We’re so honoured to win places in West End (From Echo)

We’re so honoured to win places in West End

8:00am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Castle Point By Melissa Hills

TWO talented teenagers from south Essex are celebrating after gaining coveted places at a stage school.

Shelby Speed, 15, from Canvey, and Haydn Cox, 17, from Thorpe Bay, have been busy learning lines and dance routines in a bid to be accepted at musical theatre company West End Kids.

And they have now found out their hard work has been successful.

But they can’t rest on their laurels yet, as on February 7 they will be performing Charles Dickens’s inspired songs and routines at the official Dickens Bicentennial Dinner at Mansion House, central London.

Shelby, of Weel Road, who is head girl at Cornelius Vermuyden School on Canvey, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be part of the famous West End Kids.

“It’s really tough to get in. They audition hundreds of boys and girls every term and places are like gold dust.

“I’m going to have to work really hard to keep my place, but I’m really excited about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Shelby’s dad, Steve Speed, 51, who works as a manager at Ford Dunton, added: “Shelby has always known what she wants to do and is really focussed. We are really proud of her, I don’t know how she fits it all in.”

Shelby and Haydn’s performance at the Dickens’s dinner will include renditions of classic songs like Food Glorious Food and Oom Pa Pa from Oliver to a 350-strong audience.

Guests on the night will include Mark Dickens, the great-great grandson of Charles Dickens.

Haydn and Shelby will be travelling up to London to rehearse at the weekends.

Haydn, of Thorpe Hall Avenue, Thorpe Bay, a student at St Bernard’s High School Sixth Form, in Westcliff, said: “I’m so excited about this performance.

“It would be a huge privilege just to perform in the Egyptian Room at Mansion House, but to be able to say I performed at Dickens’s 200th party is pretty amazing.

“We are all working really hard at the moment to make sure we give it our best.”