Great news! We are so pleased to be returning to the live stage this year, with our production of William Shakspeare's Henry V. 

Yes! A theatre show, on an actual STAGE! - **AT LAST!!**

Tickets have gone on sale at Brixham Theatre - you can book now at http://brixhamtheatre.uk
(direct link at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/brixham-theatre/the-south-devon-players-present-shakespeares-henry-v/e-vpblzv) 

Brixham Theatre will have full covid safety procedures in place when it reopens in September 2021, and any questions relating to keeping your visit to Brixham Theatre safe, can be answered by emailing info@brixhamtheatre.uk

THEATRE - TORBAY/DEVON - PROFITSHARE
Character: Fluellen- Shakespeare's Henry V.

Gender: Any (castings for this show have all been genderblind)
Age: playing age 18-80
Pay: Equal profitshare of ticket sales (100% of ticket sales divided equally among actors & crew), plus show photos and a video of the full performance.
Rehearsal location/ Dates: Brixham, in Devon Sunday afternoons: Oct 31st, Nov 7th/ 14th/ 21st plus tech at the theatre venue on evenings Weds Nov 24th & Thurs 25th
Performance location / dates: Brixham Theatre in Devon: Fri Nov 26th (evening), Sat Nov 27th (matinee & evening)
To apply: email southdevonplayers@gmail.com

Requirements: Ideally can do a Welsh accent though this is an optional bonus! Should also be based in the South Devon area as will need to attend the rehearsals and performances in person.

Notes & general information: This is a recasting to join our team who have previously done broadcast performances online of Henry V for Bristol Shakespeare Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Sadly our lovely original Fluellen is moving up-country for a new "day-job" and will be unable to do the "on-stage" performances. We will be asking our new Fluellen to learn lines between the time of casting and the "physical" rehearsals, as the physical rehearsals will mainly focus on the blocking and tech for the stage shows. One to one sessions at mutual convenience, with the director over Zoom can be arranged in addition. The script has some small cuts in it but is largely the original full text, set and costume styling is a mildly post-apocalyptic near-future.

Video of previous "online" performance and featuring the full cast you'll be working with, also available.
Our website casting page, although currently geared to our next main production casting, explains how we work with all our castings and shows including full details of how the profitshares are worked, our inclusion and covid-safety policies, and example of our actors agreements: https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html
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And here is a video from our founder (also the director of this production) also showing a clip of a previous Shakespeare show performance by our team - on the same stage as we will be performing Henry V: https://youtu.be/ggB6sYWnd30

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

​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. 

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

Coming over the next few weeks, we will be uploding the information on our main 2021 casting calls. (Please note that we expect there to also be a number of other smaller digital-only projects, especially while we continue to create digital projects during the Covid crisis. These two major shows look forward to when it is safe, and viable to return to the live stage). 

We are excited to announce that the next primary casting calls will be for a production of 
William Shakespeare's Henry V, and for an all new stage adaptation of Lew Wallace's classic novel Ben Hur. 

There are likley to be additional casting calls for smaller digital-only projects which will also be released around the same time. 

At the time of writiing, the Covid pandemic continues unabated, with a shocking "second spike", but in positive news, two vacciences have been approved for national use, and so, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

Some levels of lockdown do allow for theatres to open in a socially distanced way, but with rapidly changing infection rates in different regions, as well as the fact that with nessecary social distancing it is impossible to sell enough tickets to a venue to allow for the cast and crew to earn anything, and tight backstage areas where actors and crew are unable to socially distance (and that is before you even look at the mechanics of the interactions on stage!!!) 
Until we can perform viably and safely in theatres, our work will remain digital. 

Our lineup of live shows (when we can return to the stage) will be tours of 
- Jack The Ripper (currently in rehearsals, then a digital performance, which will then be held until we can return to the stage, for a live tour). 
- Henry V (subject to being able to return to the theatre during summer 2021, if not there will be a digital-only project linked with some larger national Shakespeare digital events) 
- Ben Hur (some work on visual and computer effects will begin summer 2021, requiring the two principals to be cast and contracted early, to have visual effects built around), but rehearsals etc will commence after Henry V, and the shows are hoped to be toured in winter 2021-2022. This will be our biggest and most complex show to date. 

Planning has never been so difficult - as it is not a simple case of scheduling one show after another, as in normal times;  it is also affected by the undercertainties of the pandemic. This means that dates are still highly uncertain at the moment, even to return to the rehearsal hall. 

Following the digital performances of The Lost Girl and Jack The Ripper, we will be having a week of "down time" to assess what the likely timeline is at that point. This means that we hope to start accepting auditions for Henry V, in the middle of Feb 2021. We may also schedule some short-term digital-only plays, if, at that point, it looks as if we will be remaining digtal-only into later summer. 

As always we are happy to keep a note of anyone interested in auditioning for us, in order to send a reminder when the audition packs are uploaded. 

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!

and 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. 

Shows for 2021 (or, once we can reasonably safely return to viable theatre where we can sell enough tickets to be able to pay cast and crew) include Jack The Ripper, Henry V, we hope a reboot of our show A Midsummer Night's Dream; from 2020, and an action drama set in ancient Rome which is currently being researched and written. 

---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 and crew joining the company especially those without much experience; and generally sorting and fine tuning as much as we can.