Budding actor Conoron the road to fame

Former Kinross High School pupil Conor McCormick (18) gave the performance of his life at the prestigious Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow in front of hundreds of people.

He played a disaffected teenager in Road, which is set in the north of England during the Thatcher era.

The play explores the lives of people in a deprived, working class area of Lancashire during a time of high unemployment.

The action, which takes place over the course of one evening as the residents of the road prepare to go out, depicts the desperation of their lives during the period and contains a great deal of humour.

Conor, who studies HNC Acting and Performance at City of Glasgow College, said: “I played Joey, a 17-year-old who is never out of bed and practically starves himself to death throughout the play.

“He stays in a bed for all of his scenes and for me that was a real challenge as I’m so used to constantly moving about on the stage. I learned a great deal about how to move your body in order to convey particular emotions when you’re so restricted in such a way.

“I like handling the beefier roles and I was attracted to playing Joey as he was one of the characters who got a very different audience reaction. Whereas other characters were getting laughs, it would all flip around on my scenes and become more serious and emotional.

“In his monologue he is very angry at the situation that England was in and my challenge was to take the audience on an emotional journey and still convey the fact that he’s not just a moody teenager. He has genuine political points that he’s really frustrated about.”

Conor has secured a place on City of Glasgow College’s HND Acting and Performance Course for next year as he looks to achieve his long-term goal of becoming a working actor.

He said: “I would be happy to end up doing either film or theatre work so long as I get to put across amazing characters and important messages about society. I would like to make a mark somewhere and if that’s on the stage or in front of a camera then I will be over the moon.”

Stephen Cafferty, who directed the show, said: “From an artistic and creative point of view, Road is a fantastic piece for the students to work on because the writing is great and the characters are all very rich.

“Their situations are both tragic and comedic, making working on this play a great learning experience. Conor and his fellow students worked really hard and were dedicated to making the production a real success.”