Remember the name - Mark Maughan. He may be just a schoolboy but already he has a string of appearances on the stage under his belt and looks destined for stardom. KAY JORDAN spoke to Mark, 12, who lives with his family in Cleadon Village, South Tyneside Youngster tells of dream role in smash-hit musical
IMAGINE you're on stage and being cheered to the echo by almost 3,000 fans in Newcastle's Telewest Arena.
Mark Maughan experienced that wonderful moment at the tender age of 12.
Mark, who lives with mum Janine, a medical rep, dad Michael, a deputy headteacher in Newcastle, and younger brother Daniel, aged eight, shared the role of Gavroche, the boy who dies in Les Miserables, when the world-famous musical came to Tyneside in October.
His parents and brother were in the audience on the last night.
By the third encore, he says, he couldn't sing because the tears were rolling down his face.
"I was so upset because it had come to an end. It was the most amazing experience - the best of my life so far."
Mark doesn't just love performing - he lives for it.
When he's on stage he feels that's where he belongs.
"I can't find the words to describe how great it is when I'm up there and the audience are clapping. It's really fantastic."
Mark can still remember his first taste of being on a stage when he was just five.
"I was Joseph in the school Nativity play and it felt really good.".
But it all really began when he was nine. The family was living in Abingdon in Oxfordshire and Mark was chosen for the part of Odysseus, again in a school play.
"We had never even given the idea that he might be talented a thought until then," says his mum.
There is a tradition of theatre in the family, though.
"My mother, Catherine Smith, was a professional dancer.
"She's very fit and still dances for enjoyment and sometimes helps out at a local dancing school," says Janine.
"Her cousin was Albert Burdon, who was a famous North East comedian.
"Another relative on my mum's side, Brian Burdon, is a comedian and has appeared with Victoria Wood and another, Paula Burdon, is a TV producer, so I suppose you could say it's in the blood.
"And my husband's father, the Rev John Maughan, is a retired vicar so you could say he's always had an audience from the pulpit."
His teacher was so impressed with Mark's performance as Odysseus that she suggested he should go to a stage school.
After just two weeks at the Sparkle Stage Set in Oxford he was sent for an audition for the Pickwick musical with Sir Harry Secombe.
He got the part of Georgie - one of only three children in it.
He went on to win the part of Kurt von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
Before they moved to the North East, the stage school owner took Mark to London to audition for the role of Tommy aged 10 in the musical, Tommy.
They let him audition down there for the part in the show at the Sunderland Empire and he got it.
It was when they saw him there that his parents realised that their son really did have something special.
"He was playing a mute boy so he had to do it all by acting," says Janine.
Once settled in the region, Mark joined the Tyne Theatre Stage School.
He goes there on a Saturday and loves it. He got a scholarship to their summer school last year and was spotted by a local agent who put him on his books.
The agent advised them to get some photographs of Mark taken and, as a result, he ended up with a model agency.
The photographer asked if they'd tried him with an agency because he photographed so well and he joined the AM agency in Newcastle when he was 11..
On the day he joined he was sent to do an advert for Grampian Television and he got the job.
He's done four or five other jobs since.
He likes having his photo taken, thinks it's good fun and he gets a bit of pocket money - but he isn't interested in modelling as a career.
Mark has appeared in a TV documentary and he almost made it to the big screen alongside Hollywood star Jodie Foster in the remake of The King and I, which is out next week.
He was in the final five for the part of Louis, Anna's son, but eventually the role went to the boy it was felt looked most like Jodie Foster.
"Mark was very mature about it," says Janine.
"He realised that the fact he didn't get it wasn't personal but he is desperate to see the boy who did get it to see if he really does look like her!"
Most recently Mark appeared as Winthrop in West End Operatic Society's production of The Music Man at Newcastle's Theatre Royal and he also played the young Tom Cookson in the Catherine Cookson story, Tom and Catherine, staged at The Customs House in South Shields.
It was his grandmother who spotted the advert for the audition for Les Miserables and, despite a lot of competition from other young hopefuls, it was Mark who got to share the role with another local boy.
"The death scene was really quite hard because I had to get across the fierceness of this street-wise boy but also the fact that he was terrified," says Mark.
Janine admits that the thought of Mark pursuing a career on the stage worries her.
His parents have told him that if his schoolwork begins to suffer then his acting would have to go - but there is no sign of that happening
"Mum has warned me as I get older that there will be more and more competition and I'll have to be brilliant to succeed," says Mark, who is articulate but certainly not precocious.
When he auditioned - successfully - for the forthcoming Christmas show at Newcastle's Theatre Royal, he didn't even mention that he had been in Les Mis.
"I'm definitely going to carry on with my schooling.
"I'd like to get a degree to be a barrister before going on to RADA and becoming an acto,r because then would have something to fall back on."
Mark disciplines himself by doing homework in the dressing room if he's at the theatre.
Yet he still finds time to turn out to swim for the City of Sunderland 'A' swimming squad, training four times a week and competing in galas, and he plays the saxophone.
"If I've got rehearsals or a performance, sometimes I have to miss swimming because that's my hobby, but the stage is my life," says Mark.
Fortunately for the youngster, he has an amazing ability to pick up the lines and songs.
As well as acting and singing, he has also started dancing.
"If I'm going to be an all-rounder I've got to do it," he says.
He has a London agent now, A , but he is limited to the number of days he can perform each year by law because of his age.
When Mark reaches his 13th birthday next July, the number of days that he can be at work will increase.
Appearing in Les Miserables will be hard to top.
But already Mark has ambitions to play one of the lead roles - perhaps Marius or Jean Valjean - in the musical when he's older.
Although he started out acting, he has discovered that singing is his great love.
"I found myself singing in the school library the other day, which was a bit embarrassing.
I'm worried about my voice breaking - but whatever happens I'll still be able to act.
"There is nothing to beat that feeling when you're in front of an audience.''
GRAPHIC: IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Mark Maughan on stage in Les Miserables
Pictures: ELLIOT NICHOL