The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

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.

Fundraising quiz nights announced!

7/8/2018

With the advent of some lovely new people helping us get the group moved on to the next level, we have now got the manpower (and ladypower!) to run fundraising quiz nights.
The Rising Sun pub in Brixham have kindly agreed to host our quiz nights, and therefore, Laura, Maggie and Gareth can now proudly announce the first of what we hope (and intend) will be many events! All funds raised go directly into funding rehearsal space, costumes & props, etc, for our productions.
Come and test your knowledge, and win several bottles of wine! Starts promptly at 7.30pm, finishing by 10pm.

Venue
The Rising Sun,
8 The Quay,
Brixham
TQ5 8AW

Lively, friendly quiz night, the first of (we hope) many regular quiz nights at the Rising Sun, raising funds for The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, Brixham

Have a great night out, and support your local artistic community, at a beautiful, family-run traditional harbourside pub.

There are 8 rounds, of 10 general knoweldge questions in each round, with a break in the middle to refill at the bar! Entry is £10 per team (payable on the day), teams may comprise up to 6 entrants each.

Please contact us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com with any questions or if your team wish to reserve a table in advance.

1307 feedback and wonderful support from the Globe Theatre

3/7/2018

So, we have got 1307 at Brixham Theatre under our belt. It is a really excellent run, and the feedback funneled back to us by the Brixham Theatre front of house staff, has been that it has been our best show to date.
Appleton Event Photography has filmed the production and this will be made available online to everyone as soon as possible - meanwhile we still have one more performance on Thursday at the Barnfield theatre in Exeter. Our amazing composer will also be there from Grace Marie Hancock music

In the meantime, work is beginning on our plans for our next show; William Shakespeares Macbeth.
We are working from the original script, and in order to create not only the best show possible as well as the best experience and skills building for our cast, we dropped a line to the Globe Theatre asking if they had any recommendations or links to material. They are being incredibly supportive and helpful, we can only say an enormous thank you for the materials being supplied which will be invaluable learning for every single one of our team!

And that is where the news stands at the moment.

Oh and if you are free on Saturday, do come and see us at our fundraising stand on Saturday at the Brixham Happenin at St Marys Park in Brixham. We will have our stocks as well as a stall selling a wonderful collection of CDs, and some newly made tote-bags, fundraising for our coming projects.

Laura

Brixham Pirate Festival 2018

11/5/2018

Many thanks to all of our lovely helpers at our fundraising stand at the Brixham Pirate Festival - we raised invaluable funds for our productions :) Also many thanks to Judi for allowing us to use the space, and to the local Brixham Police, and festival security, for coming along and volunteering to be in our stocks :)

Tickets for our Brixham performances of 1307 now on sale.

16/4/2018

A researched historical medieval theatre production
telling of the fall of the Knights Templar, & the surrounding legends and accusations of heresy. Performed by a professional, nationally-award-winning theatre team.

BRIXHAM VENUE
Brixham Theatre
New Road, Brixham TQ5 8TA

BRIXHAM SHOW DATES:
June 22nd; Curtain up at 7.30pm,
June 23rd Curtain up at, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

PRICES
Tickets £8 (full) £7 ( conc)

BOOKING
http://tickets.brixhamtheatre.uk or call 01803 415987
_________________________________________
Historically a monastic order of crusading knights in the middle ages, the Knights Templar began from humble origins, but soon became a powerful, international organisation, answerable only to the Pope, and institutionally extremely wealthy. As the medieval crusades failed, so did the Templars, and in 1307, among accusations of heresy, and treason, the senior members of the Order were arrested. Legend tells that their wealth, seen by eyewitnesses only months before, had vanished. With the accusations of heresy upheld, the Order was disbanded, and the last Grandmaster, Jacques de Molay, burned at the stake in 1314.

