Press Release 001

The Unearthed PA Challenge offers a chance to discover the Performing Arts with other school students from schools across the UK. We are looking to unearth the UK's hidden talent and to give students the challenge of discovering themselves and a love of the arts.

The Challenge aims to build confidence and skills through performing and provides helpful notes from expert adjudicators. The Challenge is open to all school students who can sing, dance, act, recite, do circus skills, play an instrument or write thier own compositions, it will be a unique opportunity to meet others and experts in the same field and compare performances. It is particularly encouraging young men and boys to be more involved in the arts. The challenge will last over two weeks and culminate in a Schools Spectacular, combining performers from different schools in a closing night event to showcase the best of the best. Entrants will have the chance to perform an own choice piece and a challenge set by us.

The Challenge will be promoting ways that the Performing Arts can be used to help reduce bullying and teach tolerance and other ways of handling aggressive behaviours. The performing arts is an excellent way of channeling anger and aggression constructively as well as building self esteem and confidence and working together with other people.

The Challenge is looking for organisations to partner with to help promote the Challenge and to be involved with it’s setting up.

The Video.
The video “Somebody’s Baby” has had much praise from as far away as Hollywood and is being used as part of the teacher education course at the California State University. The video can be viewed on the Unearthed PA website.

About Andrew Stopps
Andrew Stopps is currently the Director of Music at the Australian International Performing Arts High School in Sydney, Australia and will be taking up a similar role in Buckinghamshire UK from July. He is the Founder of the School Angels, an organisation to help promote tolerance and find ways of dealing with bullying and violence at school. It also provides an online resource helping students find support and contacts and also meeting other teens who are experiencing similar situations. The organisation was formed as a result of two vicious attacks on his students by other teens on their way home from school. One involved knives and guns and the other was the sexual assault of a 14 year old girl on a bus.
He has organised an Anti-Violence and Homophobia Forum in Sydney which included police chiefs, state and federal members of Parliament and stake holders and more recently an Anti-Bullying Forum which included teachers, principals, members of parliament and heads of organisations. He has also been interviewed by the Daily Telegraph Newspaper Sydney, The Australian Newspaper, radio stations 2DayFM Sydney, ACB National Radio, Nova Radio Melbourne, 6PR Radio Perth, ABC National Television and BBC Radio 4.
He is also a brain tumour survivor who beat the odds after being told he had only 6 months to live.