There's nothing quite like diving in at the deep end but Helen Kapil has taken to it – swimmingly.

She’s directing for Huddersfield Thespians for the first time and is clearly loving it.

“ I’m absolutely terrified in one way but absolutely thrilled to bits,” she said.

“It was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.”

Helen was born and brought up in Lancashire but moved to Yorkshire 12 years ago.

“I come from a background of doing musicals,” she said. “I decided that I wanted to focus more on the acting side of me. In musicals there are really three disciplines, singing, dancing and acting.

“I wanted to concentrate on acting so I joined Halifax Thespians two years ago and did some plays with them. It’s been fantastic.

Helen has also worked with Huddersfield Thespians appearing earlier this year in its production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

The show she is directing next week couldn’t be more different. It is called Playing Away and opens in the Lawrence Batley Theatre’s Cellar space on Tuesday (November 19). There are evening performances through until Saturday at 7.15pm with a Saturday matinee at 2pm.

The show was written by Chris Sykes and is one that Helen is very familiar with.

“I’m a member of Halifax Thespians as well and in May, we did what is called a script in hand performance of this play. It went really well.”

At its heart is Elisabeth, an estate agent with offices in London and Paris and two very different lifestyles to go with that. When in London she lives with Roger, an archetypal English gent; in Paris, her boyfriend is Pierre, a very different character.

Vive la différence. Until the two men accidentally meet.

Helen is delighted with the great cast that she’s got. Prue Griffiths plays the woman with the complicated love life, Andy Bean is her English beau and Steve Marsden, her across-the-Channel complication.

“This play is a real test of the cast’s acting talents,” said Helen.

“It is set in the Cellar theatre, there isn’t a lot of movement in it, yet we have to create the mood of two very different places and two very different relationships.

“It’s about setting a mood. There are some very poignant moments in it and it’s going really well.”

Find out next week what happens when two cultures meet.

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