Hello everyone! 
This is our big update on our projects and what we are doing while this Covid situation continues around the world. Please read on to find out the latest on our online shows, offline shows, and other activities. 

As things stand, the UK goverment have just brought in what is commonly known as the Rule of Six (meaning that only six people can meet up in a space), as infections nationally are on the rise. 

--- Returning to live shows
For now, our first returning shows are being booked for Jan/ Feb 2021, with our production of Jack The Ripper. That is hoping that it will be safe for theatres to reopen by then. If there are delays on this, we will postpone. In the meantime, our cast are busily rehearsing and fine-tuning the show. We are currently rehearsing soley on Zoom. As things stand, physical rehearsals are not viable. We would need to be 2metres apart at all times, facing forward away from one another, which is impossible to create a natural show between different characters. While we will return once it is safe to do so (and viable to rehearse in a suitable way), at the moment it is all over Zoom. 

---Online shows
We have a great autumn season of four shows, Tickets on sale via our box office HERE for all of the shows, with synopses, and breakdowns, with brilliant transatlantic casts. Every penny from ticket sales will be shared equally among the cast and crew of the show - after all, this is all about creating work for actors and creatives during these tough times. 

Should the covid crisis run into the New Year, any delays in returning to the physical stage, will lead to a winter/ spring Online Season. 

---The Spooky Tales of Brixham
With Arts Council funding, from Torbay Culture, our team are creating a video of local spooky ghost stories. With a Halloween broadcast, tickets will be on sale from the beginning of October, and all funds raised will go to our friends at Brixham Theatre. 

---Professional actors available
We have a fantastic team of actors who are available for (paid) voiceover work, home-recording for zoom projects. If you have a casting call, please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com. We are committed to doing our best to create work for our actors and crew. 

--Other activities
We are using the time as usefully as possible. Studying and developing new trends in marketing theatre, creating new technology for our live shows, developing new resources to assist new actors joining the 

Internationally award-winning Brixham theatre company announce an autumn “virtual season” of plays with an international team of actors and writers bringing local creatives and international Broadway/ TV names together in a series of theatre created and performed online.
The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, remain active through the Covid crisis, creating virtual theatre productions, as well as planning for the future.
This “virtual autumn season” is a response to the Covid19 restrictions on performing traditional venue-based theatre, which have resulted, across the UK, and other countries, in very little work for theatre actors, and the cancellation of most traditional theatre shows. With the theatre industry on its knees, and no word yet (at least until November, from Oliver Dowden) as to when there is any hope of being able to return to viable physical performances; for the time being therefore, the Players have moved into cyberspace, with actors and crew joining us on screen from their home studios, in the UK, USA, and Ireland, rehearsing and performing online, where audiences all over the world can access the performance, and the cast & crew can earn equal shares of whatever is made from the online performances ticket sales (every penny goes to the actors and crew), to try to support at least a few actors, in some small way, during what is one of the most challenging times that those who work in the theatre industry have ever faced. ​
For our online season, we have teamed up with three new writers; Ashley Griffin, Germaine Shames, and Rachel O'Neill

Broadcasts of the plays will be ticketed events, via a link to a hidden area of our .com website, provided to ticket buyers at the time of ticket purchase. Tickets are on sale via our website box office, linked to our ticketsource account. https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html
The first play, due at the beginning of October, is one of the most exciting collaborations in the history of The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company  This show features a transatlantic cast, including high-profile Broadway actors. The show cast are  Ryan Clardy (Trial); Ashley Griffin (Hamlet, The Greatest Showman); Jordan Lage (CBS’S Madam Secretary, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire); Meredith Patterson* (42nd Street (Peggy Sawyer; Broadway, ABC’s Boston Legal ) and Peter Lewis (CBBC’s WolfBlood,) .
(Broadway news article about our performance: 
https://www.broadwayworld.com/uk-regional/article/Meredith-Patterson-and-Jordan-Lage-Join-Virtual-UK-Premiere-Of-SNOW-20200829) 

​

The second play, due at the end of October, is The Lost Girl by Germaine Shames, based on the eponymous novel by D.H. Lawrence.

