ANYONE who has seen The Swan's pioneering project The Worcester Century Plays will be in no doubt everyone involved has worked extremely hard to get it right.

However, what many won't know is that a member of the cast had to decide between the play and his home.

And if that wasn't enough, he had to make the choice at a time when the family was struggling to come to terms with the effects of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

And, it was the foot-and-mouth crisis which forced Joe Evans to make such a decision.

After accepting a part in the series of plays which follow a fictitious Worcester family through the ups and downs of the last century Joe soon realised he wouldn't be able to return home, which is a farm in Whitbourne.

I was contacted the day before rehearsals and it was agreed I would act in the play, he said.

But then the foot-and-mouth crisis began to get closer to my family's farm and I had to choose between staying at home or leaving.

As I had got the part I felt it would be a pity not to do it.

However, I don't know if I would have been quite as keen if I had known what I was going to have to give up at the time.

Yet although the 18-year-old said the time spent away from home was extremely difficult, he added that he enjoyed the opportunity to work with professional actors.

Tomorrow sees the start of the second half of the two-part series, which follows the fictitious Worcester family during the 1969 moon landing and Millennium Eve.

But after putting the stage before his home, you may be surprised to learn that Joe has no intentions of walking the boards on a professional basis.

In fact, he is currently at Worcester Sixth Form Collage studying computers, law and maths.

I really enjoy the parts I am playing, especially as the drunken medical student in the second half, he said.

But there seems to be so many good actors who have gone nowhere because they didn't get a break, therefore I'm going to keep acting as my hobby.

For more information on the plays contact The Swan box office on 01905 27322.