Judith Sharp is a well known face on the Swindon stage having performed alongside Ray Dance, business partner and co-founder of R and J Musicals for the past 30 years.

Musical theatre has always been a huge passion of Judith’s beginning when she was just 15-years-old treading the boards in amateur dramatics in the Lake District.

“I played my first lead as Julie Jordan in Carousel when I was 18,’’ said Judith.

She moved to Wiltshire and now lives on the outskirts of Marlborough and works, alongside Ray, as a director and business manager in Barthropp Career Consultants.

She has two children, Katherine, a teacher in Bristol and Laura a n Intensive Care Nurse at the Royal Marsden in Chelsea.

“Katherine is in our new show with me and Laura is expecting her first child two weeks after the show,’’ said Judith.

The new show is A Handful of Songs and does what it says on the tin with numbers from The Great American Song Book, Les Miserables, Cabaret, Spamalot, Wicked mixed with current pop favourites.

The cast are literally a bunch of Ray and Judith’s friends and former or current members of SALOS including Russell Langdown.

“Russell directed our first show at the Arts Centre at the tender age of 13,’’ said Judith.

Others in the cast are Sarah Greenwood, Tony Asprey , Katherine Sharp and Scarlet Roche who is currently starring as Veruca Salt in the West End Production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Scarlet is a member of the Gemma Short School of Dance and Theatre Arts who are providing 40 students, aged between five and 16 years, to perform in Handful of Songs.

Judith joined SALOS in 1982 and, in 2001 she and Ray decided to create their own musical theatre company, R & J Musicals.

“We have staged South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, The Sound of Music and later this year we are looking forward to the first ever amateur production in Swindon of Irving Berlin’s famous White Christmas,’’ said Judith.

Each performance has a chosen charity and over the past 30 years Ray and Judith have raised more than £90,000. This year the money will go to the Goldenhar Family Support Group.

Judith said: “We chose this charity because we are aware of this condition through our friend Alan Holmes whose grandson Morgan is affected.’’ Goldenhar Syndrome is an ‘umbrella’ term for a wide range of bone abnormalities affecting the face and sometimes the vertebrae.

Alan Holmes said: “The Goldenhar Family Support Group are so pleased that Ray and Judith have chosen Goldenhar as their charity this year. SALOS supported us last year at the Festival Of Christmas where Morgan sang with the choir.’’ A Handful of Songs runs from Thursday, July 3 to Saturday, July 5 at the Arts Centre, Devizes Road, Old Town, Swindon at 7.30pm. Tickets are £9 and £8 concessions from 01672 861654.