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Offer to schools: Key Stage 3 materials and activities based around theatre production of Beowulf.

27/6/2022

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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 southdevonplayers@gmail.com


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
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Additional roles available in Beowulf

19/6/2022

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***CASTING ROLES OF OUR TOURING THEATRE PRODUCTION OF BEOWULF***
THEATRE CASTING CALL / PAYMENT: PROFITSHARE RISING TO EQUITY RATES IF ARTS COUNCIL APPROVE APPLICATION / BRIXHAM IN DEVON.
Please contact southevonplayers@gmail.com or message our page directly, ASAP to arrange an audition.
We had a fabulous audition day today, and cast some incredible people; however we still have some roles open. These are suitable for male or female actors , aged 16 to 75.
All levels of experience most welcome. Actors should be based in the Devon area because of the need to attend rehearsals and performances in the South Devon region including Brixham, Plymouth, Exeter, and Torquay, as well as streaming globally online as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023.
Action scenes are strictly choreographed by our fight trainer, and all training is included in rehearsal time.
The show is a family friendly adaptation of the epic poem of Beowulf.
The show director, Laura Jury, is one of four theatre directors nationally who is on Equity's Directors & Designers Committee, and the project is run to Equity "best practice" for fairness and everyones wellbeing.
Please note that the full cast / character & poster photoshoot / promo, taking place in August, will involve working with a live (tame) raven sat on wrist or shoulder, for all who are comfortable to do so. Please let us know if you are not comfortable working with a bird for the photoshoot, so that we can ensure you are still fully included.
As things stand at time of writing all actors will receive an equal share of money made from ticket sales for the performances (inclusive of streaming), as well as character photoshoots, copies of all press featuring you, videos for show/ demo-reels, and references. We are also putting in an Arts Council bid, to "up" the financial payments to Equity rates, and if that is approved then everyone is automatically upgraded.
For those newer to acting; all credits with us (whether profit-share or "proper" rate) count towards Spotlight registrations allowing newer actors to professionally register and then apply for agents and bigger castings. The payments (however much it is) can also count towards your Equity membership application.
Rehearsals for this show take place on Wednesdays 7pm - 9/ 9.30pm, and Sundays 1pm - 4 / 4.30pm at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, TQ5 0SA.
Performances take place on various Fridays/ Saturdays in November and early December 2022.
We are casting the following actors. (most actors in our show play more than one role. This is the expected lineup of roles for each actor, but this can be tweaked a little as well)
None of the roles involve nudity or bad language.

The roles:


OPEN ROLE Actor 1 Waegumund,(can be played male or female) Age 16 - 50., Waegumund one of Beowulf's most trusted warriors. Will appear frequently in the show, not a lot of lines. Will also take on some smaller one scene roles for other warrior/ lord characters, including Thorsten, and Hunforth. Will have some action scenes.

OPEN ROLE; Actor 2: Grudrun/ Hygd , playing age 18-40 Playing Gudrun (Beowulf's mother, herself a tough shieldmaiden) in the prologue scenes, then later as other warriors, and ideally (though not critically) also take on Hygd, the wife or partner of Hygelac, ruler of the Geats (Beowulf's people). Her roles are intelligent, tough, and Hygd is gentle as well. This will involve action scenes for Gudrun, and reactive to action, in the other smaller warrior "crowd" scenes.
Playing age for Grudrun is 18 - 30, general warriors can be any age, if also playing Hygd, will be madeup to play 30s/ 40s.

OPEN ROLE Actor 3: (Can be male or female, age 45-75). Hrothgar - the Danish king


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Quinn the Raven endorses Beowulf

18/6/2022

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Quinn the Raven says come along to the Beowulf auditions at Chestnut Community Centre (auditions start at 1pm tomorrow- all comers welcome and everyone will be auditioned)
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It’s also been arranged that when the show is cast and costumes, Beowulfs poster photoshoot will be with Quinn. (Yes there will be a cast photoshoot with Quinn!)

While Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem, it has a strongly Norse setting as well

Norse mythology, the Icelandic Sagas, and Icelandic folklore usually show the raven as a wise, all-knowing messenger and often a bird of prophecy, protector, and helper
#raven #beowulf #theatre #brixhamtheatre #acting #performingarts #devontheatre #britishtheatre #auditions #cute #norse #castingcall #actors #actorslife #theatrelife

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June 11th, 2022

11/6/2022

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Do you jave any unwanted used postage stamps (any age, and from anywhere)? 
Please consider supporting local theatre by donating them instead of thowing them away, Please drop them into us
care of Janet, 
The Crafty Cwtch Cafe
66 Middle Street
Brixham
Devon TQ5 8EJ

Collecting used stamps for our fundraising, sorting them, and selling them to collectors via our eBay shop is a small but steadily growing part of our fundraising. (If you are a stamp collector and want to check out what we currently have on offer, please visit the ebay shop tab in in our top website menu.) 

We have found several wonderful private supporters, many of whom have stated that they will support this stamp fundraising in an ongoing manner (which is fabulous - we don't plan on stopping this, rather the opposite). 

