Today we have some incredible news which we hope will make a huge difference to our future. 
We would like to welcome Dawn on board as our new grant fundraiser (she will be specialising in grant applications). She has a professional history of grant fundraising for theatre and the wider arts, including some larger national companies. 
Securing this kind of assistance means that while we will continue all our usual fundraising (ebay, Redbubble, the second-hand book shelf in Oats, etc), we have a better shot at getting really proper funding which will allow us to do things like (but not limited to) 
- obtain up to date portable lighting, sound and projection equipment
- build our arts inclusion "theatre buddies" scheme easier
- raise Equity rate payments for our cast and crew at last (something we have wanted to achieve for years)
- fund the £20 per week for our rehearsal space, in a stable manner. 
- transport our actors and crew easily to show bookings outside our home area of Torbay
- reach new venues further afield with our shows, from which we are precluded due to travel costs. 
- provide specialist, knoweldgeable accessibility support to both creatives in our shows, and visiting audience members, with disabilities. 
- develop our digital education packs that come with each show. 

It has taken a long time to find someone with such a background, and experience. Having met Dawn today she seems absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to work with her to help bring the South Devon Players forward to this (in my opinion) long overdue step for our amazing team. 

Laura

​CASTING CALL (DIGITAL THEATRE & THEATRE) PROFITSHARE. DEVON. (contact us asap for zoom/ facebook call discussion and casting)

SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY V - CASTING FOR THE DAUPHIN

* GENDER: Can be played male or female with our setting,
* AGE: 20s - mid 30s (we can be a bit flexible, but needs to work with the playing age of the French King)
*LOCATION: Due to live performances in November, we are looking for Devon-based actors only.
* SKILLS: Must be confident with using Zoom, including how to mute and unmute microphone, change backdrops etc. We can supply greenscreen if needed. Ability to do a light French accent is desirable but not a deal breaker.

PROJECT & DATES: This is a production which is currently well into rehearsals (over everyone working from home over Zoom at the moment)sadly the actor cast as the Dauphin has had life circumstances change unavoidably. The initual perfomance will be online, using Zoom with costume and digital backdrops etc, as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival in July.
Following this, our cast (it needs to be the same cast due to the cast having already learned the lines and characters for the digital show) will re-convene in physical rehearsals at our usual rehearsal base on Wednesdays in November to work through the blocking for the live shows which will take place at the end of November at Brixham Theatre (as long as the government road-map goes to plan of course!)
Rehearsals over zoom take place on Wednesdays 7 - 9/ 9.30pm, and Sunday afternoons 12.45 to usually about 4pm. We are aiming for scripts down by the end of May 2021. The Shakespeare festival peforming dates are July 11th (recording the full show in case of techincal issues on the streaming dates) and July 24th (live streaming date). After this the show is on ice until we reconvene in late October.
We then reconvene to get the physical show blocking done, and some nessecary weapon choreography, on Wednesdays from late October, at our rehearsal hall in Brixham, and then will be in at Brixham Theatre for final tech and performances on Nov 24th - 27th 2021.
As all dates are booked and contracted, we are unable to now alter them.

OTHER: As this is an emergency re-casting, we havent got all the blurb on our website, (the casting up on there is for another project starting in late August) however if you pop over for a look; all the details of how we work, profitshares (and why we are currently stuck with that glass ceiling), sample actors agreements etc, are all there and the same for all shows. Also do explore the website to see everything that we are working on https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html
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QUESTIONS/ TO APPLY - you can message the page directly, email southdevonplayers@gmail.com, or phone Laura the director and company founder, (afternoons are the best time ) directly on 07855 090589.

When working on a show, we like, in an ideal world, to also workshop as much as we can to expand audience knoweldge of the shows and projects. This workshop, led by one of the Henry V cast, Jamie Hoskin, was a different approach from our usual one, but it works well - and different ways of working work well for different people as everyone learns differently. Brilliant stuff. ;)

As we move into 2021 - and beyond - we hope to begin creating education packs for children and students for each of our productions. The first one is already underway for our coming production of Henry V. 
As a unique part of these education packs, we are creating a series of videos in British Sign Language. 
For each show, we hope to create a video in British Sign Language, teaching  show to sign 10 (or 15) words specific to that theatre production. 
To begin, here is the sign language video for Henry V, signed by our lovely Sarah Gregori. 

 As we look towards busier times again after the pandemic, we are also looking for people who would like to get involved with us, behind the scenes, to help create shows, and increase access to our work. The roles we are looking to fill vary hugely in commitment and theme, but as long as you are based in the relevant area, are reliable & communicative, and love the arts, then we should get along very happily indeed. Please read on to find out what we are looking to fill. If you would like an informal chat about any of these roles, do please drop us an email on southdevonplayers@gmail.com, at any time. 

*NB, at the moment, due to lack of funding, all of these roles are voluntary. We hope, eventually, to be able to make all of these roles paid positions by dint of raising the funds to do so!  Sadly with the Brixham Pannier Market being permanently closed by the town council, we have lost our large second-hand book stall, meaning that we are having to create new sources of fundraising even for basic things like rehearsal space, from scratch. 

COVID NOTE
We would also like to be very clear that we take Covid-safety extremely seriously. While some roles can be done, or at least prepared for, from home and can therefore start sooner rather than later, any roles that involve working out and about with others/ in groups will only begin when it is safe to do so - we estimate August onwards. In the meantime, training and preparation, as far as can be done remotely over Zoom etc, will happen for those roles in preparation.  All of our "face to face" work in groups will have Covid-safety measures in place. 

As always, regular and new actors (and stage crew!) are equally welcome to apply, and we look forward to hearing from everyone who is interested. This is looking to be our biggest single stage tour yet, with more venues, and streaming performances to global audiences from at least two venues. 

If you would like to find out more, or discuss the project, then do please drop us a line on southdevonplayers@gmail.com