Olivia is back for seventh show with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre

“I have been part of the youth theatre since I was in year six. My sister did the youth theatre and I grew up watching her in shows and every year it was just the highlight of Christmas. It was a real tradition.

“The first show I did with the youth theatre was The Wizard of Oz which holds a really special place in my memory. It just felt so surreal because I'd never done anything like that before. You step out onto the stage and you're just ‘Oh my god! Why am I here?’ especially being with a group of people where there is such a big age range. But it's one of the most special things because there is always such a real sense of community. And I think that sense of community comes very naturally. We’ve got such an amazing group of creatives that instil us and look after us and I think you just feel really safe. I think I've gained confidence and I definitely want my career to be in acting.”

Another highlight was being in Pinocchio, both times, the first time when the run was cut short by renewed Covid lockdowns and the second time the following year when they were able to complete the run: “I was Jiminy Cricket and that was such a crazy experience. It was Covid and we had two separate casts that were rehearsing. We’d all gone through such a traumatic time, and I think it just echoed the importance of community within the youth theatre. So many people went through so much and we had this space to come together where we could express ourselves creatively. It was pretty awful when we had to stop but I was in the next Pinocchio which was completely different the second time but still had the essence of the first.”

For Cinderella, Olivia, aged 16 and a student at Bishop Luffa, is one of the storytellers: “There are 12 of us and we've been exploring who the storytellers are and what their role is. We are exploring whether they knew the story before. Through the storytellers we are telling the characters and we take the story with us. We open the show and through the story we bring to life the characters. It's like reading a book and seeing the pictures. We create the story and it's really nice to have 12 of us. And Jon (Pashley, the director) has allowed us to find our own characters as storytellers. We are able to bring our own personality to it which is great.”

Olivia comes to it after recently sharing the stage with Judi Dench and Ian McKellen in a London celebration of Noël Coward in his 125th year: “It was a group of youth theatre members and we were like a youth theatre choir. We sang a medley of Noël Coward songs and it was just the best experience to share the stage with them. We did briefly speak to Ian McKellen when he came past us but we were never made to feel that we didn't deserve to be there and it was just so lovely to be able to sing.”