TEENAGER Shaun McCourt has taken his first steps on the road to stardom.

Shaun, 16, of Market Lavington, near Devizes, has returned from a week's residential course with the National Youth Music Theatre.

He impressed judges at an audition for the National Youth Theatre earlier this year but because he was 15 at the time he was too young to be offered a place.

The theatre encouraged him to go on the residential course.

He said: "I enjoyed the course a lot. I improved on my acting, singing and dancing skills and it was also nice to meet different people."

He discovered his singing talent by accident two years ago while he was auditioning for a show at his former school, Lavington School.

He said: "I had done some acting parts for school plays but for this one particular show I did a singing audition. I didn't know I had it in me."

Since then he has been having singing lessons to improve his voice.

He reluctantly turned down a part in West Side Story at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, as it clashed with the course run by the National Youth Music Theatre. He hopes to go to stage school and become a singer.