DAWN Williams is a former member of a Worcester amateur dramatics society.

She is so excited to have been offered a contract in the first UK and

Ireland tour of Matilda.

The show opens in Leicester in March, 2018, and reaches Birmingham in July

through until September.

Dawn, who used to be in WODYS - Worcester Operatic and Dramatic Society

Youth Section - said: "It's not really sunk in yet. I am going to be working

with the Royal Shakespeare Company and an amazing creative team, a dream job

and I feel very lucky!"

Matilda is an award winning musical from the RSC - inspired by the Roald

Dahl book - which continues to delight audiences in London.

Dawn said: "We start rehearsals on Tuesday, January 2nd, and my role is an

off-stage swing covering ensemble and emergency cover children and 2nd cover

Miss Honey."

A talented dancer, Dawn has just completed a short run in Half A Sixpence at

the Noel Coward theatre in London.

Before that she was part of the UK tour of Mamma Mia. Previous to that she

played the role of Baby Bear in Shrek the musical, was part of Andrew Lloyd

Webber's Cats UK and European tour as Rumpletezer and a year as Jemima,

performing in Istanbul, Athens and Milan,

Dawn, aged 26, said: "am very excited for the new challenge ahead."

It was only a short time ago that Dawn was visiting Worcester and her home

town leading a workshop at WODYS with its 70 members, aged 8 to 18.

She admitted to being slightly nervous before the workshop as she was more

used to performing in front of an audience than teaching. But afterwards she

said: "It was really fun and I loved it. The youngsters were great and it

was nice to be back where it all started."

The workshop started with scene work from Mamma Mia and then a dance lesson

on the routine Flash Bang Wallop from Half a Sixpence.

Dawn won a scholarship and studied Musical Theatre at Laine Theatre Arts in

Epsom. She studied dance at Harlequin Stage School in Worcester, obtained a

grade five LAMDA award and a grade eight in musical theatre singing, with

Emma Winscom.

A former pupil of Droitwich Spa High School, she appeared in five Kays'

pantos. She had several parts in WODYS' shows, starting when she was an

orphan in Annie, and will be best remembered for her outstanding

performances as Pitti-Sing in Hot Mikado, Tiffany in Back To The 80s and Ado

Annie in Oklahoma! in her final year.

WODYS next show is Seven Brides For Seven Brothers on at the Swan Theatre,

Worcester, from Tuesday, July 31 to Saturday, August 4, with a cast of 70

youngsters, aged eight to 18.