A YORK musical theatre performer has launched a competition to find the very best of local talent.

Hannah Wakelam, 19, who has appeared many times on the Joseph Rowntree Theatre stage, is running the ‘Yorkshire’s Got Talent’ virtual contest in aid of the venue’s recently launched Raise the Roof campaign.

The theatre needs to find £90,000 to go towards roof repairs to ensure that it will be around for future generations of Yorkshire performers. Entries are open from now until August 1, the prize money is £100 and the winner will be decided by a panel of three star judges.

Heading up the panel is Laura Pick, from Wakefield, who, until the coronavirus lockdown, was playing the role of Elphaba in Wicked in the West End. Alongside Laura will be experienced musical theatre performers Nathan Lodge and Amelia Urukalo. Nathan, originally from York and no stranger to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, has many West End credits and has had a very successful career as a vocal captain on cruise ships.

Amelia is a vocal coach with lots of experience in judging talent competitions and is the owner of performing arts studio Upstage Academy in Ripon.

It is well known that the Yorkshire area is teeming with talent and the Joseph Rowntree Theatre has been a training ground for many famous names who have gone on to professional acting careers, including the likes of David Bradley, Ian Kelsey and Scott Garnham.

Nathan said: “I really believe that the industry is full of exceptionally talented people who started out in Yorkshire and I can’t wait to see what the future of talent from home looks like!”

All types of performers are encouraged to enter and to show off what they can do, whether it’s singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument, or performing a circus act.

The cost of entries is a minimum donation of £5 to the theatre’s Raise the Roof appeal and there are no age restrictions. Because of current lockdown rules, entrants will be asked to submit a short video of themselves performing their acts. The winner of the contest will win £100 and their online performances will be seen right across the Yorkshire area. Full rules and details of how to enter can be found on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/groups/687590815139642/about and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yorkshiresgottalent/.

Graham Mitchell, the theatre’s events and fundraising director, said: “Hannah got in touch with us the very day that our appeal was launched and offered to do a fundraiser within the overall campaign. Already we have had lots of people express an interest in the contest and now that the judges have been announced, we expect levels of interest to take off.”

The theatre launched its Raise the Roof campaign last month by creating an online music video put together ‘virtually’ during lockdown.

It has set up a Just Giving page (https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Raise-the-Roof) for the campaign and is encouraging people to donate even just the amount of a takeaway coffee.