A DREAM of putting on her own play is set to become a reality for one Wheatley au pair.

Nineteen-year-old Linn Johanssen is hoping to write and stage a play about capital punishment.

The au pair, originally from Sweden, applied for funding from the newly-established No Strings Attached grants scheme, which is funded by the Arts Council and administered by Farnham Maltings.

After appearing before a panel at Pegasus Theatre in Magdalen Road, Oxford, she was awarded £300, which will help her get the project off the ground.

She said: "It is a bit unreal. I am excited and slightly scared because it is an acknowledgement of what I am trying to do.

"But at the same time it is scary because I feel like I have a responsibility now to come up with something good because someone believes in me.

"At the moment, I am waiting to get a mentor who will help me invest the money in the best way possible, but the plan is to get professional help to write the play because I am a first timer."

She added: "The dream is to stage it in Oxford. I would love to do that."

Miss Johanssen was among ten groups and individuals attempting to secure funding for their first efforts, and one of six who secured funding.

Pegasus Theatre's head of education Yasmin Sidhwa, who was on the panel, said: "I thought there was a real range of what people were trying to do and with all the ones we funded, there was an incredible diversity."

Other projects supported by the panel included a group of three Reading University graduates taking three plays they have directed to a student festival and a group hoping to develop a new theatre form involving sign language and theatre.

They also backed a street dancer who planned to create a piece of street dance based on ideas and characters from the film Beetlejuice.