NOT only has the Stephen Joseph Theatre's first ever Edinburgh Fringe show won the festival's Holden Street Theatres Award, but now the Scarborough theatre's production of Build A Rocket will open the Pleasance's new Edinburgh transfer festival, The Caledonian Express, in London from September 18 to 23 too.

What's more, the 75-minute one-woman show directed by SJT artistic director Paul Robinson then will transfer from the Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, London, to the Adelaide Fringe in Australia with its story of a teenage single mother determined to make the most of life for herself and her son.

So far, Scarborough audiences have been restricted to two preview performances by Serena Manteghi on July 24 and 25, but now the former University of York student and Belt Up Theatre and Flanagan Collective alumnus can be seen in Christopher York's "explosive and passionate portrait of a young heroine of our times" from tomorrow until September 8 in the McCarthy auditorium.

Scarborough actor and writer York – another University of York graduate – depicts how the young and feisty Yasmin lives on the edge as a young mum whose "Scarborough isn’t sandcastles, arcades and donkey rides". Instead, she has been dealt a rough hand and has to decide whether to give in or get smart, but can the thing that threatens to ruin her life be the one thing that saves her? Can she still be the architect of her own destiny, York asks.

"It felt very exciting to be part of the Stephen Joseph Theatre dipping its toes into the water at the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time," says Serena. "I did four or five years up there with Belt Up and the Flanagan Collective, but I'd only been there as a visitor to see friends as a punter in the last three years, so this year felt like going back to school!"

York Press:

Serena Manteghi, as Yasmin, in a scene from the award-winning Stephen Joseph Theatre production of Build A Rocket

Serena had called on Scarborough-born Christopher York to help her with a Scarborough accent when she played LV in the SJT's production of Jim Cartwright's The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice last summer. "I knew Chris from doing Lorca's Dead with Belt Up in our York days, so I plied him with cakes in exchange for his advice!" she recalls.

"I'd also done a reading of Build A Rocket at RADA when it was a three-hander and I'd loved it in that form, and then we did a reading at the SJT with two days' work while I was doing Little Voice last July, and as soon as Paul commissioned it for this summer, he and Chris said they'd love me to do it, so you should always say 'yes' to doing a reading!"

Changing the story into a one-woman play intensifies the audience's sympathies with Yasmin, as she goes through her experiences singlehandedly. "What's wonderful about this story is that though Yasmin has hardships and trials, it also celebrates her heart and bravery in bringing up her child, all mixed in with the tragedy of her life, but ultimately it's about her overcoming her difficulties, which makes her a real heroine," says Serena.

"For me, the backdrop to the story, which takes Yasmin from 16 to 34, is how little support Yasmin receives; just a few people around her but no infrastructure in place, so she's forced into making decisions that no-one should have to make.

"I wouldn't say it's an overtly political play; it's about Yasmin, but in some ways she represents Scarborough: she has her dark corners, but she's full of fight."

Before taking the lead role in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, Serena's only acquaintance with Scarborough had been taking part in the National Student Drama Festival in the town. "But last summer I fell in love with Scarborough because it has such an identity; it knows what it is; I love how it's striving, how it has pride in itself, just like Yasmin is striving and proud and refuses to cow-tow and give in," she says.

York Press:

"I felt so embraced by the community and more at home than I had in any big city," says Serena Manteghi, of her experience of working in Scarborough

"There's a particular sense of what it means to live there; there's a resilience, a sense of community and 'we are Scarborough' during the winter months, but those same people open their arms to really diverse people in the summer when it becomes such a multi-cultural, welcoming town.

"Playing Little Voice last summer in a production set in Scarborough, I felt so embraced by the community and more at home than I had in any big city."

Analysing the play's title, with its echoes of Guy Garvey's lyric, "Build a rocket, boys!" from Elbow's Lippy Kids, Serena says: "I know the song, where Guy Garvey builds up this tableau of urban imagery we can all recognise, against a backdrop of poverty and deprivation, but then the chorus soars into this invitation to make something of yourself.

"For Guy, it was to pick up a guitar; for Yasmin, who's 16 and unexpectedly pregnant and considering giving away the baby, she decides to try to build the best environment she can to raise a child, and though she may be perceived as one thing [a teenage single mum], the truth is, it's far harder bringing up a child than going to university or doing an internship.

"I grew up in Cricklewood [in north west London] and went to the local state school, Hampstead School in Camden, and I knew a lot of Yasmins. The stories in the play were familiar to me, especially that thing of walking out of exams, thinking 'this is not for me', sticking two fingers up to education."

Tickets for the 7.45pm performances tomorrow, Saturday, next Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday's 7.45pm performances, next Thursday's 7.15pm show and Saturday and next Friday and Saturday's 5.30pm shows are on sale on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.