Fortunately Braidwood’s new Youth Performing Arts Association (BYPAA) has the answer.

Kids will be able to join in on a new school holiday workshop program. Workshops include calisthenics, puppetry, card tricks, making music videos, acting, acrobatics and breakdancing, tailored to a range of ages and stages.

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Local poet, actor and comedian Harry Laing will be running two performance and comedy workshops, one aimed at those aged 6-10 years, the other 10-17 years.

Kids will get a fun taste of performance and comedy that aims to stretch not just their verbal expression, but also their physical expression.

“The main thing is that everybody has fun, and that it’s something that energises the kids and fires up their confidence to get out there and perform,” Mr Lang said.

He himself now performs mainly at schools, running drama and creative writing workshops.

Seeing the excitement of kids who have learnt to capture the attention and emotion of an audience is one of the pleasures of the job, as is watching shyer kids gain confidence watching their peers.

The Youth Performing Arts Association formed earlier in 2016, seeking to give Braidwood’s children a chance to extend their performance skills.

The school holiday program follows their first event, ‘Braidwood’s Got Talent’ in October. 

“The whole reason BYPAA formed, is just recognising that there is such talent and how to foster that and how to grow that a bit more,” said association President Annie Duke.

“We really want to make options available that kids in this sort of rural location don’t necessarily get.”

A range of activities has been purposely included in the program to suit a range of tastes. The program is spread out over three weeks to give kids a chance to recover, and something to look forward to.