JOSHUA Eldridge-Smith enjoyed performing from an early age, but nevertheless qualified as a plumber and heating engineer after leaving school.

It was the safety-first course of action – after all, plumbers always have a full diary – yet Josh realised very quickly that this was not the job for him.

"For me, the safe aspect was a bad point about it," says the 20-year-old Scarborough actor. "I don't want to know what I'm doing for the next 20 years. That would bore me. I thought, 'what a shame if I didn't do what I really wanted to do."

Josh returned to his roots, trained in musical theatre in York and from September he will study for three years at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.

Before Scotland beckons, he has a summer role to perform at the Grand Opera House in York, playing Roger Davis in Justine Hughes's production of the New York rock opera Rent for The York Orchard Musical Theatre Company on Friday and Saturday.

Jonathan Larson's 2005 musical about a group of bohemians in East Village, New York, focuses on the trials and tribulations of everyday life of roommates Mark and Roger, one a love-struck, nerdy filmmaker, the other an aspiring but struggling rock musician, as they deal with love, loss and the creeping shadow of AIDS.

York Press:

Joshua Eldridge-Smith, left, as Roger and Sam Lightfoot-Loftus, second left, as Mark, in Rent

"Playing Roger, a reserved character who's challenged by issues from his past, will push me further than previous roles," he says. "When he gets AIDS, knowing he has the disease changes Roger's mindset about life; his outlook; his relationship with Mimi, his girlfriend from a long time back."

Josh wants to learn from the experience each time he plays a new character. "In Rent, I like the way that Roger is just very neutral in his personality and yet he has a lot going on in his head and you have to show that in a quiet way, where he's trapped off from himself and from the others, rather than being flamboyant," he says.

"In playing Roger, I just try to react to how people are reacting to him in that moment, so if you change it each night, you react to it as fast as you can, as realistically as you can."

Explaining his particular love of musical theatre, Josh says: "I find, when I'm playing myself, I still get nervous, but slipping out of me into being someone else and thinking about their thought processes is a thrill you can't get anywhere else than on stage. It's that sense of escape into somewhere; not that there's anything to escape from, but it really is a totally different experience..."

...From plumbing, he could have added.

The York Orchard Musical Theatre Company present Rent at Grand Opera House, York, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com