Just A Quickie with...Toni Feetenby, sharp-shooting Annie Oakley in York Musical Theatre Company's Annie Get Your Gun.

Will this be the first time you have played Annie Oakley?

"I haven't done this musical before but when I was studying at Guildford I sang a song from the show, Old Fashioned Wedding, in a showcase in my final term."

What do you most enjoy about the role of whip-cracking ragamuffin Annie?

"Firstly the Irving Berlin songs; there isn't a rubbish one among them and they're all well known. I love singing Lost In His Arms, the ballad, and Moonshine Lullaby, when I get three cowboys as my backing singers!

"Secondly, Annie's a great character. She's so ballsy but at the same time she really wants Frank Butler the handsome star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show to find her attractive, and she tries so hard to be ladylike without it ever quite happening!

"I'm used to playing very feminine roles, but I've also done a transformation role before - I played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady - and I get to wear a nice frock in this show too!"

How well do you handle a gun?

"It's getting better. People keep giving me tips but I'm one of the world's clumsiest people, so I'll have to be careful. People are getting a bit nervous around me...not about the possibility of being shot, just hit by the gun!"

You have a natural facility for accents. York theatregoers will fondly recall your performance as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and yet you are as Yorkshire as a white rose.

"I don't do bad! People were amazed when I came off stage and they heard me talking after the show; they couldn't believe I wasn't a Londoner.

"For this show, we're using an American accent with a hint of the Southern states. My dad sent me a CD of the Broadway version with Bernadette Peters playing Annie, and I do like Bernadette Peters, but there are moments where she sounds quite amusing, which I don't think she's supposed to be. That's because she's got this strong Southern accent, with some really funny pronunciations when the scene should be poignant. That's why we're doing a more general American accent."

Away from your stage commitments, how is your new career as a drama teacher taking shape?

"I'm really enjoying it. I finished my Post-Graduate Certificate in June and started teaching full-time on September 1 at King James's School in Knaresborough, where I did my first work placement from last October to February.

We're doing a production of Oliver!, which I'm directing and choreographing, and it's nice to be doing it from the other side for once, rather than performing!"

Annie Get Your Gun, York Musical Theatre Company, Grand Opera House, York. Performances: Saturday 9th, 7.30pm; Tuesday to Saturday 16th, 7.30pm, plus Saturday matinee, 2.30pm. Sunday's performances have been cancelled. Box office: 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 15:46 Thursday, October 07, 2004