URGENT CASTING CALL - FANTINE & LITTLE COSETTE - DEVON - THEATRE - PROFITSHARE & PORTFOLIO PHOTOS/VIDEOS - LES MISERABLES; THE MEMOIRS OF JEAN VALJEAN
Please contact immediately on southdevonplayers@gmail.com to arrange an audition. Please share to anyone who may be interested.
We urgently need to recast Fantine (playing age 20-35) and Little Cosette (playing age 8 - 12) for our theatre production of Les Miserables: The Memoirs of Jean Valjean.
The roles were being played by a lovely real life mother and daughter, who have had to withdraw due to a sudden family crisis.
This show is a full length drama (NOT the musical) based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Rehearsals are underway already, on Wednesday evenings 6.30pm - 9.30pm, and Sundays 12.30pm - 5pm, at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, TQ5 0SA, before touring around the South Devon area.
Actors MUST be based in the South Devon area and able to attend rehearsals and all performances as key characters in the show.
Little Cosette, as a minor, MUST be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian at all rehearsals and performances; and casting is subject to a child actor license being obtained by the production for the child to be in the show.
Payment is on equal profit share (whatever we make from ticket sales is shared equally between each cast and crew member), plus portfolio photographs/ videos. The shows at Brixham Theatre are also filmed for streaming online via the online section of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is profitshare rather than any more, because as a theatre company led by an autistic woman, we find it very difficult to access grant funding , but at the same time, we want to do as much as is within our power for all the people involved with our shows.
The performances are on tour around South Devon in May/ June 2023 with tickets for all shows already on sale.
Brixham
Friday May 19th - (evening)
Saturday May 20th - (matinee)
Saturday May 20th - (evening)

Kingskerswell
May 27th (evening)
​
Plymouth (Stoke Damerel)
June 2nd (evening)

Exeter (Barnfield Theatre)
June 9th (evening)

Torquay (Royal Lyceum Theatre)
Friday June 16th (evening)

Ashburton Arts Centre
Friday June 23rd (evening)

As this is an emergency casting, this is not currently set up on the casting section of our website which has been geared to our next main production starting in July, however the terms of involvement, actors agreements & contracts, etc are all identical.
We are a well established female-led theatre company based in Devon, you can check us out at www.southdevonplayers.com , The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, Brixham .​

Our cast and crew are working beautifully on the show, and the scenes are coming along amazingly. With characterization, and (where needed) action choreography, and the first hints of costumes, the scenes are really coming together - we couldnt be working with a lovelier or more talented team!

Images by Michael Betts

Last Sunday was a barricade special, where the tech crew started building the sound and lighting cues for that rather tech-heavy sequence, and the first time the actors were working in costumes (costumes are still being put together but we like to rehearse in even partial costume as soon as possible, because it helps with character development.  

Looking forward to the first “on our feet” blocking rehearsal for the second half of our spring / summer theatre production of Les Miserables: The Memoirs of Jean Valjean, tomorrow, with our brilliant cast.
Next week we will be start the multiple weeks of characterisation and performance for the characters and performances and scenes with the actors and bringing in the crew to start in on building up lighting, sound and special effects.
(Photos from Wednesday’s first half blocking rehearsals)
#theatre #acting #lesmis #devon #devontheatre #brixhamtheatre #devonactors #stage #rehearsal #regionaltheatre #britishtheatre #brixham

VERY well done to everyone who auditioned! 
It has been a long time of deliberations, but here is the cast list from the auditions! 
Everyone who auditioned should have received emails by now - I understand a couple of emails didn't get through immediately , but we should all be there by now. Regardless of the outcomes, I think everyone should be very proud of some very talented hard work, and I would be delighted to work with you all.


Robin Purdie – Jean Valjean
Lee Metherall – Thenadier
Lisa Highton – Madame Thenadier, Toussaint
Joan Smith- Mlle Gillenormand, elderly lady in street
Elizabeth Ampadu – Eponine
Nick De Jasay – Enjolras, sailor with Bernardo,
Sarah Gregori - Javert
Alex Slade – Gavroche/ Petit Gervais
Parascovia Everett – Fantine
Lily Marlow – Grown Up Cosette,
Natalia Everett – Little Cosette
Ruth Willis – Estella, market soldier, Madame Mabeuf, firing squad soldier
James Hoff – Factory Boss, Bishop, Fueilly, Champmantheiu
Sean Kilroy – Bambatabois/ Brevet/ firing squad soldier
Rueben Reed – Marius, Thenadiers Inn Guest
Rich Sandford – Grantaire, Bernardo, market convict
Sacha Spencer - Pedlar, Prouvaire (also recorded for when away), soldier
Laura Jury – Courfeyrac, Pedlar (understudy for Sacha for one show), Sister simplice, Factory Girl 2
Ida Ivanoff - Gendarme, Prosector, soldier.
Brooke Harris - Inkeeper, Joly, covering Fantine for one show for Parascovia.

Our theatre company founder, Laura, who is also a member of Equity’s Directors & Designers national committee, was in London yesterday for a meeting at the Equity head offices on Covent Garden,# with the rest of the committee! Lots of excellent work around improving pay and conditions policies for creatives on a national basis, are in progress.

For more information on Equity Directors & Designers Committee, please follow 
https://twitter.com/EquityDandD on Twitter 
And to meet all the people on the committee, pop over to the page on Equity's website  HERE

#theatre #acting #arts #creative #theatrelife #equity #london #performingarts #theatredirector

And this weekend, our tour of Beowulf concluded with an excellent performance at Torquay's Royal Lyceum theatre.
Now, the plans for over Christmas and the New Year, include sorting out our props and costumes from Beowulf (putting them away) and getting our props and costumes etc, for Les Misérables. 

It has been a fantastic show run - after a shaky start and some recasts, it came to have fabulous feedback, with a small but an amazing cast, most of whom plan to return  to the stage with us in future shows and projects, and fabulous permanent relationships forged with new venues. 

At the South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, we are now seeking to connect with schools (or other places of education) who would like to work with us - we would love to work with educational establishments (in discussion with what they need) to provide workshops, talks, Q&As, excerpt performances (etc - we are open to discussion with this) , this could be related to the literature/ story, the history or the process of creating the show. We also have some neurodiverse people within the cast, so discussions on making theatre participation accessible to people with those conditions is also very welcome. 

These can be in person, at your school/ college, or we can host it in Brixham - alternatively we can also work with you over video link (Zoom etc)

We are also happy to discuss arranging full show performances, at cost, if these are relevant. The shows are all "suitable-for-all")

March - June this would be linked to our show Les Miserables: The Memoirs of Jean Valjean - this is a non-musical theatre drama based off the book, which is going on public tour to Brixham, Plymouth, Torquay and Exeter. Unavailable days would be the weekly rehearsal days; Wednesdays and Sundays (as well as the show dates) 

August (so probably logistically September for schools) to January 2024 we will be producing William Shakespeare's Macbeth; this is the full uncut text, again touring publicly to Brixham, Plymouth, Torquay and Exeter, the staging is a post-apocalyptic setting (the aftermath of a nuclear war) , When we did this show (same approach and styling) in 2019k, we won a theatre award for it in New York after streaming it worldwide, and ran an extra weekday performance at Brixham Theatre for a couple of primary schools. 

We would absolutely love to hear from anyone interested in discussing further. 
Please (in the first instance) get in touch via email; southdevonplayers@gmail.com)