Young actors Kate Prater and James Meier
get into character. 

 
The Operation Pilbara ensemble act-it-up on stage.

There's a widely held belief that humans will eventually behave in the way others treat them.

And that's exactly why the kids who were selected for Operation Pilbara - an elite week-long drama camp - were treated as young professionals working with directors, and not as students working with teachers.

"The same applies in the workforce," says Phil Thomson, the organiser and actor who runs the camp.

"Managers who treat their staff like children, end up producing workers who will behave as such and therefore they won't get the best out of them."

"That's why at the camp, the students were expected to behave like young professionals, which included involving them in all our conversations and treating them with the same respect a director would give to a professional actor."

"Deliberately using the actor-director relationship rather than student-teacher has brought great results," he adds.

Funded nationally, the Australian Theatre for Young People first started Operation Pilbara in 2002, but without local knowledge of the area the camps never really took off.

So they asked for help from the Black Swan Theatre Company, of which Rio Tinto is a principal sponsor.

Since Phil took over the camp in 2005, the programme has been an overwhelming success and the only issue has been selecting so few from so many willing participants!

Together with a fellow actor, Phil scouted five high schools for participants - Karratha High School, Tom Price High School, South Hedland High School, Newman High School and St. Luke's College.

"We ran workshops, took over classes, helped out a lot and searched for talent," he recalls. Of the 200 kids Phil and his team worked with, 118 put their hands up to be involved this year.

Of those, a lucky 18 were chosen to participate in the week-long camp held during school holidays.

Two of the boys even wrote a song, which was performed live at the end of the camp in front of an audience of 80 people.

"The kids all bonded incredibly well, despite age differences," says Phil. "The amount of love they showered on us at the end was incredible!"

"We saw each one of them grow in particular ways and we worked on individual areas of strength and weakness. For example, one of the participants has a weak voice so we worked with them on tools to help project their voice. And some of our wilder participants took great leaps in discipline and being able to focus."

"Overall it has given them life skills rather than just drama skills. It teaches them confidence, teamwork, the importance of physical fitness and honesty."

"I think it really gave them a strong sense of finding like-minded people in the Pilbara and they've all swapped phone numbers and e-mail addresses."

Phil is now looking to next year, and to an opportunity to work again with the many talented students living in the Pilbara.