The Jungle Book could be Grace's Chichester Festival Youth Theatre farewell

The classic tale comes in a brand-new adaptation by Sonali Bhattacharyya from Saturday, December 16-Sunday, December 31 on the main-house stage, with Grace playing one of the two Bagheeras.

“I think I am currently the longest youth theatre member in the show,” Grace says. “I’ve been here ten years and I have been here since I was ten. Both my parents work in the theatre and my dad at the time worked here. He was the RENEW project manager and Dale (Rooks, director of learning, education and participation at the CFT) had been asking ‘whether Grace would be interested in auditioning’ and I did and I have done most of them since then. I did 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol and Beauty and The Beast. I also did Crossing Lines, the summer production which was great, a real logistical challenge to get your mind around. And I also did both Pinnochios (after the first one was cut short by a renewed lockdown, the show returned the following year).”

And it has been great: “I think the youth theatre is such a unique opportunity. I’ve met lots of people from all over the country that have done youth theatre but none of them have ever had the experience quite like we have here. At the Festival Theatre they are just so generous in what they give us and what are they let us to do. You get a real professional experience and a real professional production team behind you. You’re just given so much. They really trust us. It’s the Christmas show that the youth theatre does every year and that just shows how much they trust us and I just love doing it. Our director asked me and the other Bagheera the other day what sort of things there are to do around Christmastime in Chichester and I just answered that actually I’m always at the theatre. And the years that I didn’t do it I just didn’t know what to do with myself. Being part of the Christmas production has always been such a big part of my Christmas every year.”

Probably this is her last time with the youth theatre, though, this year: “I’m hoping to go off to uni next year. I’m hoping to study theatre but I’m not really sure yet in what capacity. I am looking to do an applied theatre course which is something which is very upcoming at the moment. There are definitely some very interesting courses out there that allow you to be more creative and have more control over what you are performing. It’s definitely scary when you’re thinking about what to do but I did a foundation year at Mountview last year.”

As for the new production: “A lot of us were saying that we think that with this one, with the new ideas and new designs, the Festival Theatre is really taking it a step up in terms of the magic. They’re doing some really exciting things with this one. It’s a really incredible set. I’m not going to say what it is but it is really brilliant. And we just get to play around with it. Matt, our director, has got so many ideas and it’s just so much to fun to play. It’s such a playful show and so colourful.”

Tickets from the venue.