EVERY time Louise Denison directs West Side Story, she wants to make it unique.

"It's only four years ago that I did it here in York with Stage Experience, but there are only two or three of the boys who are doing it again this time and none of the girls, so I've been determined to ensure it's different," she says.

Director and choreographer Louise began work with the 2015 summer-project participants on July 18, culminating in four public performances of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's New York teen gangland musical from tonight until Saturday.

"I love the fast pace of working on these Stage Experience shows, and it really revs them up, knowing it's a fortnight's project with no slacking allowed," she says.

"West Side is a great choice because everything in the story is still relevant: the cross-race, cross-religion love story at the centre of it, where there are still problems in certain communities for couples from different races to be together, but at the end of the day you can't help who you fall in love with, can you."

West Side Story, first staged in 1957, also endures because of the evocative songs that appeal across the generations. "You don't have to be from a classical opera background to sing these songs," says Louise.

"It's so perfectly written; the show flows beautifully, and Bernstein and Sondheim have managed to do what not everyone can do. The story is a tragedy, but one where they've stuck in this funny number, Gee, Officer Krupke!, perfectly placed before the big death scene in the rumble."

Year by year, Louise has raised the bar with her Stage Experience shows, reaching a standard that increasingly attracts participants aged ten to 21 from beyond the York area. "They're not just coming from York now, but the whole of Yorkshire," says the director, who is in charge of a company of 60. "It just shows how Stage Experience is growing and there really is some fantastic talent out there."

Stage Experience presents West Side Story at Grand Opera House, York, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york