NIK Briggs is making his directorial debut on the York theatre scene with the Rowntree Players production of Be My Baby at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

“I’ve loved every minute of working with the company,” he says.

“After performing in and watching various productions around York, I feel I’ve have been blessed with a cast made up of six of York’s finest actresses.”

Marie-Louise Surgenor, Rachel Parkinson, Jeanette Hunter, Gemma Williams, Alicia Roberts and Charlie Young will appear in Amanda Whittington’s drama from Thursday to Saturday.

The setting is Yorkshire in 1964, a time when more than the music was swinging but having a baby out of wedlock was frowned on by society.

Mary Adams (Surgenor) and her mother (Parkinson) have come to the St Saviour’s Church home for unwed mothers to have their “seven-month-gone situation” dealt with through the help of the matron (Hunter).

Over the next two months, Whittington charts how Mary’s pregnancy progresses, alongside her growing protestations at the thought of having to give her baby up for adoption. Mary’s love of the music of the day – such as Chapel Of Love, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Return To Sender and the show’s title track – is shared by the friends she makes in the home: the seemingly bitchy Queenie (Williams), naïve Dolores (Roberts) and focused Norma (Young).

As relationships form between the girls, so each gives voice to an individual story that represents a generation of women.

Nik is full of praise for his cast. “They’ve truly gone above and beyond what I expected and have brought the stories of these six women alive in a raw and exciting way,” he says.

“In a show for anyone who knows loss or, more so, has fought for love, their performances are filled with humour and hope, sadness and reflection, creating an evening of drama that will stay with you for a long time.”

Nik has worked professionally in London in plays, musicals and concerts at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the Royal Albert Hall and elsewhere. In York, he has performed frequently with York Stage Musicals, often in lead roles at the Grand Opera House.

Earlier, this Newcastle-born actor trained at Bretton Hall College, near Wakefield, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London after winning various scholarships and bursaries to fund his training.

Tickets for the upcoming 7.30pm performances are on sale at £11, concessions £9, on 07927 026071, online at rowntreeplayers.co.uk, via email to tickets@rowntreeplayers.co.uk or on the door.