A TEENAGER from Santon Downham has seen off competition from more than 4,000 hopefuls to win a place with the National Youth Theatre.

A TEENAGER from Santon Downham has seen off competition from more than 4,000 hopefuls to win a place with the National Youth Theatre.

Victoria (Tori) McIrvine, 16, successfully audition for one a handful of places with the NYT, which was set up in 1956 to offer young people the chance to develop their creative and social skills through theatrical arts.

Tori will join the company's two-week acting course during the summer holidays, and have the opportunity to audition for NYT productions which are staged at top theatres and venues in London and other major cities.

“It's a privilege to have been selected and I'm really going to make the most of such a great opportunity,” said Tori, who was a pupil at Riddlesworth Hall near Diss before transferring to the King's School Ely, where she is in Year 11.

She has already taken leading roles in a wide range of King's School productions including Our Country's Good, Jekyll and Hyde the Musical, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Crucible and Wizard of Oz. Her ambition is to become a professional actor.

She is in the middle of her GCSE exams - including Drama - and next year she will continue studying the subject at AS-level as well as philosophy, English literature and textiles.

King's director of performance studies, Adella Charlton, said: “Tori thoroughly deserves her success and I know he will make the most of the opportunity he has been given by the NYT.”