A Teesside actress has been invited to appear on stage in America.

Rachael Chisholm is to perform in a stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel, Nicholas Nickleby, in Los Angeles.

The 20-year-old from Marton, Middlesbrough, received a surprise telephone call from the Californian Youth Theatre - the equivalent of Britain's Nation Youth Theatre - inviting her to play the part of Fanny, daughter of headmaster, Wackford Squeers, when the play opens at the Ivor Theatre near Hollywood.

Rachael, a member of the National Youth Theatre since she was 14, played Fanny's mother in a five-week run of the play at The Lyric Theatre, London, before moving with the company to the Lowery Theatre, in Manchester this Easter.

On her first trip to the US she will perform before an international audience when Nicholas Nickleby is staged as part of a Celebration of Youth Art Around the World festival in America at the end of the month.

"I'm very honoured to be one of only five of the 45-strong UK cast to be invited,'' she said. "It is a fantastic opportunity and I'm determined to do well and fly the flag for Britain abroad. As it takes place in Hollywood, you just never know who might be watching.''

Rachael made her mark in Middlesbrough last year, when, she appeared as the stage wife of her father, Steve Chisholm, in a production of the John Godber comedy, On a Night Like This.

The play was only supposed to run for a week, but it met with such applause, that two additional performances were organised - a first for the Middlesbrough Little Theatre Company.