A group of four young actors from The Courtyard in Hereford braved the cold weather on Saturday, February 13th, to perform several scenes from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in front of an eager audience outside Ross-on-Wye Market House.

Fletch Garrard, who played Romeo, told the Ross Gazette:?“We’d only had one (rehearsal), which was an hour and a half, so it was very limited, so it was quite hard to learn our lines in time. But I had hours at home, going over it with my mum. But with only one reversal, I think we did quite well.”

Fletch added that in the past, he has only acted in front of audiences who have either paid to see the performance, or made plans to see the show in advance. “Obviously there were a lot of people in the crowd who had either read it in the newspaper, or heard it on the radio, but I think it was really good to see people who weren’t expecting to come to Ross and see this sort of thing, stop and watch,” he said.

The event had been organised by Made in Ross, the group of artists who display their work within the Market House.

Katrina Stevens, one of the artists who organised the event, told the Ross Gazette:?“It was absolutely lovely, and it really fitted in with the Valentine’s feel.”

She added:?“For us doing a collaboration like this with the Youth Theatre from The Courtyard has been wonderful.”

Eleanor Kercher, Chairman of the Made in Ross collective told the Gazette: “I’m so pleased that so many towns people turned out to see it, and they got a really good audience, and despite the cold weather, lots of people were there, and clearly really enjoying it.”