Middlesbrough-born actress Dawn Spence is back on home turf for her latest role in the smash-hit musical Chicago. She talks to Women's Editor Sarah Foster about the part she longed to play and what it's like to share the stage with Jennifer Ellison.

IF the perception is that actors have big egos, then Dawn Spence proves that there are those who buck the trend. We speak for roughly half an hour on the phone and she's delightful from the start - a truly charming North-East girl. She makes an easy interviewee.

One thing that strikes me early on is just how strange Dawn's accent is: a funny US/Boro blend. She tells me how she picked it up. "I've lived in Los Angeles for the past 14 years," says the 36-year-old. "Basically, that was my home but I came back to do quite a few West End shows, so I'd come back for a year on and off throughout that time."

It may sound glamorous, but Dawn says living in LA was less enchanting than it seems. "I really missed my family and also the quality of work for musicals - it just isn't happening in Los Angeles - so I came back," she says. "Now I live in East Finchley, in London. It was great living in Los Angeles but it wasn't home."

From this week, Dawn will be firmly on home ground when she appears on stage in Sunderland. She's in Chicago, the sexy show that's based inside a women's jail, and will be based just up the road from where she's from. As Dawn explains, no matter how far she has come, she still retains her Middlesbrough roots.

"I was born in Middlesbrough and went to Archibald Junior School right opposite my mum's house," she says. "My mum and dad still live on Ayresome Street, bless them. I started learning to dance at the Janice Wilson school when I was about 12."

It was Janice Wilson, who first was struck that Dawn had talent. A place at drama college followed - and soon her future path was set. "I went to Doreen Bird College in Sidcup in Kent when I was 16," she says. "I got a National Express bus and just waved goodbye. I'd done a lot of dancing when I was little and I loved to sing so I think it was probably always in the pipeline. I stayed in Kent for three years and then I just started my career."

Dawn found success pretty soon, andspecialised in musicals. While she was seldom out of work, this meant a life of being on tour. Does she still travel just as much? "It's nice working in the West End when you live in London because it's like going to work from home but I actually like touring," she says, though she admits this kills romance. "There's not much of that going on. You become a family with the people you work with. We get Sundays off and we all just tend to hang together. I try to go back to London, and last week I went to my mum's in Middlesbrough just so I felt I've got some kind of life outside the theatre."

Yet being on stage is what gives Dawn her greatest buzz. She says she loves her current part. "I'm playing Velma Kelly, which is probably the best female role in musical theatre. It's a very sexy show - you get to show off a bit. I love it. I've wanted to play this role for such a long time and I've finally got it and it's really exciting."

The other female lead, the nightclub singer Roxy Hart, is played by Jennifer Ellison, the former star of TV's Brookside and girl of cult Hell's Kitchen fame. I wonder what she's really like. "I didn't know Jennifer before we started and our roles are at each other constantly throughout the show, but we get on really well," says Dawn. "I think she's a fabulous performer, really great to work with and really giving, and we have a really nice time together. We just bounce off each other - it's great. I think she's shocked a lot of people because they didn't know how talented she is."

While she's enjoying every show, with great reactions from the crowds, she says her time in the North-East will be most special. "It's really great to have different audiences in different areas of the country - it keeps it alive - but I'm really excited about coming to Sunderland," says Dawn. "I've got loads of family and friends coming and I'm excited about that."

* Chicago runs at The Sunderland Empire from tomorrow (Nov 7) to Saturday, November 18. Box office 0870-6021130.