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About Us
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
-Mark Twain.
Members of Brixham Chamber of Commerce
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New team members are always more than welcome.
If you would like to join us as a performer or crew member, simply come along to our next audition event, or get in touch if that is a few weeks away and you would like to get underway with something sooner. Especially in the summer we may have short-notice events coming up as well. All levels of experience are very welcome. We do require all cast and crew to be a reliable, kind, supportive person within a team. Everyone involved with us is on a project by project basis, as a freelance, self-employed creative. Earnings must be declared to HMRC. The only permanent people are those volunteers who run the group. Rehearsals for performers are weekly, on Wednesday evenings 7 - 9.30pm and Sunday afternoons 1 - 4pm. Please arrive half an hour early to prepare. We do not charge membership fees, and are completely against any kind of "pay to play" Please note that in the main we do not accept members under the age of 18. If there is a specific casting, or role for someone under 18, or if they have the ability to play a character aged over 18, all members under age 16 need to be accompanied at all auditions, rehearsals, and shows, by a parent or legal guardian in line with our child protection policy. IMPORTANT This may seem very basic indeed but is being noted publicly after a couple of incidents over recent years: If you are joining us, please be aware that you will be expected to be able to carry out your role (actor/ crew/ technician) in a professional manner. This will involve learning your role, working to deadlines with the rest of the team, maintaining a pleasant, kind, professional attitude with others at all times, maintaining excellent timekeeping, being fully communicative with the rest of the team, and extending this courtesy to working with the staff of venues which we are visiting. Bullying, sexual impropriety, undermining others, abuse and gaslighting are prohibited in our team. This is a dynamic team of ambitious, hardworking, career-orientated people. Therefore we are unable to accommodate those people seeking a community social hobby-club experience. You will also be required to abide by the norms of socially acceptable behaviour towards other members and towards the public at all times. Founded in 2005-6 with the proceeds of a car-boot sale, then winning the Torbay Together Arts In The Community Award in 2010, the Creative Lives Epic Award for England in 2017, and the VTAA Partner Theatre Award in the Long Island Theatre Awards, in New York 2019; appearing several times on national television, the Players continue to grow and expand.
The team ranges from experienced performers, through to beginners, all of whom work very hard, side by side, and share the same ethos of developing a career in theatre / film, to create new productions. We are self-funded with table top sales, market stalls, sponsored activities, etc, and therefore payment offered to cast and crew is equal, open-book profit share; ticket sales less venue hire cost, shared equally. We are attempting to find ways to improve this, via grant applications, and sponsorship, to enable us to offer full union rate payments to cast and crew. |
,ABOUT
The South Devon Players are an internationally award winning, inclusive, intergenerational Brixham theatre and film team, based in the beautiful fishing port of Brixham; Devon (in South West England), founded and led by Laura Jury, an autistic woman of colour, in 2005, who remains as the head of the organisation. We perform theatre shows around Torbay and the wider Southwest. Over the coming years we intend to expand our number of shows, and range of tours, and continue to encourage and develop expertise in theatre and film arts for local people, at a world class level consumate with our reputation. Our company upholds the belief that anyone can participate fully in creating theatre, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, income, previous experience or personal background. All that matters is that a person is kind to, and respectful of others, reliable, pleasant to work with in a team, communicative, and able & willing to create top quality theatre and entertainment. Our scheduling is designed as best as possible to allow people to participate around other activities, their work, studies, family and life responsibilities. We ask everyone who applies to get involved with us, about their availability, to best build a rehearsal and show schedule around them. We were founded in 2005 as an unincorporated community group, and became a company limited by guarantee in 2018, as better protection for our intellectual property, and to be able to be more publicly transparent. We are volunteer-run. We exist to showcase & develop the wonderful talents of regional Southwest performers at all stages of their careers and experience, to local, national and international audiences, while providing local people, regardless of past experience or demographic identities, with local opportunities to develop & grow careers in theatre. We had no opportunities to create and participate in theatre, so we decided to create some for us and other local disadvantaged people like us, in a similar situation. The whole intention, and raison'd'etre of the South Devon Players is to create inclusive and exciting opportunities for Southwest based actors and theatre creatives at any stage in their careers, to develop and expand their careers and portfolios, providing credits leading towards gaining Equity cards & Spotlight membership; and for those who already have these, as showcase opportunities. ________________________________________________________ ORGANISATION: Founding We are an inclusive, female-led / autistic-led/ person of colour -led theatre company based in South Devon, UK. Company directors We are run by three "company directors" (as registered here on Companies House) who work in a purely voluntary capacity, up to 50 hours a week each, to keep the organization running, with publicity, project planning, administration, fundraising, networking, cleaning the rehearsal venue, etc. The company directors receive no money or "in kind" items for this role. Other Volunteers We are also assisted on an adhoc basis, by other volunteers including an accountant, treasurer, fundraisers, and our theatre-buddies Actors & Crew Actors and stage crew are the only people who receive payment for being involved in the South Devon Players. Actors and crew join our projects on a project - by - project, self-employed freelance basis. We have some regular faces, some occasional faces, and some one-off faces in all projects. As a new project is announced, those people interested in working with us on the project, submit expressions of interest; in the case of production crew; a verbal or written expression of interest in being involved, and in the case of actors, applying to audition. All actors and crew are self-employed as freelancers, and required to declare their earnings to HMRC in their self-assessments. While we would love to provide, and are actively working to secure funding, for full union-rate payments to all actors and crew, this is an uphill battle. In the mean time we often have to operate on a profit-share basis. This means that 100% of profits from show ticket sales, however much or little that be, are divided equally among the actors and crew, with the provision of copies of ticket sales reports for openness and clarity. This allows actors and crew to build paid credits towards their Equity and Spotlight memberships, receive as much financially as we are able to give them for their time and involvement. ________________________________________________________ We also pride ourselves in creating accurate historical productions as a way of bringing to life, historical facts, personages and events, to a wider audience, and developing a love of history, performance and classical stories. 
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