A student from Bramhope has gained a place in the prestigious National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.

Caroline Taylor, a Year 11 student at The Grammar School at Leeds has been selected along with two fellow pupils Martha Mukungurutse, from Leeds, and Iona Boyd, from Knaresborough, Following their successful auditions, the students will attend a two-week intensive acting course in London during the summer holidays.

After the course they will be fully-fledged NYT members until the age of 25, which entitles them to audition for the theatre’s shows around the country each year.

 The competition was fierce – in a record year for NYT applications over 4,800 youngsters auditioned for 560 coveted places on the summer course. Applicants attended an all-day audition, taking part in group acting workshops in the morning and performing a monologue in the afternoon.

Caroline has been a regular on stage in school productions and has recently achieved Grade Eight in Speech and Drama.

She said: “I was very nervous on the day, as I thought it would be a highly competitive atmosphere, but it was very friendly – the panel were all past members who knew what it was like for us, and we’ll be working with them again on the summer course.”

Emma Stokes, head of co-curricular drama at GSAL, said: “The NYT is singularly the most prestigious theatre company a young person can be accepted into within the UK. For our students to be accepted against such strong competition only serves to highlight what exceptionally talented, dedicated and ambitious performers they are.”   

The trio will be following in the footsteps of some illustrious NYT alumni – Dame Helen Mirren, Daniel Craig, Colin Firth, Catherine Tate, Matt Smith and many more honed their craft with the organisation.