The kids were providing a street theatre performance; the culmination of an intensive four days of workshops ran by Arts OutWest for young people from Grenfell.

“We could see an opportunity for young people to have some fun and develop some amazing street theatre skills that they could use in the future to entertain crowds in a public arena at the 2012 Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival,” local coordinator Carly Brown said.

Arts OutWest provided the workshops as part of the NSW TAFE funded ArtStart program. Every morning from January 17 to 20 was taken up with street theatre skills while afternoons switched to filmmaking.

"We also canvassed the community about what they would like to take away from the workshops and we instantly recognised a keen interest in stop animation and claymation film making. In fact, the workshops when combined each complimented the other and over the four days we achieved some truly admirable results,” Ms Brown said.

The 20 or so young participants worked on circus and performance skills, learnt about parading, characters, storytelling and outdoor performance. With tutors Ryan Fitch, Bec Kordas and Jess Collins, they developed a short comic street performance using the skills learn during the week. The 10 minute rhyming play, ‘Granville Grenfell and Frank Gardiner Face Off ’, drew large crowds to the Main Street of Grenfell and will now be developed by the Grenfell Dramatic Society for performance during the annual Henry Lawson Festival of Arts in June.

“It was a thrill to be involved with this project from start to finish and we are very thankful to ArtsOutwest for this wonderful opportunity", Ms Brown said.

“We would like to acknowledge Ryan Fitch, Bec Kordas and Jess Collins for their tireless commitment to the project and for their vibrant and entertaining approach to skills development for the Students,” Ms Brown said.

See footage and pictures from the week at: www.facebook.com/grenfellfestival