Heatham House youths star in Edinburgh Fringe

8.14.08pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 7th Aug 2007

A cast of young actors from Heatham House youth centre will debut their self-penned show at the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe next week.

The six young people will perform their play "All About Us", which dramatises their experience of growing up in London, at the Edinburgh College of Art from Monday 13 to Wednesday 15 August. They have been working on the piece over the last four months during a series of drama workshops at the Richmond Council-run youth centre in Twickenham. The actors are Cara Whittock, 20, Kirsty Whittock, 18, Charlie Cook, 18, Rob Saubole, 17, Amy Wassall, 18, and Judith Freitag, 19. More than 18,000 performers will star in an estimated 2,050 shows at this year's annual arts festival in the Scottish capital.

Cllr John Coombs, Cabinet Member for Youth, Culture and Leisure, said: "Investing in the Youth Service and giving young people greater access to positive activities such as drama is one of the Council's key priorities. The drama group have done a fantastic job creating the play from scratch, rehearsing and fine-tuning it over the last four months. The young people even staged a 12-hour improvisation session to raise funds for the trip. I wish them the best of luck, or in true theatrical tradition - break a leg."