AN actress has been awarded a grant to bring her Shakespearean shows to a North Yorkshire abbey.

Louise Best, a former student of the then Allertonshire School and Northallerton College, is to bring Shakespeare’s Yorkshire: Return to the Abbey to Jervaulx Abbey, near Ripon on July 30 and 31.

And she has been granted £1,300 from the Arts Council for the production, which features songs, sonnets and snippets as the audience takes a theatrical tour of the abbey.

The 26-year-old, who graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in Surrey, is also being sponsored by North Yorkshire-based Gorgeous Cottages.

“It is absolutely fantastic to receive support and funding from a local business as well as the Arts Council,” said Miss Best.

“It means I can continue to bring high quality theatre to the area, offer affordable ticket prices and pay local actors and creatives a fair wage to do their job.”

Miss Best received a grant of £500 from Richmondshire County Council for her theatrical promenade at the abbey – her first performance there - last year. This year the show will be a celebration of Yorkshire.

“There will be lots of fun and light-hearted scenes, and plenty of silliness,” she said.

Miss Best, whose professional theatre company is The Think: Light Platform, first fell in love with the 1156 Cistercian abbey and its 125 acres of parkland when she had days out there as a girl, whilst growing up in Morton-on-Swale, near Northallerton.

The interactive shows take place at 1.30pm, 4pm and 6.30pm and they start at the abbey’s tea rooms. Tickets at £11 with £9 concessions and a £36 family ticket are available from the Box Office on 0333 666 3366 or visit thinklightplatform.co.uk