The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

More behind the scenes at Ben Hur

30/10/2021

Another look behind the scenes of rehearsals for Ben Hur. The cast and crew are doing fantastically. It is wonderful to see the characters and emotions coming through. We may not be costumed yet, and we may not have the set up, but the power of the acting is already so clear in the photos. Absolutely wonderful work. It is also beautiful how all the cast and crew are so friendly, kind & supportive to one another - it lets a production absolutely blossom.
Photos by Jenny Abrahall

Thank you so much for the donation to our used stamps appeal

26/10/2021

A huge thank you to the lovely person who donated a big bag of used postage stamps to our ongoing fundraising appeal, today via Janet at the Crafty Cwtch cafe. We have started sorting them this evening ready for the fundraising sales, and we are absolutely thrilled with such a lovely variety of UK and foreign stamps.
We do hope the donor sees this.
More details on our fundraising at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/fundraising.html
#theatre #brixham #devon '#actors #regionaltheatre #britishtheatre #acting #actorslife #supporttheatre #supportarts #fundraisingcampaign

For those new to our email list

23/10/2021

Thank you to all who joined our emailing list at the community event at the town hall today.

This message will appear in you first email from the mailing list. This is sent out weekly on a Friday, with all our latest news; peeks behind the scenes, fundraisers, show dates, casting calls, etc.

Your details are safe - we don't pass them on to anyone else.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss anything with us at any times, please do email us directly on southdevonplayers@gmail.com

It was wonderful to meet you today

Vikki and Laura

On Saturday at the town hall

19/10/2021

We are delighted to announce that we will have a stall at this event organised by Brixham Town Council on Saturday. If you’ve ever wanted to get involved in theatre and creativity; do come along and have a chat with us to find out more. We welcome anyone aged 16-116, regardless of age, gender, experience, background, disability, who seriously wants to get involved in creating theatre and in futhering a career as a creative

#Brixham #theatre #devon #torbay #regionaltheatre #britishtheatre #actors #supportarts

More collectable stamps added to our fundraising ebay

19/10/2021

Collectable postage stamps on ebay - lots of different countries, . UK based, happy to send worldwide. 100% positive feedback. Fundraising for local theatre group in southwest England to pay for rehearsal room rent, costumes, props, insurances, etc to create opportunities for local people in a deprived area. Please come and take a look. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/southdevonplayers/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from

Theatre Buddies inclusion project update

19/10/2021

We had a brilliant meeting with our volunteer Vikki, to discuss the launch of the test phase of our free inclusion project, Theatre Buddies, helping local people struggling with isolation and loneliness to access and enjoy theatre- and make friends.
The draft ideas are at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/buddies.html

Due to autumn availabilities for Vikki, and Laura (group founder) being seriously ill and currently unable to take on extra things, Vikki and Laura sadly agreed that Theatre Buddies will publicly launch in Spring 2022. This allows more time for preparing the project. This is later than we would have liked but with illness and life commitments eating time this autumn, there has been no choice but to push it to Spring 2022.

It will center around a befriender being available to meet with people who would like to attend our shows at the theatre but have nobody to go with and are anxious about going on their own. The befriender, Vikki, will provide that welcoming, friendly face at our shows. We are also considering having social meetups, maybe once every three months or so, where local people struggling with isolation, depression and loneliness, can meet up with others who have the shared interest of theatre.

Gladiator training

19/10/2021

The second half of our Ben Hur stage production opens at the arena.
The Romans were famous for their gladiatorial games, spectacular and brutal in equal measure.
On Sunday, those of our cast who volunteered, began the training for our staging of the gladiatorial games.
Where we thought, we would get through safety, backgrounds, and basic moves, the cast picked it all up like lightening, and we actually ended up beginning the choreography for the fights.
If Day 1 of this is anything to go by, this is going to be absolutely incredible.
Some gladiators will live, some won't.
A lot of our staging of the latter part of the Games remains a hidden spoiler (after all, it culminates in the epic showdown between Judah Ben Hur and Massala) until show-day
but you will get to see bits of the leadup, as we follow the production.
*Note, please don't try any of this at home - our actors are training in strictly choreographed sequences, working to their own strengths and abilities, under the supervision of fight trainers, with safety-checked weapons - currently mainly foam "larp-safe" weapons.
#theatre #acting #BenHur2022 #BenHur #rehearsal #Brixham #Gladiators #Roman #actors #actorslife #Torbay #theater #staging #Devon #regionaltheatre #britishtheatre

A wonderful play about autism is coming to Exeter, featuring two of the actors from Ben Hur

10/10/2021

Two of our lovely actors from our production of Ben Hur, are involved in this production by Ugly Duck Theatre Company, bringing to life the experiences of an autistic student at college, performing soon at Exeter Phoenix.
As a theatre company founded and adminned by an autistic creative, ourselves, and with several creatives working with us who have similar conditions, this is a theme we can fully appreciate.
Wishing the two gentlemen involved a fabulous performance!
Screenshots below have more information about the show
Blurb online about the show from the theatre Facebook page:

“We are incredibly excited to announce that we are involved in the Exeter Fringe Festival this year
We will be bringing a newly updated "Mental" to

STUDIO 1, EXETER PHOENIX
16th of October 2021.
8:30pm
Tickets are £12 full price/£10.50 concessions
"A behind-the-scenes look at Autism. We follow a day in the life of Jake, an autistic teenager trying to navigate the trials and tribulations of a day at college."
Follow the link below to book tickets
https://exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/mental/“

Great news! More external work offers coming in!

9/10/2021

Dear Casts of both Ben Hur and Henry V;
Some more external work offers have come in. especially for you lovelies, (this time for Halloween scare actors). Please check the respective production facebook groups for more information and how to apply.
This is fab stuff. Well done for being so awesome.
Laura

In addition to that, two of our team have also been asked to assist with the pirate fight choreography for a new short film being made in Brixham next week.

This is one of the outcomes that we love - as well as producing our inhouse shows, we love it when external acting work comes in and is offered to the people currently working with us. Getting into professional freelance acting is a huge and thick glass ceiling especially down here in Torbay (its why we were founded in the first place, lol!) without drama schools and local agencies etc.
Lots of productions come down, and lots of acting work looks further afield to bring people in, when in reality, there is a ton of fab talent right here.

Seeing talented people get additional opportunities is one of the most rewarding things you can imagine.
<3

Please support us through Torbay Lottery

8/10/2021

The all important link to all the information: https://www.torbaylottery.co.uk/support/the-south-devon-players

The Torbay Lottery is a locally run lottery which supports verified local charities and non-profit / community organizations. You play from £1 (and can win up to £25,000! We have already had two winners of smaller prizes) and in turn this helps raise funds for us as well.

We would (naturally) be enormously grateful if you would like to sign up to support our work, in creating exciting new theatre, and providing inclusive, exciting opportunities for local people of all demographics and backgrounds to get involved in theatre, to build experience in theatre towards or as part of careers in the arts, and work towards their Equity cards & Spotlight registrations if they need to.

100% of everything raised via Torbay Lottery goes directly into our work: hiring a room in a local community centre for rehearsals; costumes, props, insurances, printing posters and flyers to advertise the shows, developing free education packs for schools and audience members.