Michal Hughes
Michal spent all her teenage years living in Whyalla and returned to Whyalla recently after spending some time in her home country New Zealand where she studied. Michal feels a deep connection to the town and it's people, and she's heavily involved in engaging young people in the arts.
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Life Lessons - D'faces and Whyalla Aged Care - 2018
Michal is a youth artist, theatre maker, and alumni member of D’faces in Whyalla with whom she has been involved since 2010, working as the Junior Drama tutor for 4 years before venturing to the University of Otago to begin her Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Theatre Studies. She has had a keen interest in theatre since she was a young child and the performing arts have been her main focus growing up.
Michal both initiated and facilitated the first D’faces Drama Camp, run in the early summer of 2016, which is now part of their permanent program, and, though she is still working toward the completion of her degree, has returned to create theatre in Whyalla once again. Michal is particularly invested in regional youth arts and telling the stories of local young people through theatre and performance.
Since returning to Whyalla Michal has begun casting for Riot Collective, a theatre troupe of 15-26 year old creatives, with the goal of delivering innovative, interesting and personal works to a professional standard. Michal has also worked as an actor and director in projects across Whyalla, greater South Australia and New Zealand, having attended an early iteration of the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s Summer School Programme, many short courses at the Adelaide Centre of the Arts, and having performed and directed for many local amateur theatre productions.
Michal has also recently extended her interests into film and festival curation, having worked in partnership with the Adelaide Film Festival to deliver a film festival in Whyalla in late 2018. She is currently developing an independent Whyalla Film Festival to be delivered alongside the Unearth Festival in mid 2019 showcasing Whyalla made work in partnership with another local Micha(e)l.
As well as her passion for theatre, Michal is also an avid crafter, designer and maker of cool things. Michal’s greatest passion is engaging young people in the arts while creating meaningful and evocative work and believes deeply in the transformative power of the arts.