DRAMA student Jenny Taylor is one step closer to realising her dream of becoming an actress after impressing the critics at a major arts event.

The talented teenager may be studiously working on her GCSEs at Bedale High School, North Yorkshire, but she is also busily putting her thespian skills to the test.

Jenny, 16, from Catterick Village, was runner-up in the Shakespearean class at the recent Darlington Festival with a three-minute speech from Lady Macbeth.

An examiner from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda) is also travelling to the region to judge her delivery of classical and modern speeches.

Felicity Cook, who has been Jenny's drama teacher for a term, said: "She had to work very hard on the Lady Macbeth speech and competition at the festival was pretty strong.

"The Lamda examination leads her another step nearer to her goal of going to drama school, which she hopes to do in two years' time. Jenny has done incredibly well - she has got a real talent."