'Being in a play allows me to express the feelings of another character. I could never know how they feel unless I try to reach into their souls,' Lok-yan says.

The St Mary's Canossian College arts student has proved her talent in plays and musicals such as Orpheus, The Girl In The War, A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It.

Her obvious gifts, combined with a strong stage presence, have earned her respect and recognition, and also won her several awards.

To name a few of the honours, she has won prizes in solo verse speaking, public speaking, rehearsed original scene and original short play in the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival; and soprano solo and female duet in the Schools Music Festival.

To judge from her prizes, Lok-yan not only excels in drama but also singing and speech. Of her accomplishments, which one was the most gratifying? 'It may sound absurd, but my best performance was for a prize I lost! It was a solo drama in the ATV Challenge last year, for which I played the part of a prostitute.

'I spent a lot of time and effort preparing for the role, thinking about how a real prostitute acts, in order to perform convincingly.' Perhaps Lok-yan was a shade too young to give a totally convincing performance as a lady of the night, but she has time and again demonstrated that she is a theatre talent to be reckoned with.

The student is musical too. She can sing and play two musical instruments. She has reached Grade Six in singing and piano, and passed Grade Four in violin with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

All these activities have not interfered with her studies. She scored two distinctions in the HKCEE, in English Literature and English Language, and gained a B in Chinese Language, as well as credits in Mathematics, Economics and Biology.

'I spent of lot of my time in Form Six working on Orpheus , a spooky musical based on the Greek myth. I was assistant director and played the major role of Pluto, king of the underworld. We had to prepare the props and costumes, and sometimes we would rehearse till 11 at night.' The time and effort were well spent. The fund-raising musical, which had an original music score of 20 songs, created a sensation in Hong Kong last year, and raised $40,000 for the school's renovation projects.

Does Lok-yan plan to make the theatre a career? Surprisingly, the answer is no.

She wants to get on with her artistic pursuits, but has no wish to join the ranks of 'nameless actresses' in Hong Kong.

'What I would love to do is study communication in Hong Kong, and perhaps someday I will be a journalist.'