A soloist with the Chester choir A Handbag of Harmonies has landed a role in the new repertory company at The Everyman in Liverpool - the first of its kind for 25 years.
Keddy Sutton, a professional actress, is one of the 14 actors who will tread the boards at the famous Hope Street theatre for six months from January 2017.
Keddy, who has sung with the choir since its inception in 2000, is currently appearing in the Royal Court Christmas show Scouse of the Rising Sun.
Last year she was Queen of Mean in the Unity Theatre's production of the Princess and the Pea, which toured to the Action Transport Theatre in Ellesmere Port.
Well known as a comedy actress, Keddy was the face of an online campaign for Pot Noodle last year and is part of the comedy duo Caz 'n' Britney with actor Gillian Hardie.
The new company also features George Caple, son of Liverpool actor Neil Caple, and recent drama graduate Emily Hughes who was selected from all the people who applied through open auditions this summer.
There are also places in the company for Dean Nolan, who made an impression on Everyman audiences as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and theatre veterans Patrick Brennan, Melanie La Barrie and Richard Bremmer.
And 19-year-old Elliott Davis has come through Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) auditions to join the team.
Everyman bosses chose the cast through a number of routes, including open auditions held at the theatre for actors either from Merseyside or based in the region.
Artistic director Gemma Bodinetz and associate director Nick Bagnall saw hundreds of performers, often holding four sessions each day, involving 20 actors in each session.
Gemma Bodinetz said: “It’s all really exciting, and I hope they’re all happy.
“It (the audition) was a phenomenally difficult process. Just the thought that we were going to have to say no to such brilliant people.
“The shows that we’ve chosen required such specific things that that did a lot of the work for us. It was months of a search and there was a very intense period of open auditions.
“There were people we found through that process that didn’t get in to the company, but we now know that actor exists in the city, and we’ll be using them for other things.”
The full company is as follows:
Pauline Daniels, Liam Tobin, Keddy Sutton, George Caple, Laura Dos Santos, Richard Bremmer, Zelina Rebeiro, Dean Nolan, Melanie La Barrie, Patrick Brennan, Asha Kingsley, Tom Kanji, Emily Hughes and Elliott Davis.
The Everyman Repertory season opens in February with a new production of Fiddler on the Roof.
The six-month season also includes The Conquest of the South Pole, a new adaptation of Brian Patten’s The Story Giant, Lizzie Nunnery’s new play The Sum, and Romeo and Juliet.
In the last month all five shows will play in repertory.
