A FORMER Kidderminster College student's theatre company took centre stage at the European Parliament to perform as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Cate Hibbert, director of the theatre company Voices of the Holocaust, took her Milton Keynes-based company to Brussels to perform a specially adapted version of their first production I Never Saw Another Butterfly.

The company performed in front of world leaders and Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace prize winner Elie Wiesel.

Cate, who was born in Kidderminster, studied performing arts at the town’s college and was a member of the Stourport Three Arts Guild, said: "It is emotionally overwhelming to think that we only premiered our first piece on Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 and now we have the biggest stage we could wish for as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the European Parliament in Brussels.

"It is such an honour for a new, unfunded theatre company, staffed by volunteers and young actors who have freely given their time and talents to come to the attention of the European Jewish Congress and other leading authorities."

I Never Saw Another Butterfly was originally devised for Holocaust Memorial Day in 2013. The play takes a retrospective look at the journey to genocide through the eyes of the children of Theresienstadt.

The theatre company performed Fragile Fire and The Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto, featuring the last surviving drut'syla (a traditional Yiddish storyteller) Shonaleigh, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust, at Stourport Civic Centre in November last year.

Cate hopes to return to Wyre Forest with a new production this summer.

For more information visit voicesoftheholocaust.co.uk