Zoë speaks up for a career on the stage

May 2 2008 by Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle

A QUEEN’S School pupil has swept the board at the Chester Speech and Drama Festival.

Zoë Lambrakis, 15, came first in three classes: solo acting, sight reading and verse speaking in the 15-16 age group of the festival at Queen’s Park High School.

The Year 11 pupil, whose set pieces included Sally from Love on the Dole and Rosalind from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, won both the McDonald Trophy and the Drummond Trophy.

Zoë, who is half-Greek, took a leading role as Professor Higgins in the school’s recent production of My Fair Lady.

Zoë hopes to pursue a career in acting and recently completed a 12-day induction course with the National Youth Theatre in London.

She is currently in rehearsals for a production of Noël Coward’s Relative Values at Chester’s Little Theatre and is a member of Clwyd Youth Theatre.

She said: “I have always loved acting, so much so that I want to pursue it as a career. The stage and theatre is so important to me, I can’t see myself doing anything else!”

Fellow pupil Annie Stapley came first in the under 14 solo drama class, winning the Vee Sanders Junior Solo Drama Cup.