Forest Gate students’ joy at getting National Youth Theatre places

Two sixth formers will be spending a fortnight at the National Youth Theatre after gaining places on an acting course in the summer.

Gavin Joseph and Ose Egbejale, from St Angela’s and St Bonaventure’s Sixth Form Centre in Forest Gate were among almost 5000 youngsters who auditioned for 560 highly sought places.

This comes hot on the heels of the talented pair’s success in gaining places at RADA Youth Company in September last year.

Gavin, 18, said: “The audition process was intense but lovely. We were all in a room - about 30 of us - doing general workshop stuff, drama games and exercises. That was the first half of the workshop, the second half involved getting put into groups and doing a short 2 minute improvisation piece. After the workshop we had to wait for our individual auditions.

“I then had to do a monologue and afterwards she commented saying: “I can tell you put a lot of work into that” which was really gratifying to hear. I was absolutely thrilled when I heard that I’d been successful and it’s just amazing that Ose got through too - Bon’s boys take Broadway!”

Ose, also 18, said: “NYT was a really big thing for me because the likes of Idris Elba,Daniel Craig and Matt Smith have being through this so it was a big surprise getting selected. It’s also a good thing as we are showing the country Newham does have talent. I am hoping this will help open doors for me and I get amazing casting calls for productions and TV shows. Everything is falling into place.”