Steve Pratt talks to an actress who is returning to a place of her childhood to help stage a production of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.

As a girl growing up near Harrogate, Hester Evans spent a lot of time playing in the woods and gardens of Ripley Castle. She'll be back to play there this summer as Sprite, the theatre company she founded and runs with fellow actor Liam Evans-Ford, returns to stage open-air Shakespeare for the second year running.

After the success of last summer's debut, A Midsummer Night's Dream, the company is presenting Romeo & Juliet in the grounds of the historic castle, home of the Ingilbys for nearly 700 years.

"We were a bit of an unknown quantity last year but it was a really happy company who worked well with each other. The second year is possibly more important with regard to the audience base. It's important to give them an extra step up and that's what we're aiming to do," she says.

She and Evans-Ford met at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2002.

"After that Liam went to work for a theatre company staging open-air Shakespeare. I went to see it and it really wasn't very good," she recalls. "The fact that I grew up next door to Ripley Castle and spent most of my youth running around the woods and wooded gardens made me think we must be able to do it better.

"Ripley Castle hadn't had anything like it for years. I've only ever seen Last Night Of The Proms there. Liam and I had a classical training and it's something we're quite passiionate about. I was quite scared initially because everyone loves Shakespeare so much so you don't want to get it wrong."

Sprite Productions was formed as a site-specific company to put on plays adapted to the outdoor surroundings. It worked wonderfully well with Dream as the audience promenaded around the grounds and woods, following the actors to different locations for each scene.

"Some open-air companies might say they're going to such-and-such a palace and it doesn't matter what the actors say because the setting is so beautiful," says Evans. "There are companies who get people in and say, 'isn't it a beautiful sunset'.

They don't concentrate on what the text is about. We think, 'where can we put that scene and is it the right place?'.

"Obviously the surroundings helped make The Dream a success. You want something that will draw people in and can be done in so many different ways. It's really important we don't do what a lot of other companies do by doing Henry V Part II or some of the more obscure Shakespeares.

"But our Romeo & Juliet is going to be a completley different production to whatever people have seen before." Directing is Lucy Kerbel, who's worked for the Royal Court, National Theatre and English Touring Theatre on a production of Hamlet. Evans, who played Hermia in The Dream, isn't acting this year, remaining on the production side. Audiences can still see her, however, as she's currently the face of Cadbury's in TV commercials.

"Appearing last year was great and gave me a good perspective of what the actors were going through. This year is purely our producing time. During the summer this is what we predominantly do," she says.

Many of the Romeo & Juliet cast have worked at the National Theatre or Royal Shakespeare Company. "Because of the nature of our work outdoors, we need strong, robust people. At the first audition we found Juliet. She completely blew us away," she says. "It was our Romeo who was difficult to find. It took us four or five weeks to find our guy. He came in the first day and we really liked him but we weren't quite sure. We did more auditions and then realised he was the one."

Sprite receives no funding, relying on ticket sales and sponsorship to finance productions. Last year's was a success, being seen by 2,500 people over three weeks.

There are hopes of building up the company to stage a rep season throughout the summer, and possibly commissioning a play about the Ingilby family. The company already does educational and schools work. For Harrogate-born Evans, coming home to stage the production is a bonus. She's a former pupil of Knaresborough School of Speech and Drama who decided to become a professional actress and went off to drama school in London.

The weather, of course, plays a role in open air theatre in this country. One performance of The Dream was forced inside the marquee by rain. "In terms of audience response, it was one of the best shows. There's something very hardened about Northern audiences," she says.

* Romeo & Juliet is being performed in the grounds of Ripley Castle from June 13 to July 2.