THE BARN Theatre in Cirencester offered a young man and his friends an opportunity they will never forget.

Donations from the public allowed the theatre to offer some free tickets - as part of its Play it Forward scheme - to several Cirencester Housing for Young People residents.

Cirencester Housing for Young People is a charity that provides accommodation for young homeless people between the age of 16-25.

Many of these young people have never had the opportunity to experience a professional theatre production before and one resident Ethan was completely in awe watching the cast perform Once last week.

Inspired by the show, Ethan decided to teach himself how to play one of the songs from the musical on his guitar.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: Ethan and his friends chatting to the Once cast at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester Ethan and his friends chatting to the Once cast at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester (Image: Alex Tabrizi)

Staff at theatre were so impressed they decided to arrange for him and some of his friends to have a special music lesson with the cast members of Once.

Ethan and his friends spent a lot of time chatting to the cast about how they got into acting, what it was like to work as an actor and what it was like to work backstage.

Tomas (who plays Guy in Once) gave Ethan a masterclass on the guitar and Theo (who plays Eamon/Emcee in Once) gave him a masterclass on drums.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: Theo giving Ethan a drums master class Theo giving Ethan a drums master class (Image: Alex Tabrizi)

General housing manager at Cirencester Housing for Young People Millie Curtis said: "The Barn Theatre and the cast of Once have made all three of our young people's day, well actually I think it has made their year!

"For that short time with them, all our young people could forget the negative reasons why they ended up at Cirencester Housing for Young People and got to feel like life isn't all bad and that people do care about them."