Hannah Smith

Living in Murray Bridge which is an hour drive from Adelaide limits her opportunities to develop skills and meet new people in the field that she is working towards. Hannah also is a singer who is an experience busker and background music performer. She is also heavily involved in helping with costumes, backstage, choreography, lighting and sound tec and more in her local theatre company and school and hope that she can continue learning skills of the theatre as she finishes year 12 and applies for drama centre at Flinders University.

Hannah created Hannah Catherine productions for an opportunity for local youth who have never done theatre before to gain the life skills of being on stage. These skills range from public speaking, time management, team building, confidence, how to present yourself and being on time and reliable. Hannah’s normal rehearsal time will go for 1-2 weeks and the end result is always mind-blowing as none of the cast members have ever sung, acted or danced before. In Hannah’s last production of Peter Pan 11 out of 18 cast members hadn’t even been on stage before. Chris Davis who played lead character Peter Pan is a drummer in a heavy metal/screamo band….

While the theatre is her biggest passion, helping youths in the region is high up on her priority list. All the proceeds from each show Hannah puts on have so far been donated to Murraylands mental health support group Silent Ripples. Hannah is drawn to helping Silent Ripples because of some experiences she’d had with struggling young friends. Experiencing friends dealing with suicidal tendencies led Hannah to support local groups who aim to help struggling youth, because she is surrounded by young people and she wants to help in any way she can. Donating locally allows Hannah to be sure their money has the impact they want. We know with Silent Ripples that the money we donate goes towards exactly what we want it to and it stays in our community, rather than donating the money and never seeing what gets done with it.

For her production of Cinderella, the proceeds will be donated to another local charity, again working with teenagers. Teen Challenge helps teenagers who’ve had drug addictions and dealt with depression among many other things, and we really want to keep helping people our age in our community. As she matures and transitions into adulthood, Hannah knows the financial aspects of theatre production will become tighter, but said donations will always be at the forefront of her plans.