​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
​
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

Fantastic news! 
We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to the owners of local health food shop Oats ( <- please like their page!) who will be stocking our fundraising book stall, beginning during next week! 
Thank you so much to Oats for helping support our work! 
You can visit their website at https://www.oatsofbrixham.co.uk

We are sad to announce that today we, along with all other stall-holders, recieved the sudden news that after the pandemic, Brixham Pannier Market will not be reopening, as the local Brixham Town Council have decided to not renew the hire to the market. The Pannier Market was held in the market hall in the town hall complex, in Brixham Town Centre.
Over the past year, when able to open, it won a national award for it's support of local businesses, and was featured on ITV, for doing the same. 

Sadly there was no consultation with stall-holders when the Town Council decided to close it. 

This of course has negatively impacted quite a few local businesses, completely closing-down at least one, and for our company, has resulted in the end of our book stall, which fundraised for rehearsal space (in turn putting those funds into a local volunteer-run community centre), as well as providing a face-to-face place where people locally could find out about our work.
With the town having a higher-than-national-average demographic of older people who are often less familar with using the internet, having a face-to-face point of contact was invaluable, as well as the fundraising. 
 
Our existing stock of books (all of which had been donated)  will be sold off over the spring (ideally in bulk), and we will be focussing on different ventures, including building up our ebay shop, and, once it is fully safe to do so, arranging a point in town where people can come and meet us and find out about our work, once a week. 

Regardlless of how things have turned out, we cannot thank Shaun and Mark Kennard enough for all their hard work in trying to get that market running well, and for their support for all local businesses and organisations. Everyone at the market has made enduring friendships, which will continue into the future, but it is truly the end of an era. 

We will find new ways to fundraise and new ways to make ourselves accessible on a general face-to-face level in our local town, as we slowly come out of the pandemic. 

If anyone might be interested in acquiring three large crates of books (all subjects, fiction and non-fiction), please drop us a line southdevonplayers@gmail.com

Last week was the first  week of Zoom-based rehearsals (rehearsals 2 & 3)  for our production of Shakespeare's Henry V. 
The actors are already doing brilliantly, with characterisations, and action already starting to show through, and while of course this is the earliest days of the rehearsal process, and there is everything to yet work on, there is some strong work already coming through. As a director I am loving the expression in the tones. 
As part of our planned upgrade to blogging our shows, and including an education pack for each show from this production onwards, we are going to be sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes clips from rehearsals and interviews, as we work through the process. 

One of the challenges with performing in this way, is that very often, the actors are limited by constrained space at home, and while, later, green-screens will allow for production backdrops (we are working on the acting side of things first), the actors are expressing the majority of the action, expression and reactions/ interactions, theough head to chest images on zoom, and entering/ leaving the frame. They are also able to react to stimuli that their characters may percieve around them, off camera (which we will see in future videos). 
Therefore, in many ways. the acting, being closer to the camera, and therefore to the percieved view of the audience. 

The text and modern translation from the No Fear Shakespeare website HERE
​Follow the other updates for this production HERE

​Casting the French King in Henry V
(This is a recast, due to the original actor having a date clash with a previously contracted (pre Covid) project that is now resuming. )

The show
This is an "original text" production of William Shakespeare's Henry V. There have been a few small cuts due to running time. It is set in a postapocalyptic near-future, after an ecological disaster, and this setting informs the show design. 

Actor requirements
- Age: In order to fit with the current casting, the actor needs to be of an age suitable to play the Dauphin's parent. This requires the actor to be a minimum of 45 years old.
- Gender: Because we are casting gender-blind on this show, we are happy to cast either a male or female. 
- Location: While spring 2021 rehearsals, and the Bristol Shakespeare Festival performance are all digital and performance happens online  the actor needs to be based in or around the Devon area due to the 4 physical blocking rehearsals during November in preparation for the phsysical performances at the end of November. 
- Due to the use of digital rehearsals and performance, the actor should have the facility to use Zoom. 

Rehearsal dates 
Rehearsals are already underway, on Sunday afternoons 1-pm-4pm, and wednesdays 7pm-9.30pm. These will run up until the July online performance. We will then reconvene to have four-five wednesday rehearsals in late October-November, in preparation for the live shows. 

Show dates  
- Late July 2021, Henry V is being performed online as a digital broadcast show, in the second half of July 2021, as part of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival.
- Late November 2021, Henry V will be performed live at our home theatre venue, Brixham Theatre

Payment 
Equal profitshare, the same as all other cast and crew, using the the ticket sales for the performances, split equally. Please see the profitshare information on this page, which explains in more details how we work it out. 

Covid-safety
Our digital rehearsals and show all require the cast and crew working from home which is, intrinsically, safe. While we expect to be returning to physical rehearsals and shows in August/ September 2021, anything subsequent to that will be subject to the current status of the pandemic, and the liklihood of additional safety and cleanliness procedures in the rehearsal hall. 

To apply
Please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com, for audition sides, with any questions, etc.