Guisborough student wins place at Italia Conti stage school

Felicity Mitchell, who attends Guisborough's Prior Pursglove College, has been singing from the age of five and received her first acting training from the age of nine when she began "Stagecoach" in the town.

Since 2019, she has been training on the Young Musicians Programme at the Centre for Advanced Training (The Glasshouse International Centre for Music) in classical and musical theatre singing and has also received one to one acting tuition to work on monologues and acting through song.

Felicity applied to, and got offers from, four stage schools but chose Italia Conti as she loved the immediate sense of professionalism the school gave her.

The school stressed the importance of auditionees using their own accents when delivering speeches and songs. Felicity said she sometimes feels in the minority with a northern accent when she attends auditions, so appreciated how this was actively celebrated at Italia Conti.

Felicity, who is studying performing arts, physical education and history at Prior Pursglove, said: “All the staff and students there on the day were so welcoming and created such a comfortable and hard-working environment. Taking part in classes and panels for the entire day gave me the feeling that I was at a place with a strong work-ethic, where I would receive the high-quality training I needed to improve on my skills.”

Felicity, who has appeared in several productions at college, praised her performing arts teacher, Jacob Ditchburn, and added: “Jacob has been a massive help to me over my two years as my teacher and particularly during audition season. He gave up his own time to help me work on my audition monologues and songs and I will be forever grateful for all of his advice and everything he has taught me. I was able to apply his feedback to both my external auditions and my performances within the performing arts course at Prior.”