Teen actor beats 100s of hopefuls to land role
A TEENAGE actor from Bishop Auckland is celebrating after being selected from hundreds of hopefuls to take part in the National Youth Theatre summer workshop.
Adam May, 19, is one of 10 youngsters from the North East to have successfully auditioned for the week-long workshop in London where he will work with professional actors, directors, producers and young people from across the UK on many styles of drama.
Adam, who has been a member of the Bishop Auckland Hooligans for nine years, said the workshop will be good preparation for studying drama at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge which he’ll join in September.
The budding actor said: “There was about 200 people going for it in the North East so to be one of the final 10 is brilliant. I was really nervous at the audition especially when I found out the person I was auditioning for was very good friends with the person who wrote the play I had chosen to perform. It obviously went well though and I’m so excited about going to the theatre.
“I want to have a career in drama and will start off trying to be an actor but if that doesn’t work I’ll look into going into teaching.
“Going to London is a bit daunting but I know it’s going to be fun.”
This is the second year in a row that Bath has had its members accepted into the National Youth Theatre after Kayleigh Addams and Leanne Golightly spent last summer in the capital.
The group was founded 14 years ago by Stephen Elliott and is based at King James I Community Arts College where he teaches drama.
Bath, which has more than 120 members, is made up of two groups, the younger Bubblebath and the older group who meet on Wednesdays and Tuesdays respectively from 4pm to 6pm at the school.
The group specialises in hard-hitting productions tackling anti-social issues and have just produced a DVD of six short films about domestic abuse and the impact it has which will be shown to domestic abuse workers across the county.
They are also preparing to take 60 youngsters for a summer break in Ireland where they will work with a new partner youth centre and later in the year seven young members will travel back to Jamaica to follow up a successful project about the differences of growing up in Bishop Auckland compare to the Caribbean Island.
