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World Mental Health Day
So as we all know, in theatre we all have to be open, relaxed, and able to display a huge range of emotions and feelings as our characters. We often have to share communal changing areas, That’s quite a vulnerable place to be. It is ultra important that theatre and performance is a safe space, that does not compromise its ground rules for reliability, professionalism and quality as well as looking after the creatives involved in the work and making sure each one, regardless of experience, disability, ethnicity, gender, etc feel safe, accommodated and heard. Occasionally you do sadly get people who are looking for something else; ego-trips, opportunities to bully, abuse or scam, or to put down others. Or who attack others for being different (in terms of age/ gender/ disability/ health/ ethnicity etc ) . And that will wreak havoc in such a delicately balanced atmosphere and can put people in serious mental health crisis. It is up to everyone to look out for one another, be professional and pleasant, but also understanding and respectful of one another. Lots of pages and sites are posting links to helplines which can be useful but what is even more important is addressing problems at the root cause so that they don’t grow to be an issue, and all organisations, workplaces, community groups etc can be a part of that by ensuring that their space is safe , respectful, and good. And above all- don’t let this vanish into words and lip service. Practice what you preach.
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 Last Friday we were one of three Torbay organisations pitching at Local Spark: Torbay Community Supported Enterprise’s Dragons Den event - with Lisa Highton, Laura Jury and Rich Sandford, for help with new portable lights , marketing & outreach with our shows and education work, networking, touring transport etc. Many many thanks to all those who offered consultancy, introductions to places & people who may be able to help us grow, and all sorts of useful help. They will all get followed up with alacrity over the next two or three weeks. Also a huge thank you to Helen Ambler, Community Builder for Brixham for the photo of Laura pitching - and to everyone there for making it a truly excellent, positive, supportive space. Thank you again to everyone
  A big challenge which we have had since the day we started is support accessing writing grant applications and networking etc.
With being one person doing all that, and the theatre company admin, while also being autistic and of a minority, Laura has found it largely inaccessible both in terms of time and in terms of people/ organizations/ funders making negative judgements on “someone different from them”, and her own social anxiety and c-ptsd. This has of course had a huge knock on to what we have been able to achieve for the amazing local people we work with. Appeals for reliable help on this, for 17 years, fell on deaf ears. Now the lovely Sue Slade from Paignton, also mother to two autistic teenagers who often become involved in our shows, has come on board as Laura’s access support for applying to grants, networking and building up those things, and being that contact whom outside bodies for funding, networking and the arts, may feel more comfortable accepting.. Already on Day 1; two applications have gone off with another two in the drafting stage.
We would like to say an enormous thank you to our lovely team members Anne, Phil and Annie, for representing us at the Ageing Well Torbay festival. As a theatre company open to people of all ages who work together creating top quality theatre, it is so important to spread the word about our work, and welcome new actors, stage crew, helpers and audiences at every opportunity. If you met our lovely team members (or not of course! ) and would like to get involved, in any aspect, or find out more, at any time, please drop us a line any time.
Offer to schools: Key Stage 3 materials and activities based around theatre production of Beowulf.27/6/2022 We are currently embarking on our next theatre production, a dramatisation of the Anglo-saxon epic poem, Beowulf, which will be performed around the South Devon area and Torbay in November/ December 2022.
We always create educational materials around each of our productions, and would like very much to hear from any schools or homeschoolers teaching this poem as to what materials they might especially find at use - created for free or "at -cost" which we can make available online. We would also very much like to hear from any schools in the area, or homeschooling groups who would be interested in arranging either a trip to one of our performances in November/ December, or to recieve the theatre show streamed online (available from the end of November). Please do get in touch at any time to discuss, we would love to hear from you. Our direct email is [email protected] Our education side is led by our founder Laura Jury, who has a masters degree in education, focussing on the teaching of theatre, from the University of Exeter The South Devon Players offers a new approach to theatre-making of world-class standard. Involving people of all levels of experience, from beginners to seasoned professionals, we create full scale dramatic productions primarily focusing on historical events, literature, and classical texts. We perform in our home-town of Brixham then tour around the Devon area, as well as streaming our shows online to global audiences. We were founded during the winter of 2005/6 to create inclusive opportunities for people in the Torbay area (and some from the wider Devon area) to get involved in creating high-quality theatre and thereby develop / further professional skills, careers and portfolios towards, and as part of, professionally working in the entertainment industry, led by three volunteer company directors. People starting out with us have also gone on to work in large scale film & TV productions, to further training inclusive of RADA and Bristol Old Vic, working with us helps them obtain the credits needed for professional registration with the professional actors Spotlight directory, and Equity (the actors and entertainment creatives trade union) which in turns allows them to be able to apply to register with larger actors agencies. We also attract established professional actors seeking to expand and grow their portfolios. Audience feedback is also very positive from our shows and projects, frequently likening the quality of our shows to rival that of the Globe, and other famous theatre production companies. Our work, over the past few years, has won several awards including on a national and international scale; we are the All-England winner of the "Epic Award" 2017 (now rebranded as the Creative Lives Award) and the Theatre Partner Award in the Long Island Theatre Awards 2019 (New York), putting theatre from Brixham squarely on a national and international map. You can read more about us at www.southdevonplayers.com, or www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers Part of our show education packs for students traditionally, is a video showing ten words from the show in BSL (British Sign Language.) Sarah Gregori has kindly created this video for our Ben Hur education pack, and also added in the full alphabet in BSL as well. This video is subtitled as well. Feel free to share to anyone who may find it useful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9URt2-OlrE
Covid Safety Update
Just a note that over the Festive break, I have obtained a box of lateral flow tests to keep at rehearsals. I have also ordered a hand-held temperature check scanner. As things stand, when we return to rehearsals after the New Year, we will be asking all actors, crew and anyone else visiting the rehearsal space, to complete a lateral flow test before coming. This will remain on an honour system, but if it tests positive please let us know and dont come in. If you have run out of lateral flow tests, you will be able to come early and use one at the rehearsal hall. We also will have the temperature scanner in use as a second line of defence as soon as it has arrived. If you do not wish for it to be used on you, please let us know ahead of time. I will not be recording data on temperatures, basically the attendance book will suffice as "you are reasonably believed to be all clear at the time of attendance". Please note that we may update safety notes at any time as more information and any change to regulations comes in. I apologise very much for all of this as it does feel like a lot of privacy invasion, however, it is really important we all not only look after ourselves and each other (after all we all want to make a hell of a great show!) , but also remember that at home or work, many of us have contact with people who are elderly, or have disabilities/ health conditions which make Covid a great deal more dangerous to them, so we don't want to take anything back to them. Laura Jury A huge thank you to the lovely Rich Sandford (AKA Massala in our production of Ben Hur) who came to rehearsals hours early and spent loads of time and energy, unasked, tidying up the area outside the community centre which we hire twice a week for rehearsals. This will be lovely for people in all the groups and church groups that use the community centre, not just us. #community #volunteering #gratitude #actor #Brixham #devon #torbay #kindness #britishtheatre #volunteer #RichIsAwesome.  |
This is our new format news page. To read all our news between 2010 and Jan 2015, please see our old format news page HERE The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, is the trading name of The South Devon Players Limited;
Registered at Companies House: Company number 11569166 
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