“Everything was just about survival. The arts felt like an impossible luxury.”

That was Alysha Herrmann’s perspective two decades ago as she navigated dropping out of school and leaving home at 15, then becoming a 17-year-old mum.

But at 19, finding theatre changed her life, and her prolific career in the arts since has been grounded in helping young people across the Riverland, Mount Gambier and Peterborough find access and community sooner than she did.

“I grew up on sheep stations, doing schoolwork by correspondence, in a family where we didn’t have musical instruments, we didn’t go to art galleries or theatre,” Alysha said.

“It felt like something that was distant, like the arts was something imaginary people did rather than real people.

“Looking back with hindsight, I was actually an incredibly creative child, writing poems, making up songs and forcing my brothers to act out plays – I just didn’t see it as art.

“As an adult, artmaking is now as normal and natural to me as breathing, but I just didn’t know how to explain it and how to make it make sense.”

Alysha went on to numerous roles in the regional youth arts space, including with Country Arts SA as Arts and Cultural Development Officer for the Riverland and Mallee (2012-13) and Creative Producer Regional Youth (2017-20).

Her key memories are the “magical” moments of projects coming to culmination and “there are people in the room experiencing something that they have never experienced or didn’t think they could”.

Alysha’s current labour of love is producing short film They Sing To The Waters Now, which follows a non-binary teenager who befriends a lake monster.

She is presently in production with the teenage ensemble at Ramble Arts (formerly Riverland Youth Theatre), thanks to funding support from Country Arts.

And there’s an intergenerational legacy being built, because RYT was the home of Alysha’s aforementioned first foray into theatre at 19.

“It feels really special to come back as an adult artist to work with the next generation,” she said.

“I wrote the film specifically with those young people in mind and real-life experiences they were having at the time.

“Plus the director of the film, Li Ingle, was a member of the teen ensemble and one of my very first students when I first started tutoring classes, who is now in their 30s and an artist in their own right.”

The opportunity to “pay it back and pay it forward” is what keeps Alysha going in youth arts.

“Everything I have now as an adult is because of adults who believed in, mentored and opened the door for me,” she said.

“I believe we have a responsibility to be the best ancestors we can be, so how am I supporting whoever’s coming next?

“And not just the young people that I work with right now, but their kids and kids that I’ll never meet.

“What am I doing to leave things better than I find them?”