Legends remain. What became of the Templars treasure? Were they really heretics, or victims of a political trap? Legends tell of them protecting various secrets, including those that could destroy the church - some of those legends relate to the Holy Grail; the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, or lost gospels, or even that Jesus himself had descendants who lived on through the ages.

Based tightly on the history, and some of the theories, the film follows Hughes and Angelo, formally of Jacques de Molays inner council, from the fall of Acre, to Paris, and then as they go on the run to the Bristol preceptory, tonwards to Templecombe in Somerset and then to Trebeigh in Cornwall .

Linking these three historical southwest Templar holdings and the existing mysteries surrounding the Templars into the tale, the final secret is revealed....

This production also features an exhibition of the painstaking research behind the scriptwriting, of the inquisition against the Templars, and of their historical links to the Southwest
The show also features especially composed music by Grace Hancock from Exeter.
__________________________________
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION OR FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

www.southdevonplayers.com
Facebook & Twitter: @sdevonplayers
Instagram: @sdevonplayers1
email: southdevonplayers@gmail.com

Next open auditions for medieval drama. If you want to join us, here is your chance to apply!

18/1/2018

Open auditions for our coming project 1307.

This drama, centering on theories and legends surrounding the inquisition against the medieval Knights Templar.

We are working from the same script; to perform a full length theatre show, as well as recording a radio drama, and dramatising part of the script into a 10 min film.

*** DOWNLOAD AUDITION PACK FROM OUR MAIN WEBSITE: http://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html ****

Auditions are on Sunday Feb 4th 2018, at Chestnut Community centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon TQ5 0SA. Please arrive to begin at 1pm.

*This project takes three forms with the same script and cast:

1- Full length scripted theatre drama for stage
This is to be performed in and around Torbay, and Plymouth, in 2018. We are also looking into the possibilities of performing in Bristol, where part of the drama is set.

2- Full length scripted and dramatised radio drama for local radio
Recording to take place on at local radio station for subsequent broadcast. This will then pass back to us for online distribution, to create (we hope!) profit shares for everyone. This will be a single day, or two half-days of audio recording in Paignton, Devon

3- Short 10-min film (adapted from the above script)
We are using part of the script, from the 1307 dawn raid on the Paris Temple, onwards, to create a short film, This will be filmed on location in Devon and Cornwall, with one short additional scene in Bristol. Actors doing the theatre show and radio play have priority on these roles, but if not able to appear in the film, we will be open to casting differently for this.

Nb: with this project, we do need the full length cast to be the same for radio and theatre. Ideally we would like to cast the same actors in the same roles for the short film, but are open to changes if someone is unavailable for filming.

****Synopsis of production****
In October 1307, an inquisition was called against the powerful, and international organisation, which had grown up from a religious order of warrior monks, during the medieval Crusades, who are now famed in legend as the Knights Templar., or more properly “The Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon”. Accused of heresy, and confessing under torture, their Grandmaster , was burned at the stake in 1314.
In the centuries since, myths, legends, theories and questions grew and remain. Were the Knights Templar heretics? They certainly had secrets, with guarded secret initiations; but what was their secret? Were they simply fanatical medieval Christian crusaders who had grown too powerful for their own good, around whom a mythos had grown? Were they guardians of an ancient Holy secret that the church in Rome needed to destroy?
1307 is based on those legends, and one line of theory. Beginning in the fall of Acre, on of the last Crusader ports, in a dramatic siege in 1291, in what is now modern-day Israel, and continuing to medieval Paris, and thence to England, and linking to legends in the Southwest of England, surrounding the Knights Templar, this drama follows a Templar knight, Hughes, and his secret.
This is a heavily researched historical drama, about what might have been.

In light of modern-day politics and issues, we want to make it abundantly clear that this production has no intended racial or religious bias, nor will any such inference be tolerated from anyone linked to the production. Characters opinions, allegiances, religious and political beliefs are those of the characters only, and where possible, are the known stances of the historical figures in person, as much as can be ascertained from historical research and records. There is good on all sides and bad on all sides. This production is not linked to any neo-Templar organisations.

