The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

The Les Miserables character photoshoots!

30/4/2019

On Saturday and Sunday we had the cast photoshoot for the vast majority of the cast, and these photos will be going out this week (some already have) attached to press releases marketing the show!
Many thanks to Brixham Theatre , one of our show venues, for letting us shoot on the stage in the morning!
Photos by Andrew Barnes and Laura Jury.

Shows are Friday May 31st, and June 1st at Brixham Theatre, and then June 7th at the Barnfield Theatre in Exeter. Our box office page HERE has links to all the relevant tickets! Book today!

The South Devon Players Shakespeare production nominated for theatre award in New York.

24/4/2019

Brixham based theatre company's Shakespeare production nominated for theatre award in New York.
Following a hugely successful production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth this winter, the South Devon Players have been nominated for a theatre award in New York, specifically the Long Island Lighthouse Theatre Awards, in the Theatre Partner Award category, specifically for productions outside the Long Island Nassau County area. As a company who (by force of circumstance, with the difficulty of finding funding in the local theatre sector) work on profit share from ticket sales to our cast and crew, we fall somewhere between the voluntary and full salary sectors, and therefore are eligible for this award. The VTAA , who sponsor this award are mainly US based (but open internationally) and are the "Equity for voluntary and low paid theatre" of which we have been an organisational member for several years.
During January and February 2019, the South Devon Players performed a post-apocalyptic set production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Completely unabridged and unchanged from the original text, other than being set in a post World War 3 near-future, this production attracted such audience feedback as

“The power of the final scene was such that the audience sat transfixed in silence, barely able to comprehend the beauty of what they’d just witnessed. “

“Easily on a par with the production of Macbeth we saw at the Globe”
The show was almost called off, after the lead role needed to be recast with less than 10 days before opening night. French/Irish actor Christophe Lombardi stepped in, learned the role in a matter of days and travelled to the UK to take the role, alongside Ryanna-Mae Lloyd as Lady Macbeth, with a powerful team of actors; and techs.

Despite this crisis, the show attracted fantastic audience feedback, from the shows at both Brixham Theatre & Torquay Museum, swiftly followed by invitations for more shows in the UK, and abroad. While work continues to get the team out to the venues abroad, the team are taking up the show invitations in the UK, at Ivybridge's Watermark theatre, and Exeter's Barnfield Theatre and are also booking additional dates at the end of the summer and during the autumn of 2019.

At Brixham Theatre, the show was filmed by a local filmmaker, and the resultant film was submitted to the 2019 Long Island Community Theatre Awards. The South Devon Players were informed on April 24th 2014, that the production of Macbeth was nominated for; the outcome of the awards will be finally known on June 10th in the evening, New York time.

The South Devon Players, founded in 2005/6 on the proceeds of a carboot sale, and funded in much the same way, are already winners of the national Epic Award 2017 for England, a national arts award celebrating creativity and innovation in grassroots arts, and international nominations for past productions. Based in Brixham, the Players pride themselves on supportive, friendly, and ambitious grassroots team of professional and aspiring professional actors at all stages of their careers, who primarily specialise in researched historical theatre productions and Classics, to provide an opportunity for local people to develop their skills in creating shows to a national standard, in order to develop internationally recognised professional skills, portfolios and credits.

They always welcome new performers and creatives who would like to get involved. The Players are working hard to be able to offer more education, steady employment, and more regular shows at an international standard.
Laura Jury (Director) studied performing arts at South Devon College, then a Bachelors degree in film & TV production from the University of Plymouth, before progressing to a Masters in teaching theatre from Exeter University With a history of performing since 1996, and directing since 2000, in between her training she has also pursued a career as a professional performer, and in 2006 founded the now multi award-winning South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company with three others, to create new projects in Torbay.

