​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 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. 

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

Today, the UK government released a road map of how they feel the UK will be able to emerge from lockdown and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

According to this roadmap, and if all works towards the planned dates, theatres across the UK should be able to open in May. At this point, theatres will still require social distancing and when you are using smaller venues and relying soley on the ticket sales to pay the actors and crew, we feel it would not be viable. 
Additionally, before we return to the stage, we need to rehearse in person together. 

With the governments pledge for all adults to be offered their first vaccination by the end of July 2021, and noting that the government hopes to lift all social restrictions in late June 2021, we hope that by the end of July, or early August, we should be able to safely return to our rehearsal space in full, and also to take our shows on the road again. Before then, a one-or-two person return to the rehearsal hall will take place in order to sort out our costumes and equipment which have been in storage there, and to prepare. 

Therefore, our intention is to continue creating digital work, until July 2021, when we will be able to return to physical rehearsals, and performances. Live performances will only take place after a minimum of 4 weeks live rehearsal. 
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Not all venues will open at once. As the government have said; the dates they gave for the lifting of restrictions are provisional and "at the earliest". Any further outbreaks or rises in infections may delay matters. 
We are committed to keeping the team safe and well, therefore we would rather take a cautious approach,, than risk everyones health and wellbeing. 
There may still be some additional safety/ cleanliness procedures which are either legally required, or which we keep in place voluntarily, for a while, when we do return, and, when we know for definite what the date is when we return;  we will be encouraging conversations with all cast and crew in which we discuss ways to not only keep extra safe, but also support everyone's peace of mind in a safe, positive and happy (to put it mildly!) return. 


Last but not least: 
In further exciting news, we have also been contacted by an external company which uses professional actors for corporate training. The external company is pitching for a contract supplying training in social care, diversity and child protection, and if that contract goes through, will be supplying frequent work opportunities; for which those actors who work frequently with our company will be priorotised for this work, after the lockdowns end. 


​Laura and Ric (Company directors) 

We heard this evening at 8pm, that our broadcast technician has fallen seriously ill, and will be unable to run the live-streamed show tomorrow. 

Therefore, as the rest of us in the team lack those specific broadcast skills and equipment, we are unavoidably having to prepare the show in a different way which will mean that ticket buyers will still get the same quality experience, but it will take us an extra couple of days to achieve this. 

Therefore, we are releasing the play online as quickly as possible, from 7.30pm on Monday Feb 8th. Due to the inconvenience for our viewers, the play will therefore remain online until 11pm on Sunday Feb 15th, allowing all viewers to catch up at their own convenience. 

The same link sent out to ticket buyers will remain the viewing link. 

We apologise profusely for this inconvenience and last-minute re-schedule. 
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us directly on southdevonpplayers@gmail.com, (please be aware that from 6pm on Saturday evening, replies may be slower, as all of us in  the cast and remaining crew will be working on the production for you behind the scenes) and we will respond as quickly as possible. 

Laura (director)