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Before each performance, David likes to make sure he is properly warmed up and prepared; to do this he has a routine of physical and vocal exercises. David particularly likes to use tongue twisters to warm up his voice. His favourites are:

Articulatory agility is a desirable ability.

and

I love New York, unique New York.

David and Maggie (who plays Audrey) also go through their dance for ‘A lover and his lass’ before every performance, this ensures that the dance is fresh and helps David to start to get into character. David likes to meet everybody before he goes on stage so he has seen him or her before he meets them in the play, this helps David to mentally prepare for the role, as Touchstone is very personable. When David played Fluellen in Henry V he sat alone in a dark room before going on stage, but he does not do this for Touchstone as he is a much more gregarious character. David also plays games with other members of the company as a means of warming up e.g. ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ and concentration games in which the company have to try to count up to 20 together with no 2 people saying a number at the same time. These games help to develop and maintain group awareness.

After he has warmed up David gets into costume, this takes some time as the costume is very fiddly and has many separate parts. David’s ruff takes a particularly long time to put on as it has to be pinned into place.

The company have now gone into rehearsal for their second play of the season, A Mad World My Masters by Thomas Middleton. This means that David either has rehearsals during the day and a performance in the evening or a performance in the afternoon and rehearsal in the evening. When he rehearses in the evening, David often does not get home to Brighton until 2.00am; consequently he is very tired at present. In this second play, David plays a de mobbed soldier who behaves very dubiously – the character is an alcoholic who was once a member of the gentry but has fallen on hard times! The role is very different from Touchstone and David is enjoying playing a contrasting character.

David is still looking a different ways of exploring the character of Touchstone, he is enjoying chatting to the audience (in character) during the interval. He has found that the floodlights used during the evening performances have the effect of focusing the audience and give the evening shows a very different atmosphere from the matinees.

David has kept to his decision in rehearsal not to directly address the audience (during the play itself). The only time he deviated from this decision is during the dance with Audrey and this is a visual rather than a verbal address. He now feels that the show has settled into a rhythm and he is able to develop the subtleties of his characterization of Touchstone.

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

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