On Wednesday 15th December an all-singing, all-tuba-playing troupe of excitable National Youth Theatre members set off on their journey to Guangzhou, China. The preparation period had been something of a whirlwind romance. Two weeks before I received a call asking if I wanted to go to China. I screamed with excitement, “Yes, yes, YES”.

My momentary leap of delight had, however, caused me to forget two very consequential details: I had 2000 words to write and a passport to obtain. Was this all an amazing, but impossible dream? Thanks to a lot of luck I soon found myself rehearsing in the haven of Holloway Road once again.

The National Youth Theatre was to go to a Autoshow in Guangzhou to help promote the launch of the new MG6 car. This was part of a new corporate partnership for the National Youth Theatre and I was terribly excited to be a part of such an important trip

After many hours of travelling, including a stopover in Dubai, we found ourselves in Hong Kong. “Wow” said Elliott Rennie (Musical Director), “it’s like England. But different”.

Our first day in China was an unforgettable experience. We were took on a ‘Chinese day out’ involving a trip to the Tombs of the Martyrs from the 1911 Revolution, followed by our first Chinese restaurant experience of the trip.

Having still not got over the excitement of a three course dumpling breakfast in Hong Kong, it was quickly trumped by the introduction to the wonder that is a ‘Lazy Susan’. Now this works as follows: your party sits at a circular table with an inner circle on top that...spins. Before I knew it, we had over ten dishes on our Lazy Susan, each one delivering a “taste sensation” to our European tongues

Then Saturday came and we headed to the Autoshow for a day of rehearsals. What a space. Huge. This was our first time where we really mixed with Chinese people. I was very excited to try out my latest Cantonese words on the technicians: “nngg-goi”. It went down a treat.

Before we knew it, Monday had come; the day of the press launch. The stage was finished, the cars immaculately polished, the security tight, the paparazzi in their hundreds, and the seven of us raring to go.

The performance was quite an experience. I didn’t see people in the audience, I just saw flashes from all the cameras and the hype gave us such a buzz. This experience was like none other.

I come back having learnt many lessons, the main one being - just do it. The idea of doing a theatrical performance on a myriad of steps, focussed around cars and in China would have seemed to me an impossible concept prior to this trip. But with a bit of imagination and determination, you really can achieve a lot.

Throughout the trip I was constantly reminded of how lucky I was to be working with such a talented team of people. Their leadership never failed, even if we had a swarm of paparazzi flashing their lights at us, or wailing drills thronging the air whilst we tuned.

This sense of professionalism really came to a head when the possibility of a Chinese Christmas seemed imminent due to hazardous snow at home. By some stroke of luck, however, we did make it back for a white Christmas at home. But I wonder - and always will - what a Chinese Christmas with 8 fantastic friends would have been like...