THE members of Phoenix Youth Theatre (PYT), based at the Phoenix Theatre in Ross-on-Wye, have got lots to shout about this month, with two huge successes to share.

For several months they have been rehearsing for two different events which all happened to fall in the same very busy week.

On Thursday, March 8th, six of their oldest and more experienced PYT members took to the stage at Ledbury Market Theatre to perform their original entry ’Who’s Playing Juliet?’ in this year’s Herefordshire County Drama Festival.

As the first group to open the festival weekend, out of a total of 13 entries, their actors were simply captivating, delivering comic timing with ease, facial expression and emotion in bucket loads and not forgetting the award winning ending, which had the audience laughing away.

The actors truly did PYT proud, winning a total of seven nominations including Best Original Play, Best Set, two for Best Individual Youth Performance and Best Producer/Director. Most importantly, however, they are proud and elated to announce the winning of not one, but two awards, with Maggie Hearne winning Best Individual Youth Performance and Ollie O’Neill winning A Special Moment in Youth Theatre.

The second of their successes saw the entire group of PYT members take to the stage on March 10th and 11th in their annual March Showcase performance.

With 26 performers in total this was a huge event, particularly for some of their newest and youngest members, of whom it was their first experience of performing on the Phoenix stage.

Audiences saw a range of ages from 8 - 18 play a variety of colourful characters from ’The BFG’, ’The Boy Who Fell into a Book’, original piece ’Galactic Odyssey’ and finally ’Daisy Pulls It Off!’.

The young actors left their audiences cheering and laughing in admiration for what was a stunning showcase of their talents.