A DREAM will come true next week for a music student when a musical she has written is performed for the first time.

Sarah Gooda, 21, lives in Shepherdswell, near Dover, and is in the final year of a music course at Christ Church, Canterbury.

She decided to write the musical, called Limelight, during the summer holidays last year.

Earlier this year she held auditions in Ashford, and during the past few months she has been holding rehearsals ready for the curtain to go up at The Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks at 8pm on Tuesday (June 15). There is another performance on Wednesday (June 16).

Tickets are £7, and £5 for concessions. They can be booked at The Stag Theatre box office on 01732 450175, or at the door.

Sarah, a former pupil at Dover grammar school, composed the music for Dover Youth Theatre's outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Pencester Gardens in 2001.

In the past year, she has been involved with the stage management of various shows at venues across Kent, including the Gulbenkian and Marlowe theatres in Canterbury, and the Stag Theatre.

"I was bored during the summer holidays so I decided to write a musical," said Sarah. "It took about two weeks. It's about a girl who wins a scholarship to a stage school, and who triumphs over adversity, despite the problems she encounters. It has a cast of about 60.

Auditions were held at the Ashford Youth Theatre unit and many of the cast and chorus come from the Ashford area, although others are from all over Kent and London.

Sarah set up her own company, Beginners Productions, and received a grant of £2,500 from Awards for All towards the cost of staging the show.

The long-term aim of the company is to provide an outlet for new talent in the arts both on and off stage, and in writing shows.

When she finishes her university course this summer, Sarah is going to the Mountview Theatre Academy in London to do a year's post-graduate diploma in technical theatre.