A PIERCEBRIDGE woman will have chalked up 4,200 miles by the time she fulfills her ambition to play Anna in The King and I.

Andrea Atkinson has been rehearsing since October for the role with the West End Operatic Society at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, later this month.

She plays English governess, Ann Leonowens, a young widow who went out to Bangkok to teach the 67 children of the King of Siam. Malaysian actor, Meng Khan, plays the king.

The true story was turned into a Broadway stage play and a later a popular film, and the North-East version is based on the latter.

Mrs Atkinson, 42, was bitten by the acting bug at school where she had a small part in Under Milk Wood.

"I was just 11 and absolutely devastated when it was cancelled at the last minute," she recalled.

She comes from a musical family in which her mother, Joyce Cuthbert, plays the piano and her father, Arnold, is a member of Northallerton Male Voice Choir. Their daughter joined Northallerton Amateur Variety Company and has since played many lead roles throughout the region.

She also had three seasons as principal soprano soloist with the Lingdale Silver Band, performing in Last Night of the Proms concerts around the North-East, and features on a CD issued by the band.

"We had to get special permission to use the song composed for the Queen's golden jubilee, The Most Wonderful Birthday. It was quite a coup, as only Kiri Te Kanawa and I have now performed it," she said.

Mrs Atkinson has been waiting for the role of Anna to come around for some time and, on a Far East holiday, even visited the royal palace in Bangkok where the governess taught.

"It is a part you can only really do when you are a more mature lady and I always seemed to be involved in something else when it has came around," she explained.

Mrs Atkinson tours the region professionally with Encore, a musical theatre cabaret group. She and her husband, Tony, run a sound design and installation company and, when she is not on stage, they set up microphones for conferences, theatres, churches, royal visits and for Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

They live with seven cats and a dog which also gets in on the act from time to time. "The dog appeared on stage with the Newcastle society when he was just eight months old - and has been on and off it ever since,"

The King and I starts on March 22 and runs for one week. Evening performances are at 7pm, with a 2pm matine on Thursday and Saturday.

Sheila Todd