REHEARSALS are nearing completion for a special pantomime performance on Teesside.

Members of the South Bank Arts Group are preparing for the launch of the South Bank pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

It is the first time that a pantomime has been performed in the town and it is being eagerly awaited by residents.

The cast and stage crew of nearly 20 people have been meeting twice a week over the past few weeks, and are putting the final touches to the production, which runs in the New Year.

Graeme Fancourt, a theatre consultant who is helping with the production, said yesterday: "The rehearsals, in South Bank Community Forum's annexe, are going really well.

"It's fair to say that the kids have nearly learned the script already."

Mr Fancourt, a 22-year-old South Bank resident, has been using the experience that he accrued running a theatre company at Durham University, where he also acted, directed and produced plays, to ensure that the South Bank pantomime is going to be one never to be forgotten.

He said the management committee of the centre had been superb in helping the pantomime and he also thanked everyone else who had been involved in putting the play together.

"The pantomime will definitely be a success. It's really brave of the forum to have its own writer - local resident Chris Puckrin - for their first pantomime, but I think it's paid off," he said.

Performances of the pantomime can be seen on January 20, 22 and 24.