If a job's worth doing it's worth doing right. That's why if Emma Burgess is about to play an Old West gunslinger, she's determined to hone her sharp-shooting skills.

Clinical support worker Emma is about to lead a 60-strong ensemble cast in Calamity Jane, the latest production from the Hessle Theatre Company, which opens at Hull New Theatre on Tuesday, March 23.

And this week, as the cast enter the final stages of rehearsal for the big spectacle show, Emma took time out from treading the boards to try her hand at shooting with members of the East Riding Rifle Club, at their Cottingham base.

She said: "It was good to get a feel of what it is really like to fire a rifle and know how to do it properly. It all adds to the authenticity when I'm on stage playing Jane who was the real deal.

"I did actually get a bulls eye during my practise session with Jill and Brian Norman from the club which I was delighted about. I think Jane may have got a few more than I did."

Emma is no stranger to playing rootin' tootin' cowgirls after previously playing Annie Oakley in the company's 2002 production of Annie Get Your Gun, but she reckons there's no harm in practising her quick draw so make sure she's on top form for the show.

She's particularly looking forward to playing the feisty Calamity who held her own against the cowboys in the frontier town of Deadwood in the late 19th Century. As well as touring in a Wild West show as a trick shooter, Calamity also saved a carriage which was under attack from native Indians and claimed to have served under General Custer.

Emma said: "As a clinical support worker and a mother of two I need a lot of energy, which has come in handy when playing such an active character.

"This show has me bounding around the stage, jumping from stagecoaches as well as singing and dancing".

Having two daughters Emma says she is also looking forward to playing a strong independent woman, "Calamity knows how to look after herself, but throughout the show learns about her softer side."

Emma is no stranger to the stage having performed in numerous productions since the age of six, when she gained her first role as Molly in Annie, which was also with Hessle Theatre Company.

Having gone on to play a number of leading roles with various companies in the area, Emma is looking forward to taking on the challenge of recreating the part made famous by Doris Day in the movie version of the musical.

In real life Calamity Jane, who was born Martha Jane Canary, in May 1852, was a real product of the Old West. Although she is believed to have embellished many of the yarns she span about her life, she was a recognised sharp shooter in the town of Deadwood and did have a relationship with "Wild Bill" Hickock – which forms the central, testy, romance of the musical.

Calamity Jane is the latest production from the Hessle company who specialise in bringing big, professional-standard shows to Hull New Theatre.

In recent years the group have staged a visually stunning Titanic, a macabre and grisly Sweeney Todd and a heart-warming Fiddler On The Roof to the theatre.

* Hessle Theatre Company's Calamity Jane runs at Hull New Theatre, Kingston Square, Hull, from Tuesday, March 23, to Saturday, March 27, nightly at 7.30pm except Saturday, when it has two shows at 2.30pm and 7pm. Tickets cost from £10 to £18. To book call (01482) 226655.