I’ve performed in a short play at the National Theatre in London.

Alright it was the Cottesloe Theatre, but it’s still in the National Theatre so i’m counting it.

I was 15 when we initially put the production on in Teignmouth. It was for a competition where the author of a new play would distribute it to drama groups throughout the country, and at the end she would choose a winner. We performed our final show in Plymouth and then forgot about it for about a month. We then put on a cabaret night back in Teignmouth, and at the end of the show the person who ran the drama group told us on stage that we had won the competition. Everybody erupted and there were tears of joy and happiness, whilst I was dreading having to relearn all the lines.

I didn’t enjoy the part I played in the piece, but I didn’t have a shadow actor for my part because I was just so good at it. Therefore, I had to play it, otherwise the play wouldn’t happen and it would ruin it for everyone else. However, once I had actually got on stage, we got a genuinely positive reaction from the crowd, better than the ones we had got from friends and family back at home. Within the first few lines I realised that all the extra rehearsals were worth it.

Shortly after this I was casted as Aslan in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. I was on stage wearing this hideous patch work fur coat thing, and I had to genuinely roar. After this show I cut my losses and left the group.

Highlight of the trip – I fancied one of the girls in the performance and thought in my 15 year old head that it would be really romantic to ask her out after the show. I bottled it.

But I did ask her out a few months later…

She said no.