Alvina Houghton, the headstrong daughter of a widowed Midlands draper, comes of age just as her father’s business is failing. In a desperate attempt to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s proper place in society, James Houghton buys a theatre. Among the travelling performers he employs is Ciccio, a sensual Italian who immediately captures Alvina’s attention. A celebration of freedom, however fleeting, and a testament to the power of the imagination to transform even the most mundane life. The script has been vetted by international D.H. Lawrence scholar, Catherine Brown. Jessica Levinson Young, Artistic Director of Untold Theatre, writes, “I absolutely loved this script for The Lost Girl. It has incredible pace and the dialogue simply leaps off the page!" . The script won Starlight Theater's 2019-20 Playwriting Award . Another of Germaine's D.H. Lawrence adaptations, THE VIRGIN and the GYPSY, received a reading at the 2018 Festival of New American Theatre.

Then comes Sir Walter's Women, a play written by Rachel O'Neill, for 2Time Theatre in Winchester.
This is a one-act drama that reimagines the life of the charismatic poet, pirate and son of Devon, Sir Walter Raleigh. The play looks at his relationships with the two most important women in his life; one domestic with his wife Bess Throckmorton, and the other political as he manoeuvres his status as a favourite of Elizabeth I to satisfy his political ambitions. His great error is marrying Bess in secret, to the great and lasting displeasure of the Queen. The play ends with Sir Walter's incarceration, trial and execution. Rachel’s plays, Tilly and The Spitfires and The Fasting Girl have had rehearsed readings at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton and her most recent work, Eager for the Air was shortlisted by the RAF for an audio drama marking the Battle of Britain.


And finally – William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew . A project by some of our team members, this adaptation of the full, original text, creative challenge exploring 'further developing on the idea of creating digital performance and new techniques of expressing characters, with the roles being split between two actors. Through painstaking character development, innovative performance, video editing, and use of online media tools, this production is going to be one which presents a traditional comedy, in a very new, modern way.

As is widely known, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, caused postponement and cancellation of live shows for several months, for every theatre in the UK. During lockdown, the South Devon Players decided to resist the trend of companies closing,and the Players decided to create online performances, in which the actors come together to perform online from the safety of their own homes. This in itself has not been easy, as many people in the team, have had to learn new technology & software, and find ways to make it work on household electronics, with the cast and crew working from their lockdown locations mainly in south Devon but also sheltering in place spread across the UK, as well as the Republic of Ireland, and the USA. .


The South Devon Players Theatre and Film Company, are developing a proud tradition of creating world-class historical and classical dramas. In 2019, their production of Macbeth, was booked for a second tour and won an international theatre award in New York for its professionalism and creativity. Laura Jury, the director of that production of Macbeth, & many of the Player's shows, and founder of the theatre company, has returned to lead this new project. Laura has also recently been selected to appear in an online Shakespeare project by the Globe Theatre. With lockdown, the Players have been using the internet to perform and livestream digital theatre from Brixham, around the world to global audiences

The South Devon Players were founded in the winter of 2005-6, on the proceeds of a carboot sale, to create professional opportunities for local actors, and has flourished ever since; previously winning national and regional arts awards, including the national Epic Award 2017 for England, a national arts award celebrating creativity and innovation in grassroots arts. Based in Brixham, the Players primarily specialise in researched historical theatre productions and old “Classics”. 

​Absolutely THRILLED beyond measure, that today we have been awarded funding for an additional theatre/ digital media project. This funding specifically covers for full union-rate wages for a small handful of cast and crew to create a local-interest lockdown project.
Sadly it isnt enough for a huge cast/ crew, but it is absolutely thrilling that for this project and for some of our awesome people, we have been able to move beyond profitshare. Cast and crew are being approached in line with relevant specialist skills for the specific project, from the awesomes who work with us on a regular basis.
Generating paid work (that we all love doing) for our actors and crew is a primary company goal. Profitshare - sharing of the ticket sales funds equally between everyone - is the best we can usually manage without external funding though.
To get this grant and project proposal accepted though, and to generate some full-rate paid work especially in times like this where it is so hard for actors and creatives to find work, is absolutely beyond words. <3
Obviously all work will be done with correct social distancing, risk assessments etc. 

