Elsie Cheyne lives in Pitlochry where she attends the High School and enjoys any opportunity to get involved with dance and drama.

A regular at Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s weekly hiper youth arts programme, she’s landed her dream Summer job: a part in this summer’s PFT’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s hilarious comedy Henceforward!

Elsie takes up the story: “Being part of the theatre’s hiper programme is so much fun - I love it. We always do all sorts of cool drama and even get the chance to see what it’s like to perform in a real theatre – my experience was one of the reasons why I got the part!”

Embarking on a hectic schedule, which involves Elsie appearing at least once and sometimes twice a week throughout the Summer, could be a testing prospect for any actor, let alone a nine year old girl. However, Elsie isn’t in the least fazed by such a demanding schedule, let alone the prospect of taking to the famous Pitlochry stage. Why? Well, because . . . she won’t actually be there!

Elsie reveals all: “I am very pleased and excited to be playing the part of young Geain in Henceforward - in a video!”

Steve Carlin, Head of Production and Resource at PFT takes up the story: “The unusual thing about this comedy is that we have live action on stage, as you would expect, but also live and pre-recorded video action, which is broadcast on four large screens on the set throughout the show – at some points, all three occur at the same time! To realize Ayckbourn's requirements on the stage, whilst ensuring split second accuracy without the expensive hardware and software available to professional broadcasters, has required ingenuity, imagination and a healthy dose of grim determination. Fortunately, we have all three of these in abundance at PFT!”  

And what happened when the time came for Elsie’s performance to be recorded? She explained: “I was glad that Drew Scott [Community and Education Director at PFT] came to help with the recording of my part, because I was scared that I might get the lines wrong!

The video camera was amazingly small, so I wasn't too nervous and the director helped me to try and get everything right - I was glad I could practice several times before the recording was made.

It's very exciting to be part of the cast and I can't wait to see how it all comes together!"

Directed by Perth based Ken Alexander, who was at the helm of last year’s PFT comedy hit Noises Off, Henceforward previews on 19th May and runs in repertoire until 13th October, 2011.