TWO years ago, a group of students from the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) received a warm Ludlow reception for their performance of The Hope Garden.

This year, another group of LAMDA students – actors, stage managers and technicians – who, after two years’ training, are preparing to enter the industry, is coming to Ludlow Assembly Rooms, this time to perform three plays on three consecutive nights.

This is a unique opportunity to see superb quality acting and the stars of the future in action on stage.

Previous graduates of LAMDA, which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary, include Jim Broadbent, Brian Cox, Patricia Hodge, Maureen Lipman, John Lithgow, David Suchet, Donald Sutherland and Dame Harriet Walter.

More recent g raduates include Dominic Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anna Maxwell Martin, Rory Kinnear and Ruth Wilson, and 2009 LAMDA graduate Sam Claflin will soon hit our screens in Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides.

This tour is exclusive to The Tricycle Theatre in London and Ludlow Assembly Rooms and the students will be perfor ming three very dif ferent plays. The first, on Thursday, April 14, is Taking Steps by Alan Ayckbourn, a gloriously inventive farce from the Olivier, Tony and Moliere award-winning playwright.

Elizabeth’s plans to leave her husband run into trouble as eccentric relatives, scheming builders and a nervous solicitor converge upon her crumbling manor house. As confusion abounds, will her freedom come at too high a price?

On Friday, April 15, the students present Touched by Stephen Lowe, an amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books, Set within the close community of working-class Nottingham, Stephen Lowe’s beautifully crafted drama brings the tears and laughter of the post-war generation vividly to life as Sandra, Joan and Betty anxiously await the return of their loved ones.

The f inal play is A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde on Saturday, April 16. As the elite of English society gather for a weekend party, the debonair Lord Illingworth struggles to conceal a dark secret from his past. There will be an opportunity to talk to the actors at a post-show question and answer session after each performance.

Tickets are £14 (£12 concessions), or £35 (£30 concessions) to see all three plays. Performances are at 7.30pm. Book online at ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk, or call the box office on 01584 878141.