THE SHOW
The show is a researched drama based on a number of the historical theories, surrounding Jack The Ripper, a Victorian serial killer in Whitechapel, London. We never fully reveal who the Ripper is, therefore through the show he is played by different people, all masked the same. The principal main character is the detective Abberline, a brilliant, humanitarian but broken man, tracking down the killer.  The show design is stylish, steampunk, and daring. It does not involve any sexual scenes, beyond some of the ladies of the night soliciting on street corners.  Originally due to be performed in October 2020, it now looks likely to be moved to Jan/ Feb 2021, due to the Covid outbreak. It will tour Devon and up to Bristol. 

CASTING
We are casting for all roles, This spans all speaking roles; which are male and female roles, all ethnicities very welcome.  Actors should be aged over 18, but other than that we welcome (and require) actors of any age  - we require a range of ages from 18 or thereabouts up to and including senior citizens in their 70s!  Actors must be based in the Devon area or easily able to travel to same, for live rehearsals (after lockdown) and the performances. ​We do not charge anyone to work with us - indeed we do our utmost to pay our cast and crew via equal profitshare from the ticket sales at the very minimum (with applications in to various funds with the aim of raising full union standard wages for all cast and crew). No roles are "precast". 

As a professional company, with national and international arts awards, we require that all actors, regardless of experience, are able and willing to work to the standard consumate with those expectations. Actors must have the ability to attend required rehearsals and performances on time, note and follow directions/ production details, the literacy to read and learn scripts by deadlines without habitual paraphrasing/ improvising, are respectful of other cast and crew, are calm & focussed in rehearsals and shows, and maintain a positive, stress-free workplace enviroment. This is being stated due to incorrect misconceptions about our work being a social club/service  drop-in centre, in the past, which caused unwarranted upset and embarrassment on all sides. 
​
In your self tape, which you can record on your phone, laptop, or any device, we are not looking for cinematic brilliance, or for you to second-guess "the right character".  We are looking for characterisation and those magical split-seconds where for a second the casting director forgets they are watching an actor, and completely believes that it is the character themselves. Bold choices with the audition material are also encouraged. 

You will hear back within the week following the closing date (July 19th) as to the status of your application to the show, regardless of whether selected or otherwise. 

Early rehearsals will take place online, using Zoom. When it is safe to do so, and in line with risk assessments and safety procecures checked by Equity, we will begin to return to our rehearsal space at Chestnut Community Centre (downstairs room), in Poplar Close, Brixham. 

​If you have any questions, please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com, or text the director and company owner, Laura Jury, on 07855 090589. 

 Apologies for the quiet as we have worked on rearranging auditions, looking at new ways of working, and looking at ways to respond to Covid-19. 
To clarify; that is now done. We have agreed on ways to keep our auditions for Jack The Ripper open as sheduled, as well as opening auditions for an online "lockdown" performance of Macbeth. 

The big change is that for the time of lockdown (and, if there are any especial demographics that need to isolate for longer), we will be accepting online self-tape auditions. These will have the same requirements as our usual "in-person" auditions - and should the lockdown be safely lifted before the Jack the Ripper auditions in July, then we will revert to our normal "in-person" castings. 

We also decided to create a lockdown "online" project, which is a full performance of Macbeth - yes, that show we won international awards for last year and had to tour twice because public demand was so huge. Most of the cast are returning, though we do have a handful of roles open to cast, so if you would like to join us, the details are all below.  The great thing about the online Macbeth project? It doesnt matter where you are, as long as you have a digital device running Zoom, and are a strong reliable actor. 
(As Jack the Ripper will be live performances at venues (once lockdown is over!) our usual restriction of your needing to be based in South Devon, applies to Jack The Ripper though!) 

The usual arrangements of profitshare (until such time as we can find funding or sponsors for full wages, behind the scenes, our admin team are working daily on this!) plus portfolio material (recordings, photos etc) all hold as unchanged. 

​All our current casting and audition information is over at our AUDITION PAGE

If lockdown continues, there are also a number of other smaller projects that can be done online, that are in the works - and we would love to stay in touch with you; so, if you would like to  keep informed on upcoming castings and projects, do please either follow our FACEBOOK PAGE or join our PUBLIC FACEBOOK GROUP

This evening launches the first of our projects to try to generate remote online work for at least some of our wonderful self-employed actors and creatives, who have lost their usual work in theatre, film, and TV during the corona-virus crisis. 
We are a nationally, and internationally, awardwinning team, now making our expertise available to help those who are now studying from home. Our members who have current DBS clearance, are available to teach both adults and children, while the rest of us are available to teach adults. This can be done via Zoom, Skype, Messenger or email. 
There is a fee for this service, because this is an attempt to generate work for actors and creatives who, as self-employed, have lost part or all of their incomes but not been eligible for some of the government bailouts for those who have been in regular employment.
EVERY PENNY they earn is directly forwarded to them - this is helping real, dedicated people pay their bills and buy food at these times. 