As well as our private supporters, we would like to extend an enormous thank you to Janet of the Welsh-themed café Crafty Cwtch on Middle Street in Brixham who is now acting as a collection point for our stamp collecting, and t

Of course, if you want to hand any stamps directly to us, please get in touch with us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com

Thank you so much to everyone for your incredible support . 

All funds raised from these stamp sales, go towards hiring our rehearsal space at Chestnut Community Centre in Brixham (yes so then that money from our hire, benefits a local Brixham community centre in turn), buying second hand items to use/ remake as props and costumes, for insurances & other legal requirements. 

Should you wish to read more about our fundraising policies, please see  FUNDRAISING 
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Another very productive week

30/5/2022

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Well it’s been a very productive week again, still rebuilding after two years of pandemic. 

- we are now in ongoing (and highly positive) talks with one of Devon’s universities about partnering with them to create more learning and training opportunities and the university will also be promoting our shows and opportunities.

- we are now talking to some very interesting new venues for our shows: with the cost of petrol and minibus travel skyrocketing, we are sadly having to look at keeping closer to home for a bit for our shows: unless funding is found to keep our usual span across the wider southwest of course! Of course this mustn’t mean a significant reduction in the number of shows- and the streaming options for each show will still happen too, to reach global audiences.

- this weekend several of our lovelies came together to film showreels. As actors we all need showreels to send to casting directors and agents; and varyingly some us need to update as all footage is a few years old, so on Saturday we were filming showreel clips for one another. 
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And also to say are delighted with the quality of initial enquirers for our open auditions for Beowulf, and are really looking forward to casting a glorious mixture of returning and new actors for this show. We will happily audition anyone who wants to try out for the show so do check out our events section on Facebook or the auditions page on our website, for more information.
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Ben hur show feedback at Stoke Damerel Church, Plymouth

18/5/2022

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May 12th, 2022

12/5/2022

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Commercial news? we hope so!

29/4/2022

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Delighted that we have been approached by a very large national company seeking actors and extras for a new online and tv commercial.
While we are still confirming with them about payment rates etc before formally roll-calling the actors currently involved with us to see who is interested and available, this seems wonderful news and part of what we are all about; getting local freelance actors and creatives recognised, working, portfolio building etc- we create our own work of course and also love to collaborate with other organizations wherever possible.
Photo of “beach office” just for attention
#theatre #filmmaking #tv #devon #actors #actorslife #acting #devonactors #creative #britishactors #equity #performingarts #happy #positive #brixham #paignton #torquay #torbay #raisingaspirations #collaboration
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BBC Radio Interview

20/4/2022

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This morning Laura Jury did an interview with BBC Radio Cornwall this morning about our performance of Ben Hur at St Petroc's Church, Bodmin its here, at approx 1hour 48mins in.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bx9s05

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#Benhur #theatre #cornwall #devon #britishtheatre #bbc #radio #interview #actors #actorslife #church #drama #performingarts #theatretickets #regionaltheatre #whatson #fivestar #theater
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Sad news for the Bristol show (Ben Hur)

19/4/2022

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Sadly, we have had to take the heartbreaking decision this afternoon to cancel the show at St Thomas The Martyr, Bristol on Saturday. 

For those who had booked, refunds will be processed via Ticketsource within the next 24 hours, and free complimentary access provided in due course to our streamed performance and exclusive related content online via the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well by way of apology. If you purchased a ticket, please check your emails for communications via Ticketsource, and nearer the time of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, an email providing you with a free direct link to viewing the show streamed online.  We really hope you will join us for the streaming version (which has already been filmed and is currently being prepared by our lovely Sophie Rogers). 

If you miss any communications, please drop us a line on southdevonplayers@gmail.com to sort things out. 

The reason is simple, a lack of ticket sales, in the post-pandemic world. 
Breaking even is an optional luxury, and that's certainly not the cause of the decision, but the reality is that we had five advance ticket sales, and when that is compared to over £300 venue hire, plus almost £800 to hire a minibus to travel to Bristol, several hours travel for the cast and crew, we had to decide that even making a big loss to get our wonderful actors showcased and to a good performance opportunity, was simply not viable, for an audience of five. 
With that number of advance sales, we decided we could not rely on ticket sales on the door on the evening, and have therefore made the choice to cancel this show. 

We definitely hope to bring theatre back to Bristol in the future - previous shows we have brought to the city before the pandemic, have been instant sell-outs, but despite our usual advertising with radio, posters, mailshots, press, social media (free & paid), leaflets, linking to specialist interest organizations, and despite the support of the Bristol Equity (actors & creatives trade union) branch, and much more, we have been unable to reach audiences on this occasion.   We believe too, that packages of flyers and posters also went missing in the mail, as they were posted at the same time as the posters and flyers to other venues which we now know went missing (but it is early enough to rectify), which also contributed to this problem. 

Sporadic ticket sales is an increasingly common issue. Some of us work with local theatre venues here in Devon as well, and we are seeing this happen to various other shows and acts, even to a West End musical tour. It seems to be impossible to predict as to which shows or events this happens to, but seems to be a part of the post-pandemic landscape. 

We hope that you will keep in touch with us, and that you will come back to us in the future. 

​Laura Jury

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    Updated by our founder
    ​Laura Jury

    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

    If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at
    southdevonplayers@gmail.com

    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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