THE rehearsals are over and the annual Stage Experience production is under way at the Grand Opera House in York, where 75 young people are taking part in the three-day run of the Broadway musical Guys And Dolls.

More than 150 people auditioned to be in the show in May and the successful applicants, aged ten to 21, have been practically living at the Cumberland Street theatre while rehearsing the show in less than two weeks.

For the tenth year of this summer project, the focus falls on Guys And Dolls’ story of a group of small-time gamblers and the ladies in their lives. Featuring numbers such as Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat, Luck Be A Lady Tonight and Take Back Your Mink, the show brings to life the Broadway of the 1940s, inhabited by gamblers, nightclub dancers and members of the Salvation Army in search of sinners to cure.

Leading roles go to one of the regular participants, 15-year-old Tadcaster Grammar School pupil George Stagnell, as Sky Masterson; and company newcomers Robyn Grant, 15, from Leeds, as Miss Adelaide, and 19-year-old University of Central Lancashire forensic science student Callum Watt, from Husthwaite, as Nathan Detroit.

After playing the Artful Dodger in Oliver! in 2007 and Bugsy in Bugsy Malone in 2008, George had his eye on only one role, Sky Masterson, the Marlon Brando part in the film.

“It’s not so much confidence as passion when you go for a role, though I’ve had a few knock-backs and understand I won’t always get the big roles, but I was determined to get Sky,” he says.

“Before the auditions I watched the film and looked at which character I preferred, and I liked Sky. I liked his mannerisms. He’s a charmer; he a high roller; he likes to think he has the answers to lots of things; and he’s certainly clever because he can work his way round things.”

Likewise, Robyn had her eyes firmly on Miss Adelaide.

“I saw the poster for the show, I love the musical and I auditioned. She’s very much like me: kind of ditzy, very dramatic and fabulous! A bit of a diva,” she says. “I’m Jewish, and as this big dramatic character, I like to think of her as Jewish too.”

Robyn has performed with Youth Music Theatre UK for four years and appeared in Leeds Children’s Theatre and Cosmopolitan Players shows, too. Now she is working with director Louise Denison for the first time.

“I like the fact that she doesn’t sugar-coat anything. She gets things done and if you get a compliment, you really deserve it,” she says.

Callum took up acting as a hobby in his schooldays, but his university course work has left him with little time for theatre in term time. Stage Experience is a perfect chance for him to enjoy it once more, and maybe apply his forensic and investigative skills too.

“There’s something about forensics bringing pretty much anything into the court room as evidence, and it requires skills of interpretation that you can apply to acting,” he says.

Guys And Dolls, Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm, tomorrow at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 847 2322.