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

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

An absolutely fab rehearsal today for our production of Shakespeare’s Henry V , coming to your device next month as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival.
Get your tickets here https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

Behold! a  rehearsal clip from June 9th 2021, Henry V Act 2 scene 4, with Tanya Wylie as the Dauphin and Steve Walsh as the French King.
Director's note: Love the use of the wine-glass!

The show is coming to a screen near you July 24/25th as a streamed performance of the full production, as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival, and then later in August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Show and booking information at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

 The tickets for our production of Henry V at Bristol Shakespeare Festival are now available through two outlets. You can either buy via the Festival at
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-shakespeares-henry-v-the-south-devon-players-theatre-film-comp-tickets-156262343877 
Or via our website at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html!!!
We hope to see you there!

 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. 

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

It has been a long few days deciding on the show castings for Henry V. The show needs a large cast, even with doubling of roles, and the standard of the auditions were, without fail, exceptional. 
After several days of soul-searching, we have finalised the casting for this show. With digital shows coming up in the summer and live performances later in the autumn, this is is going to be a thrilling new project for everyone. 
We are delighted to welcome the cast: 


Actor 1: Chorus, Duke of York, Sir Thomas Erpingham, Jamy, French Soldier, French Court Attendant – Allison Abbott

Actor 2: King Henry V – Rich Sandford

Actor 3: Humphrey of Gloucester, Sir Thomas Grey – Eve Germaine (may be asked to understudy Katherine as well, for Sarah)

Actor 4: John of Bedford, Williams, Duke of Britain, Duke of Berri – Christophe Monplaisir

Actor 5: Thomas of Clarence, Dauphin – Jamie Hoskin

Actor 6: Duke of Exeter, Rambures – Sarah Gregori

Actor 7: Earl of Westmorland, Fluellen, - Samuel Swaffield

Actor 8: Earl of Warwick, Bates, Bardolph, Constable of France – Jenny Coverack

Actor 9: Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard of Cambridge, Macmorris, King Charles of France, Duke of Bourbon, Grandpré – Anthony Webster

Actor 10: Earl of Salisbury, Bishop of Ely, Lord Scroop, – Laura Jury

M Actor 11: Pistol, Ambassador of France, English Herald, Duke of Orleans – Ben Butler

Actor 12: Williams, Nym, Duke of Brugundy, Governor of Harfleur, Montjoy – Alex Stewart

Actor 13: Boy, French Messenger – Lily Elliott

Actor 13: Gower -Sadhbh Saoirse

Actor 14: Alice, Hostess – Parascovia Everett

Actor 15: Katherine – Sarah Hobbs

There is a lot of news for a short period of time, that affects most of our shows. 

First of all, we are delighted to announce that our first ever Arts Council funded project, True Tales of Spooky Brixham, is now live for public ticket sales. We had a great session with most of the recording work last week, and are doing the final pickups tomorrow. This project will be fundraising for Brixham Theatre, our nearest local theatre, where we always perform for each show tour. 

Secondly, theres Jack The Ripper. The live theatre shows were originally planned for the end of January (at Brixham Theatre) but with the governments expectation that Coovid restrictions will go on for another six months, and Brixham Theatre not reopening until May 1st 2021, we will be running a virtual performance in early Feb 2021 (tickets on sale soon), prior to the rebooked tour dates in May for the live performances of Jack the Ripper as originally planned. All venues originally booked will be contacted by the end of the week to rebook. 

With this schedule in place, we can also announce that in, the early New Year , we will be castings for our second "live" post-covid show, Shakespeare's Henry V. The dates for this show run will be dictated by our inclusion with Bristol Shakespeare Festival, ideally live, or otherwise as an online show. 

With our virtual season, there have been some date changes. The Lost Girl (script by Germaine Shames, based on the novel by DH Lawrence) is being rescheduled for mid January 2021. Between some internal live broadcast logistics, and a delay caused by struggling to cast the older roles, (a new casting advert will go out shortly for those roles) we have postponed the project so that it can be done to best effect and quality.. 
The other autumn virtual shows, Sir Walter's Women, and The Taming of the Shrew, are unaffected. 

Our non-exclusive casting agency also remains open. While our books are closed to actors who have not worked with us (we work on being able to provide personal reccomendations from having ourselves worked with people),  our actors are largely available for remote/ home-taped/ virtual/ voice over work, or castings on known Covid-secure sets. Please note that if seeking actors through us, these are all experienced professionals, and must be paid as such.  
We have some new work coming in through the agency at the moment, and suitable team members will be approached over the next week or so for the work, which will all be done over Zoom. 

We are also in the process of developing a welcome book for those who join our teams for one or more productions. For those newer to working professionally, or who are unsure what to expect, this outlines how things work and organisation expectations, aiming to answer frequently asked questions, and be an easy to access guide. This will be finished by Christmas. 

And that's all for the moment. Stay safe, keep battling along, and never stop revelling in creativity!