A YOUNG award-winning actress from Bwlch will be appearing in Elf the Musical at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena alongside David Essex and Martine McCutcheon.

Drew Morris, 14, said that while she doesn’t know what role she will be playing in the Christmas musical yet, she is “very excited” to be appearing on the stage in Cardiff which has hosted some of the World’s biggest celebrities.

The Crickhowell High School pupil said: “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing yet, but I am really looking forward to it and to being on stage with David Essex.”

Drew recently won the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) award for the Best Youth Performance under 21 for her portrayal of Annie in the hit musical Annie last October. Drew won the award for District Three which includes Powys, Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent. The young star, who appeared as the lead in the show put on by Abergavenny Musical Theatre, appeared in six sell out performances which all received standing ovations at the Borough Theatre in Abergavenny.

Proud mum Zana Morris said: “I am incredibly proud of Drew, she was really good in Annie and I know she’s really excited to be in Elf. We don’t know what she’ll be doing yet, I imagine she’ll be in the ensemble.”

Zana said that Drew had also recently been filmed in new BBC drama Desperate Measures starring the Newport actress Stacy Daly which will come to TV screens later this year. Zana said: “She’s playing the daughter of the protagonist who is played by Stacey Daly.

“I don’t know the full plot because I wasn’t there for all of the filming, but it’s essentially that her husband’s died and she gets into difficulties with loan sharks. It’s still being edited at the moment, but it was filmed in Tredegar and it’s about loan sharks in the valleys.”

Zana said that Drew had enjoyed the opportunity to do something “gritty” and something that was different from musical theatre. She said: “She thoroughly enjoyed it, it’s so different from the theatre especially with things like learning the lines. With the theatre, you have one chance to get it right and so you have to learn all your lines before hand.

“With TV you look at the lines before shooting, and then they’ll do take after take whenever somebody on the set gets it wrong.”

Drew, who took a week out of school to film the drama, started with amateur theatre at the age of eight.

The actress who enjoys being on the stage has said that she hopes to follow acting as a career.

Drew said: “It is what I want to do when I’m older, yes.

“I’m not sure what I want to do after school yet, I may go straight into the industry but I am thinking of going to college or university to study drama.

“I know that it is what I want to do though, I really enjoy it.”