My first job was in 1981, playing Louisa in the West End production of The Sound of Music with Petula Clark and Honor Blackman. It was an open audition and my mother brought me to join thousands of other children queued around the Apollo Victoria Theatre, all wanting to be considered for the show.

In the first round, we were put into measuring lines to see where we fitted height-wise as the children had to be small enough to work with Petula, who was petite. At age nine, I fitted sufficiently on the ‘Louisa height chart’ to play a 12-year-old. The second call we sang Happy Birthday (I think) and read some lines, and the third call was to see where we fit with other groups of kids. There were three groups, and I was in the yellow group, so we’d all perform one week on and two weeks off for 42 performances, which was the maximum amount a child could work at the time.

The whole experience was wonderful. We had great fun with the other kids and were occasionally allowed to sit with the adult performers. Petula was adorable to work with and so sweet when I was upset during the recording of the album as I went wrong!

Being lucky enough to experience my first professional job so young was a great way for me to know this was what I wanted to do as a career. During this job, I auditioned for a place at the Royal Ballet School and trained there from the age of 11 to 16. Realising I didn’t want to be ‘just’ a ballerina, I trained for a further three years at Bird College. I have worked in theatre ever since and am now getting ready to perform my one-woman play The Essence of Audrey, about the life of Audrey Hepburn, at the Cellar at Pleasance Theatre for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Working with Petula in reality, and celebrating Audrey in this new show, leads me to my advice for grads today: learn from your elders when you get the chance to work with them. Soak up anything you can for your future as a performer – there’s always something to learn from people you admire. Watch, learn and ask questions. Most of all, be interested in others rather than constantly being on phones and social media. There’s more to learn from real people in the real world than online.