters acted up with relish.

The multi- faceted workshop took place over 5 days, with the Years 7/8 students dipping their toes into the world of drama. The students participated in drama, filming, storytelling, acting and writing games and activities which focused on improving the students personal skills and confidence.

Orana Arts in partnership with ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People) were successful in securing a Regional Youth Winter Holidays Break Grant from NSW Government to run a holiday theatre program in Trangie.

Claudine Shoesmith Workshop Manager at ATYP, says the holiday program was a great opportunity for rural students to work with creative industry professionals.

"The students were able to work with industry professionals in drama, film and storytelling including all- star actor Matilda Harris, local film maker Erifili Davis and respected Elders of the local Trangie area Uncle Dick and Aunty Ruth Carney"

"Matilda worked with the students on the first 3 days on creative performance and storytelling skills. The students participated in drama games and performance to build their confidence and creativity,"

"The holiday program was amazing! It was great to see the local Trangie community and teachers getting behind the students and encouraging them to become next generation creative artists", she said.

The workshop allowed students to immerse themselves into local stories. Trangie Central School had been exploring the play 'A Little Piece of Heaven', which shares the unique story of respected Elders of the local community Uncle Dick and Aunty Ruth.

Trangie Central School educator Scott McDonald was present with the students throughout the holiday program, stating the program was a great way for students to connect to the local community and each other.

"The program was a great success. It was great to see the students so curious about the local stories that were explored. Having Aunty Ruth visit the school to meet and discuss her story with the students was a great way to expose the students to their own local history,"

"It was great to see the students gain more confidence, storytelling, performance and filming skills throughout the five days. The students are now a lot more curious about the communities' history. They now read local stories they can relate to and apply that curiosity into their learning", Mr. McDonald said.

The later part of the holiday program was focused on creating stories to portray in short films.

Mr McDonald said the highlight of the program was the final day of the program which involved the students participating and creating short films.

"The students got to learn and use filming equipment which was pretty cool. They also got to use the film equipment to create short films on stories they had been working on for the previous three days"

"The films they made were very entertaining. Students created films about kidnapping and revenge, one student made a film about the holiday program".

The students participated in a survey after the program. Mr McDonald said the results from the survey were very encouraging.

"The student feedback was 100% positive. The students answered that they definitely want to take part in more theatre programs in the future"

"It was a great way for students to spend their school holidays. Based on the results from our program we hope to influence other schools to take initiative and run theatre programs similar", Mr McDonald said.

Claudine Shoesmith from ATYP said the organisation wants to continue bringing theatre programs to the central west within the near future.

"Trangie Central School and Mr. McDonald were so welcoming and supportive of the organisation and getting the students engaged. We are super excited to continue whatever relationship we can with the students and hopefully bring more theatre programs to Trangie in the future", Claudine said.