Rishikul Performing Arts Academy

The academy exists to build community and character through performance, and to put the transformative side of theatre within reach of ordinary people in a small town — not only those who can travel to a city for it.

Confidence is the first thing it teaches. Whatever a participant arrives able to do, the work is to make them surer of themselves in front of other people, which is a skill that outlasts any particular performance.

The teaching artists build courses that follow recognised standards for music and arts education, so that a student’s progress means something outside the room.

Alongside that runs the less measurable part: transformative experiences that tend to produce self-esteem, a habit of leadership, a willingness to serve, and an acceptance of difference. A student who performs alongside people unlike themselves usually stops noticing the unlikeness.