Opinion with David Duthie

Lately I've been working with a bunch of complete amateurs. Happily, this was through choice and turned out positive!

During my previous post, I managed to find some semi-professional work and performed in ‘professional/community’ shows (unpaid roles alongside professional actors and creative teams). This provided valuable insight and I picked up pearls of wisdom that I still use to this day. Regarding musical theatre, director Nikolai Foster told me that if something is too emotionally charged for a character to say, they sing it; too charged to sing, they dance it – which I have found to be an effective mantra.

Where I live in Somerset there are fewer paid roles but many societies where I can continue to get stage experience and perform live again. But why?