A THEATRE company is striving to make art accessible to everybody with the help of passionate drama lovers.

Heaton’s Keziah Lockwood is one of a handful of actors, producers and writers putting the Grand Dame Theatre Company in the spotlight.

The Manchester-based company celebrates its first birthday this week and already has four productions under its belt.

Most recently Keziah starred in its successful first Greater Manchester Fringe production, comedy The Lionheart Phantom at The Castle Hotel in Manchester.

However, the 30-year-old says there so much more than putting on a Grand show.

She said: “There have been a lot of government cuts to funding for theatre trips by schools.

“Grand Dame Theatre is looking at touring schools and other places like care home in Bolton, Wigan and other areas of Greater Manchester.

“Some people think theatre isn’t important but it really is. It is a big part of education, theatre educates no matter how old you are.”

As well as acting, Keziah’s role at the company also includes managing its Theatre in Education pieces.

Born and bred in Bolton, she is former pupil of St Joseph’s High School who went on to attend The Arden School of Theatre, in Manchester, studying musical theatre.

She credits acting for helping to improve her confidence and now thinks nothing of taking to the stage into front of different audiences.

On top of that, the theatre has taken her around the UK and beyond, even performing in the United Arab Emirates.

Keziah believes Bolton can be a great hub for the arts.

“I love all aspects of theatre, I even done a lot of back stage work - I like to keep my fingers in all different pies,” she joked.

“I was pretty quiet at school so acting came as a confidence boost for me.

“The Greater Manchester Fringe is really enjoyable and I’m sure we could do something like that in Bolton.

“We’ve proved we can with the Octagon’s Reveal Festival, so it would be great to do something even just over the weekend with shows in the pubs and clubs around town.

“There’s a lot going on in Bolton we just need to build its voice.”