A West End actress from Swindon is looking to bring her insider knowledge to the next generation of stage stars.

Georgie Ashford lived in Wroughton and went to Ridgeway School before moving to London to pursue her acting career.

Now she’s back in town, after performing in multiple West End shows including Legally Blonde and Oklahoma, and hopes to pass her knowledge on to aspiring performers.

The 29-year-old said: “It occurred to me I get a lot of questions about what it’s like to be in the West End so I started a YouTube channel to talk about it.

“That’s gone on to have some success so I thought maybe it would be good to start some workshops and summer schools in Swindon.

“Everything happened with the pandemic so it hadn’t really been possible for a while so I started doing online classes within the past month.”

Georgie says she was inspired to create the school after realising there was a lot she didn’t know about the West End.

“I knew how to dance and sing but didn’t know the insider stuff,” She added: “The kind of things you only know if you experience it.

“If I have all of this experience, and people in the industry have this experience, I can bring that back and share it with people who might not otherwise have known.

“Then they’ll be much more prepared for a career in the industry and being taught by people who have experienced it.”

And now restrictions are being eased, Georgie is hosting Summer classes at the Espirit centre in Stratton before looking to open Esprit Performing Arts.

She added: “It’s a nice way of sharing tips and experiences with people in Swindon because I know a lot of people are interested in it.

“It’s starting off as a summer school but I’m then hoping to open it as a fully-fledged school for people from the ages of seven.

“It will be for if you just love performing as a passion and equally for people who want to be in the West End and be in show professionally.

“We’ll offer private classes and audition preparation and even get people in from West End shows to do workshops. The summer school is just the start.”

Joining her in this endeavour is boyfriend Linford Johnson, who she met while working on a production four years ago.

“He’s worked with the National Theatre and in the West End,” she explained. “He has a lot of experience with TV work and puppetry so it makes sense to bring all of that to the school.”