BRIGHT stars from the Princes Youth Theatre were among more than 1,000 performers to showcase their talent on one of the most prestigious stages in the world.

The 70 youngsters performed their version of Teacher's Pet from Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock at the Royal Albert Hall.

Performing arts schools were selected for Stars in the Round, produced by Mardi Gras Productions, which took the young performers out of their comfort zone.

Melissa Wenn, principal of Princes Youth Theatre, said the students, aged seven to 18, were "absolutely faultless" after rehearsing at unusual venues like Clacton beach and car parks in the run up to showtime.

She said: "There's huge challenges involved in the Royal Albert Hall because the stage is in the round so it was difficult to find a venue to rehearse.

"They're also used to performing on one type of stage with an audience in front of them so to take them into another setting, initially disorientated them, but they were absolutely faultless when performing, and so excited.

"They've never done anything like that before and for the whole day were just overwhelmed, especially when they saw the sheer size of the venue."

Like true professionals, they had just the day to learn choreography for the show's finale involving all 1,600 performers.

The Royal Albert Hall holds 5,000-plus guests which were all sold out.

Ms Wenn added: "You can't prepare them for that - it's an experience they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

"The discipline of working with one choreographer plus the other skillsets they learnt like listening, teamwork and relying on the support of each other was invaluable.

"When the other schools came off stage from the wings, the students clapped for them, which was really sweet."