Great news for Macbeth

16/4/2019

Fantastic news - by audience request, and word of mouth, we have been asked to reprise our post-apocalyptic, original uncut text production of William Shakespeares Macbeth. While contracts are still being sorted out, tickets will be on sale soon.
We have been invited to venues in Europe as well, for this show, and it is all depending on Brexit and funding to try and get out to those venues as well, but the UK shows are being booked up like crazy.
This is such a fantastic piece of recognition for all our amazing team members.
Watch this space for announcements soon, on upcoming ticket sales!
www.southdevonplayers.com

Les Miserables rehearsals Act 2 - March 24th 2019

25/3/2019

Fantastic day again at Les Miserables rehearsals for Act 2. Here are a few pictures nabbed in between racing around and dying over the barricade - and some partial costume starting to appear :D . A LONG afternoon today, but it really paid off, with the cues and reactions, especially on the extremely fast paced barricade scenes. Thank you so much to all the great people who helped make it happen.

Behind the scenes at Les Miserables rehearsals

18/3/2019

Rehearsals are now well underway for our production of Les Miserables; costumes will begin to appear over the next few weeks now. The cast are working together as a fantastic team regardless of age and background. Over the next three/four weeks scripts will go down and costumes will appear!

Photos by Tabatha Cart

A first look at our rehearsals for Les Miserables

3/3/2019

iRehearsals are now fully underway for our production of Les Miserables. While costumes wont be making an appearance until next week, Andrew came up today and got some brilliant pictures of the rehearsals behind the scenes. We did Act 1 (the first half) today, and the team are so strong already. Behind the scenes the teamwork and cohesion is ideal, onstage the energy and dynamism is so powerful that it is amazing to think what it will become, when it is this strong already. Truly wonderful - and a privilige to direct such great actors.

The start of our rehearsals for Les Miserables

18/2/2019

Had an absolutely awesome Sunday afternoon getting Les Mis underway at our rehearsal base of Chestnut Community Centre! This team is sheer joy personified. The professionalism, coupled with the laughter and supportive-ness is second-to-none!
From complete to beginners to trained professionals we are all working together in a joyful, supportive team- the energy is magnificent. We cant wait to be joined by the youngsters and the people away this week (we were due to start next week but decided to get cracking!) . We still have some roles open so please get in touch if you would like to join us.

With Fiona as Mlle Gillenormand, Mitchell as Enjolras, Carmen as Fantine, Louisa as grown up Cosette, and Al as Jean Valjean

Feedback and Reviews for our production of Macbeth in Torquay

12/2/2019

Our production of Macbeth at Torquay went as well as the Brixham shows did, with more excellent feedback. A local newspaper reporter, Bob Jope, attended to review the production - here is a link to his glowing review:
Macbeth in Torbay
while other audience feedback and reviews on social media was just as encouraging.

It was also an exciting first for us, as the actor/ technician Dorothy Laity Lombardi attended to run our lights. It was fantastic to work with her - and to meet her theatre-trained service dog, Emma. Dorothy and Emma proved without a shadow of doubt just what an amazing team they were!
(photos below of rehearsals, and preparation for the Torquay performances - and featuring Emma!)

Fantastic feedback for our production of Macbeth at Brixham Theatre

21/1/2019

So, we have finished our performances at Brixham Theatre - and are at Torquay Museum on Feb 1st and 2nd 2019. The feedback from Brixham has been phenominal. You can still see Macbeth at Torquay Museum - book your tickets here on our Box Office (Tickets are only £8)

Photos by Owen Marshall, Agne Stra, and Andrew Barnes

Welcoming Christophe.

8/1/2019

We would like to welcome to our Macbeth team, the French-Irish actor Christophe Lombardi, Actor, who has been a member of the Players for some time, along with his wife. Christophe trained at Les Cours Simon in Paris, and has since appeared in numerous TV programmes for the BBC, the Smithsonian, Universal and Netflix. He is also a living history performer and fight choreographer. There is some incredible work underway to prepare, and all is going smoothly and very well. He recently appeared in a production with Ivybridge Community Arts, The Armistice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGIc87LUmg), and is a regular actor with Trapdoor Entertainment.
Photos (not from Macbeth!) are by Roger Kenny, from the Irish TV programme Prisoners of the Tower, and Dorothy Grace Laity Lombardi and the montage is from various productions, all as supplied by Dorothy Grace Laity Lombardi.
We are thrilled to be working with this fantastic actor, and cant wait to introduce him to Brixham theatre audiences, hopefully the first of many times in future.