Budding Kilmarnock actress needs hometown support

Jun 12 2009 by Clair Fullarton, Kilmarnock Standard

BUDDING actress, Laura Black, is looking for sponsorship from folk in her home town to keep her stage dream alive.

Laura, a former student of Grange Academy and Centrestage Music Theatre in Kilmarnock, is currently in her second year at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts working towards a BA (Hons) in acting.

And the talented 20-year-old is part of a group trying to bring three plays at the cost of £9000 to the Fringe at Edinburgh later this year.

Laura said: “We are planning to take three companies of 11 students in productions of ‘Under Milk Wood’, by Dylan Thomas, ‘The Overcoat’ a new contemporary opera and ‘Gormanghast’ an adaptation of the novels by Mervyn Peake to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August for a period of eight days.

“This will be a great opportunity to showcase our work at such a prestigious event and will open up many opportunities and allow us to develop the necessary skills for us to flourish as professionals.

“It is a dream for us to be able to perform this event.

“This is a student led event and is not organised through the academy, so we need to raise £9000 to cover venues, accommodation, transport, and play rights.

“So far we’ve raised around £2,500 with bake sales, cabaret evenings and busking on the South Bank as a choir, and other planned events are a sponsored 15K race, play readings and talent shows.”

Proud mum Kim said: “Laura has worked really hard and it was a dream come true for her when she was accepted into the Italia Conti acting school.

“We all miss her terribly, but she is pursuing her dream, and she is happy. It would be great if people from Kilmarnock could help her with the Edinburgh project.”

Despite all their efforts Laura and her student pals still require more financial support in order to achieve their goal.

If you would like to sponsor Laura, or support her in any way, you will be given a mention in the Edinburgh show programmes as well as tickets to one of the shows in either Edinburgh or London.

The companies would also be delighted to keep you up to date with their progress, so you can see how If you can help, lease contact laurablack_829@hotmail.com for more details.