EastEnders star Clair Norris has embarked on the next step in her career after she and her character departed Albert Square earlier this year, and you can go and see her live right now (although you might have to travel).

The actor is currently starring as Fairy Sunshine in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings, alongside fellow former EastEnders and Hollyoaks star Richard Blackwood.

There have already been a few shows, and it’s running until Sunday 4 January.

Speaking to the Sussex Express, Norris said: “I wanted to do panto last year but I had just moved into my first home [and] I wanted to host Christmas… This time, I was not doing EastEnders and I didn’t have a busy schedule and I just wanted a new challenge.

“Everyone I spoke to said that ‘You’ve got to do pantomime,’ and that it’s just such fun and that it is just so completely different especially when you’ve been doing television.

“It allows you to be a kid again and it’s really nice during the festive season when you’ve got something else to focus on. I have not got it on my CV and I just want to tick things off.”

Norris described her character as “very positive” and speaks mostly in rhyme, with the actor stating that she’s bringing “a bit of sass” to the performance.

The star was born on 30 December, something she described as “awful” when she was a kid, but made better by the “birthday treat” of going to the pantomime.

“I can’t remember that we went every single year but from speaking to my mum she said that she used to take me a lot,” she said.

Now that she’s ticking panto off her to-do list, she’s got many more ideas of what she’d like to do next.

“I just want to try everything. I’m very open,” she said. “I’d like to do some theatre. I’d like to do a play. I’d love to do a drama.

“There are so many things that I’d love to tick off on my list. I know that I love TV but there are so many other things I don’t know about that I want to explore and that I want to discover. I want to work out where my strengths lie.

“I think doing some theatre would be great. A lot of people that come out of something big like EastEnders go on stage afterwards and they really enjoy it.”