REHEARSALS
Rehearsal dates: Wednesday evenings 7pm - 9.30pm, Sundays 12.30pm - 5pm.
at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 0SA, the same as the auditions. For this reason, priority will be given to performers who live in the South Devon region. Please note that you will be expected to attend regular rehearsals.

NOTES
Due to previous incidents we need to state that
1) All cast will need to be able to attend regular rehearsals, and to be able to learn characterisation, lines and blocking,
2) Actors will be required to wear costumes
3) All people in the production are expected to adhere to socially acceptable behaviour at all times.
4) Performances are on an open-book equal-profit share basis.
5) We welcome performers of all backgrounds.

More about us:
www;southdevonplayers.com
www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers
www.twitter.com/sdevonplayers
www.instagram.com/sdevonplayers1

The first radio play - Les Miserables

18/1/2018

On January 6th, our team embarked on what we hope will be a new and very excellent series of collaborations with a local radio station, starting, with recording a radio drama of Les Miserables, for broadcast over the next month or so (just needs editing and adding in sound effects etc!) - watch our social media for shared links to the broadcast. :)
It was fantastic to have a team of both established performers and new performers who worked together like clockwork to record the drama!

A successful weekend of external bookings

2/10/2017

A busy weekend of external jobs is now past, with great feedback.

On Friday evening, Steve, Lucius, Laura and Rhia were booked to be the in-character entertainers at a medieval banquet for Hatherleigh Primary School raising funds for their woodland area. So, Lord and Lady Bloodraven, along side Lord Redvers man at arms and Lady Eleanor Belstone (yes, using all local names!) alongside some other actors created a rolling drama of a stolen jewel, a drunken Jester who took religion after some time spent in the stocks. Unusually for us, this was not a strict historical period, and more generic in its medieval theme, so we had a lot more latitude than we normally allow ourselves!

Feedback from one of the organisers who booked us:
"Thank you sooo much one and all. Well all of the guests adored "the actors". I do feel without you all there, it would not have been a success"

Then, on Saturday, we had our second engagement, six of our lovely team booked as 1960s hippies, for the Ageing Well 2017 festival at Lupton House near Brixham . A great day of handing out flowers to people arriving, filling the front of the house with bubbles, dancing, and welcoming the event guests.
Again, great feedback from the organizers
"You really made me feel I was back in the 60s thank you so much for your hard work on the day. I could feel the love in the air"

Ongoing collaboration with local radio station announced

29/9/2017

We are delighted to announce that we will be collaborating with a local radio station to create dramatic radio-plays of some of our existing scripts and also a few new ones, over the coming months.

We are openly casting for this, and would love to hear from experienced, reliable actors who would like to join in with these projects.

Plays under discussion, include our 2014 script of Les Miserables, as well as various other pieces.

This will be ongoing, we get one recorded and in, then another, and so on. They will be broadcast in regular half hour slots.
Recording, depending on time and ambience needed, will either be at SDP (the community centre), location for outdoors, or at the radio station studio in Paignton,times to be discussed and to be arranged for when everyone in a particular radio play cast can attend together.
Expect anything up to three or four recording sessions per month . There may also be opportunity for other skits and ideas which are currently being thought about.
Clips as soon as broadcast can be used for actors voice reels.
Open to existing SDPers and prospective SDPers. Non-disclosure and actors agreements will apply.

To get involved, please drop us a line, we will respond with the Facebook group link where we will be co-coordinating shows.

Catch a Brixham Fish at Millie & Me

24/7/2017

Thank you to the most awesome Sophie Bower for stocking our Brixham Fish keyrings for our fundraising at her cafe. Made by the equally awesome Allie Hinton and Margaret. Sophies cafe is a wonderful community hub and sells lovely food - and cake!
So if you would like to catch a Brixham Fish, do pop into her cafe on King Street.
http://www.millieandme.co.uk/