McLean Primary School pupil Keira Porter will travel to Blackpool in September for the grand finale of the Talent Fest UK 2015 event, a unique festival event showcasing the talents of youngsters from across the UK in a variety of genres.

Keira (11), who is a member of the Fife Academy of Performing Arts, based in Pilmuir Street, wowed the judges at the Glasgow heat of the contest last month in the junior acting solo category, where she performed a monologue of Alice and Wonderland.

That provided her with a ticket to the Lancashire seaside town’s famous Winter Gardens Opera House, which has hosted star names like Tom Jones, Bob Dylan and Peter Kay, over the weekend of 26th-27th September.

The competition, described as a mini ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, brings together performers, visitors and exhibitors from across the performing arts industry, with categories including dance and signing as well as acting.

Keira’s proud mum Lorraine said, “There was acting, singing and theatre groups all there so it was like a mini Britain’s Got Talent, and in Glasgow Keira performed a monologue of Alice and Wonderland for two judges. She does a lot of stage theatre with the academy so she is quite confident in her acting, but there was a lot of tough competition. It is fantastic that she got through and she’s really chuffed because she’ll be representing Scotland in Blackpool. She did brilliantly and I’m really proud of her.” As well as her Talent Fest success, Keira has also been cast to star as one of the leading characters in ‘The Silver Sword’, which follows the story of the Polish Balicki children in the search for their parents in the immediate aftermath of World War Two.

Keira will play the part of Bronia in the performance at the Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, which will run on 6th-7th October.