LAURA Szalecki knew she was getting the hang of acting when she managed to walk across a room and sip coffee from a cup - at the same time.

“It’s true,” says the newest recruit to Pavilion Theatre comedy musical The Real Hoosewives Fae Glesga.

“I always had a passion for performing, I loved to pretend, and went off to study the Sanford Meisner Technique at drama college in New York.

“The idea is that you are you, you don’t embody the character, you remain yourself, but the circumstances you’re in are imaginary.

“And for the first acting session, I had to pretend to drink a cup of coffee and walk across the stage and blow in it.”

Laura, from Erskine, couldn’t quite manage to get it right.

“I tried and was told to do it again and again. Eventually, the drama teacher told me to put real coffee in the cup and drink it.”

And it worked. Laura learned acting was about behaving as if the performance is real, but the circumstances, the world around her, are made up.

Right now however, the world she’s occupying on stage owes a lot to the writing talent of Stuart Thomas.

The Real Hoosewives features five ordinary Glesga women who get the chance to join a TV reality show when American producers come to town.

Will fame and fortune ruin their friendship? Will it change them?

As you can imagine, the producers find Glesga gals entirely refreshing, and often refreshed.

Laura plays Michelle, whom she describes as being ‘a bit ditsy.’

“She’s so bubbly and outgoing with a big personality,” says Laura.

And she’s a big girl.

“That’s right. Michelle doesn’t have the perfect body and she wants to be the perfect wife to husband Marcus.

“Yet, she loves herself. She doesn’t apologise for who she is at all. And her size, being voluptuous, fits in with her image. She also likes pink and glitter and glam. “

Is Laura pink and optimistic? “I I don’t own any pink, but you can find some character similarities with yourself and then you layer the rest on top.”

Leah McRae played Michelle previously before going off to join River City.

“I auditioned for her part,” says Laura, “and turned up for an open call and there were lots of different girls there.

“I actually love auditions. I don’t get nervous. I tend to think if you can’t do it in auditions you won’t be able to do it when the show opens.”

She adds; “I felt I was right for the part. I’ve got a strong personality, on and off the stage. And the show is about huge audience reaction. It’s not a classic Shakespeare, it’s great fun.”

Laura, whose granddad was a Polish engineer who survived working in a Nazi concentration camp, grew up dreaming of an acting career.

As a young girl she attended drama classes at Pace in Paisley. Aged eighteen and studying drama at Nautical College, Laura was appearing in a student production when Wendy Ward, the owner of the acting studio in New York turned up to turn an eye over the students.

“Wendy saw me and asked me to come to New York to study.

“And lot of the funding I needed was down to her,” she says of her fairy godmother.

Laura had an amazing life experience. “It was incredible. And I learned such a lot. I loved the technique, and then came back and studied at Queen Margaret in Edinburgh.”

Laura, who is also a classically trained singer, worked for a year as a stage actor.

“Then two years ago I went back to college and did a Masters in Musical Theatre. It just seemed right to bring all my skills together.

“And it all fits in with this show. You’ve got to be able to sing.”

Laura, who has appeared at the prestigious Globe Theatre in London. has a two year-old daughter. She met her partner, Blair, in Edinburgh.

“I was working in Macbeth at the time and one night I was in the bar where he worked as a manager reading a Shakespeare play and having a glass of wine. On a Friday night. I guess that caught his eye.”

Now she’s playing a Glasgow housewife, who likes stronger drink.

But given her American acting technique, does this mean she’ll be drinking real Buckie on stage in order to capture the true essence of her character?

“No, I don’t think so,” she says, laughing. “There are times when you can’t bring an actual reality to the show.”

• The Real Hoosewives Fae Glesga, The Pavilion Theatre, July 23-25, and July 30, 31, and August 1.