We have a wide variety of subjects, from basic to degree level: 
- Drama/ theatre
- Media
- English (including English as a foreign language)
- French
- Physics
- Teaching (teacher training - may be of use to homeschooling parents) 
- Mathematics
- Expressive arts
- History

We may take on some more tutors with additonal subjects/ agegroups  - if seeking a tutor for a subject/ level that is not listed on our Online Tutoring Service, please contact us and enquire.
southdevonplayers@gmail.com southdevonplayers@gmail.com

DISCOVER OUR ONLINE TUTORING SERVICE HERE

Shows & Performance dates: 

Brixham - As you may have seen, most theatres have closed for the time being (our home venue Brixham Theatre is closed until May, as things stand). We have resceduled our performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream there for August (details now updated on our Box Office page). 

Brixham Brixfest - our excerpt performance of acts 2 & 3 of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Brixfest in May, is cancelled, as Brixfest, an annual festival celebrating local arts, culture and business itself is cancelled. We will be working with them to perform in 2021 - discussions have already commenced

Plymouth - We are planning to reschedule oour performance st Stoke Damerel Church in Plymouth also to August, but we are currently awaiting a reply from the churchwarden to discuss new dates. When this occurs, all tickets bought for the current date will be honoured, or can be refunded (no quibble), if the new date does not suit.

Bristol - We have discussed with Bristol Shakespeare Festival, who are working on the best case scenario to run still in July. Both the festival and the venue are very happy to have us, and so as things stand, this date will go ahead. If we are forced to postpone, we will postpone until later in August/ September, and then perform "under our own steam". 

We are also exploring the possibility of online broadcasts and readings/ performances. 

Rehearsals: 
The vast majority of our rehearsals have now moved online, to protect the health of our actiors and crew;  using the video-conferencing programm / app, Zoom. Cast and crew should stay in regular contact via email or Facebook with the team, as we send the conference links out to everyone on a twice-weekly basis, and send out updates about online work opportunities for actors for our team. 

​Castings for Jack the Ripper
Our audition date in late July, remains as-is. We hope that the worst of the crisis will be over by then, but if it is not, we will be looking at alternate ways to cast the show and send out scripts etc to cast. Please keep an eye on our news, social media and the auditions page for any updates. People who have emailed us will be updated as well. 


Making online work
In this current crisis, most work for actors and crew has dried up - even big TV series and film shoots have cancelled. This leaves the nations entertainers unable to pay rent or the bills. We are doing our best to help our team with creating various online work opportunities. All we can do is but try, and do our best, rather than giving up. 
Our first opportunity for our team is offering online tutoring for adults and children; chiefly in drama and English, but also in other subjects as well, by an expert team of creatives. We are in the process of setting up, but expect to have it done open for business by Sunday March 21st 2020. You can find it at ONLINE TUTORING SERVICE.  In the interim, if you would like to be contacted as soon as this service is live,  please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com. 
You or your loved ones will be able to access expert tutoring, and also support some of our nations entertainers and creatives, during this hard time. 

In these times, with budgets stretched, and marketing of shows always being a challenge for any theatre company, we are proposing this new initiative, where theatre companies exchange advertising. A text page of line adverts in a programme, where we list each others productions in the same region, means that we all reach more audiences, encourage theatre-going, and grow together.  This isn't intended to exchange money, just help one another with a few lines of text. 

Since it is based on an exchange, (just with the provision of a checking copy to the companies involved, to prove openly that agreements are honoured), it should hopefully be something that is accessible to all companies. 

We are based in the Southwest (Southwest UK), and that is the area that we would cover, but if people in other areas of the country want to initiate the same kind of idea - that would be awesome :) 

Please get in touch if you would like to exchange with us, and get involved in this new idea. 
​Laura (company director) - email southdevonplayers@gmail.com