Our theatre company founder, Laura, who is also a member of Equity’s Directors & Designers national committee, was in London yesterday for a meeting at the Equity head offices on Covent Garden,# with the rest of the committee! Lots of excellent work around improving pay and conditions policies for creatives on a national basis, are in progress.

For more information on Equity Directors & Designers Committee, please follow 
https://twitter.com/EquityDandD on Twitter 
And to meet all the people on the committee, pop over to the page on Equity's website  HERE

#theatre #acting #arts #creative #theatrelife #equity #london #performingarts #theatredirector

And this weekend, our tour of Beowulf concluded with an excellent performance at Torquay's Royal Lyceum theatre.
Now, the plans for over Christmas and the New Year, include sorting out our props and costumes from Beowulf (putting them away) and getting our props and costumes etc, for Les Misérables. 

It has been a fantastic show run - after a shaky start and some recasts, it came to have fabulous feedback, with a small but an amazing cast, most of whom plan to return  to the stage with us in future shows and projects, and fabulous permanent relationships forged with new venues. 

At the South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, we are now seeking to connect with schools (or other places of education) who would like to work with us - we would love to work with educational establishments (in discussion with what they need) to provide workshops, talks, Q&As, excerpt performances (etc - we are open to discussion with this) , this could be related to the literature/ story, the history or the process of creating the show. We also have some neurodiverse people within the cast, so discussions on making theatre participation accessible to people with those conditions is also very welcome. 

These can be in person, at your school/ college, or we can host it in Brixham - alternatively we can also work with you over video link (Zoom etc)

We are also happy to discuss arranging full show performances, at cost, if these are relevant. The shows are all "suitable-for-all")

March - June this would be linked to our show Les Miserables: The Memoirs of Jean Valjean - this is a non-musical theatre drama based off the book, which is going on public tour to Brixham, Plymouth, Torquay and Exeter. Unavailable days would be the weekly rehearsal days; Wednesdays and Sundays (as well as the show dates) 

August (so probably logistically September for schools) to January 2024 we will be producing William Shakespeare's Macbeth; this is the full uncut text, again touring publicly to Brixham, Plymouth, Torquay and Exeter, the staging is a post-apocalyptic setting (the aftermath of a nuclear war) , When we did this show (same approach and styling) in 2019k, we won a theatre award for it in New York after streaming it worldwide, and ran an extra weekday performance at Brixham Theatre for a couple of primary schools. 

We would absolutely love to hear from anyone interested in discussing further. 
Please (in the first instance) get in touch via email; southdevonplayers@gmail.com) 

Today, we took an excerpt performance and workshop on our production of Beowulf, to a primary school in Newton Abbot, where the year 5 students are creatively studying the story. 
We had an amazing day with lovely staff and students alike. 

​We would like to say an enormous thank you to our lovely team members Anne, Phil and Annie, for representing us at the Ageing Well Torbay festival. As a theatre company open to people of all ages who work together creating top quality theatre, it is so important to spread the word about our work, and welcome new actors, stage crew, helpers and audiences at every opportunity.
If you met our lovely team members (or not of course! ) and would like to get involved, in any aspect, or find out more, at any time, please drop us a  line any time.

We are currently embarking on our next theatre production, a dramatisation of the Anglo-saxon epic poem, Beowulf, which will be performed around the South Devon area and Torbay in November/ December 2022. 
We always create educational materials around each of our productions, and would like very much to hear from any schools or homeschoolers teaching this poem as to what materials they might especially find at use - created for free or "at -cost" which we can make available online. 
We would also very much like to hear from any schools in the area, or homeschooling groups who would be interested in arranging either a trip to one of our performances in November/ December, or to recieve the theatre show streamed online (available from the end of November). 
Please do get in touch at any time to discuss, we would love to hear from you. Our direct email is southdevonplayers@gmail.com


Our education side is led by our founder Laura Jury, who has a masters degree in education, focussing on the teaching of theatre, from the University of Exeter
The South Devon Players offers a new approach to theatre-making of world-class standard. Involving people of all levels of experience, from beginners to seasoned professionals, we create full scale dramatic productions primarily focusing on historical events, literature, and classical texts. 

We perform in our home-town of Brixham then tour around the Devon area, as well as streaming our shows online to global audiences. 

We were founded during the winter of 2005/6 to create inclusive opportunities for people in the Torbay area (and some from the wider Devon area) to get involved in creating high-quality theatre and thereby develop / further professional skills, careers and portfolios towards, and as part of, professionally working in the entertainment industry, led by three volunteer company directors.

People starting out with us have also gone on to work in large scale film & TV productions, to further training inclusive of RADA and Bristol Old Vic, working with us helps them obtain the credits needed for professional registration with the professional actors Spotlight directory, and Equity (the actors and entertainment creatives trade union) which in turns allows them to be able to apply to register with larger actors agencies. We also attract established professional actors seeking to expand and grow their portfolios. 

Audience feedback is also very positive from our shows and projects, frequently likening the quality of our shows to rival that of the Globe, and other famous theatre production companies. 

Our work, over the past few years, has won several awards including on a national and international scale; we are the All-England winner of the "Epic Award" 2017 (now rebranded as the Creative Lives Award) and the Theatre Partner Award in the Long Island Theatre Awards 2019 (New York), putting theatre from Brixham squarely on a national and international map.
You can read more about us at www.southdevonplayers.com, or www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers
​

Delighted that we have been approached by a very large national company seeking actors and extras for a new online and tv commercial.
While we are still confirming with them about payment rates etc before formally roll-calling the actors currently involved with us to see who is interested and available, this seems wonderful news and part of what we are all about; getting local freelance actors and creatives recognised, working, portfolio building etc- we create our own work of course and also love to collaborate with other organizations wherever possible.
Photo of “beach office” just for attention
#theatre #filmmaking #tv #devon #actors #actorslife #acting #devonactors #creative #britishactors #equity #performingarts #happy #positive #brixham #paignton #torquay #torbay #raisingaspirations #collaboration

Few rehearsals have resulted in some fabulous photoshoots for as many of the Ben Hur actors as could attend the shoots at Brixham Theatre last Sunday after rehearsals. Photos by Laura Jury at the South Devon Players and Paul at Brixham Theatre

Tickets are on sale at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html for Brixham Theatre and all other show venues. 

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