For three years Meg Fraser was a member of the company in Stratford-upon-Avon, and she is now using her talents to help Wick Players prepare for a gala-week performance of an act from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Fraser, who has been performing for 15 years, is currently concentrating on other creative endeavours such as running workshops and doing radio readings. At the moment she is staying in her home town with her parents Ronnie and Jane Fraser.

In 2007 she won two major theatre awards. Her role in Tom Fool at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow earned her best actress in the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland. She also received the Theatre Management Award for best supporting performance for her part in All My Sons at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

Wick actress Meg Fraser (left) leading a workshop in the run-up to casting for the gala-week performance of the Shakespeare comedy. Also pictured are Raymond Cooper (centre, kneeling), who has already been cast, and some other members of the Wick Players. Robert MacDonald 01955 602741

Realising that they have, temporarily, a major talent on their doorstep, the members of Wick Players have been taking advantage of Fraser's expert knowledge of performance and production.

They will perform the "play within a play" scene near the end of the comedy, when a group of "actors" perform for the three newly-married couples, who will be watching from the floor of the hall with the rest of the audience seated behind them. In Shakespeare's play the couples enter and exit the hall to a fanfare of trumpets, but since this is Wick they will march in and out behind a piper.

With the exception of one role, casting has yet to take place and will depend to a certain extent on who is available during gala week. However, Raymond Cooper has already landed the role of Flute, who plays "Thisbe" in the play within a play.

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