Frome drama student wins best actor award

A FROME drama student has won the ‘Bath Young Actor of the Year’ award. 

13-year-old Kambua Hilman, who takes drama lessons from Westbury-based teacher Lou Cox, was selected to compete for the award after her performance at the Bath Midsomerset Festival in March.

Lou said, “The Midsomerset Festival in Bath welcomes performers from the local area to compete in various performance categories such as monologue acting, mime, devising and musical theatre. 

“During the festival, three students are picked for their outstanding work to compete in Bath’s Young Actor of the Year, which takes place in October. The students must prepare a 10-minute performance piece based on a theme showcasing acting, prose and poetry. 

“Kambua was selected and performed at the event on Friday 9th October, which thankfully was able to go ahead. It was a pleasure to see live theatre again especially as the arts have suffered a huge amount in recent months. 

“Kambua had worked on a performance piece based on the theme of entitlement focusing on gender equality, race and social class. She competed against two other students and was awarded the title 2020 Bath Young Actor of the Year. 

“The two adjudicators praised Kambua on her material, saying that it was important for young people to challenge an audience. 

“They also commented on her excellent comic timing, warm passionate voice and beautiful spontaneity within her work. They agreed that the standard was extremely high for such young performers.

“Kambua recently received a drama scholarship at Monkton Combe School in Bath and hopes to have a career within the arts.”