March 2, 2012

David took part in The Globe's Read Not Dead series twice, once in 1999 and again in 2004. The plays he did were Edward III often attributed to William Shakespeare and The Fleer written by Edward Sharpham in 1606.

David read Edward the Black Prince in Edward III which was directed by Clive Brill, who he has worked with many,many times. In The Fleer David read the part of Lord Piso.

Excerpt from Spring 2004 Shakespeare Bulletin by LucyMunro:

"Since 1993, the Education Department of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has been bringing dead plays to life in a series of Sunday afternoon staged readings, now titled "Read Not Dead." The series aims eventually to perform and record the 400-plus extant non-Shakespearean plays performed in the professional theatres between 1567 and 1642. The plays are performed by professional casts, who receive the scripts around a week in advance--if they are lucky; some actors are drafted in at the last minute and may get the script only hours before the reading--and get one rehearsal/run-through before performing the play, scripts in hand. As Gabriel Egan writes, the aim was originally "to invite actors who supported the cause to ply their craft rather than simply to turn up to receptions to endorse a 'product,' and to counter fears that Shakespeare's Globe would be Shakespeare-centric." For actors, the plays are a unique opportunity to take roles that they would be unlikely to encounter elsewhere, and to demonstrate their versatility by playing more than one part in the same play. Audiences are able to see--and, just as importantly, to hear--plays which may never have been revived in the 400-odd years since they were first performed, and to see, as Pepys saw, the mechanics of the theatre in action."