| It's been 7 years in the making but we finally did it. I learned about Laura Jury and the The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, Brixham shortly after I arrived in the UK. I was instantly impressed by the drive, tenacity, and sheer determination of this female theatrical powerhouse. Laura has made a way out of literally no way to build and brand her theatre company. As a mixed-race, woman of colour, she has beaten back the odds of owning a theatre company in an area of England that is certainly not known for it's diversity, inclusion, or tolerance of "others". With little to no money, and very little public funds, Laura has raised money for her company in creative ways like having car boot sales, selling on Ebay, sweets sales, and anything her creative mind can think of to finance her projects. I have sat back and watched and admired her progression, her work, her work ethic over the years, in awe of all that she has been able to accomplish. It is definitely a labour of love, but by no means should one mistake this for being a low-rent production company. The costumes alone will show you that. The talented performers in her group will show you that too. Many members of the company are neurodivergent, autistic, and other challenges, which none of it deflects from their incredible on-stage performances. So, after 7 years, Laura and I combined forces as I was able to host her latest production, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at The Birmingham Black Box. She and her company drove 3.5 hours to get to Birmingham, ran a full tech/dress rehearsal, set the stage, and then performed the 3 hour show before driving the 3.5 hour return journey! The synergy was palpable as these performers gave it their absolute all in front of a delightfully enthusiastic audience. There are already talks about our next collaborative effort and I'm very excited about the prospects. Let me tell you all, it's not easy being a Black woman/woman of colour in business, especially in theatre. But somehow, we're doing it and we're making lots of progress in the area of inclusion for all people to participate in the arts. I feel so privileged to call Laura my friend, she has helped me in ways I can't disclose here, but she's been a rock in my life's progression. Stay tuned to see what we come up with next! Sending lots of love to this outstanding group. |  |
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We have had an absolutely incredible day today at Brixham Theatre bringing a full uncut performance to TSAT - Brixham College students, of our production of Macbeth, this concluding our show tour since November; Hearing from one of the teachers that this is the first ever experience of live theatre for many of the students, and then seeing (and hearing from the school staff) that the students really engaged with and enjoyed the show was one of the best things in the world. Also, a huge thank you to the Brixham Theatre staff for making it run smoothly and welcoming the students and teachers- and also to the students for being so lovely! It’s been a huge success for everyone and an absolute joy for our team <3    Last Friday we were one of three Torbay organisations pitching at Local Spark: Torbay Community Supported Enterprise’s Dragons Den event - with Lisa Highton, Laura Jury and Rich Sandford, for help with new portable lights , marketing & outreach with our shows and education work, networking, touring transport etc. Many many thanks to all those who offered consultancy, introductions to places & people who may be able to help us grow, and all sorts of useful help. They will all get followed up with alacrity over the next two or three weeks. Also a huge thank you to Helen Ambler, Community Builder for Brixham for the photo of Laura pitching - and to everyone there for making it a truly excellent, positive, supportive space. Thank you again to everyone
 After a brilliant run of shows at Brixham Theatre we are now going on to our sold out show at the Barnfield in Exeter, before coming to Torquay, Kingskerswell, Ashburton and Stokenham. It is brilliant to also have multiple schools coming along and being involved, and to have great audience feedback from the shows. If you want to get tickets to any of our shows, (obviously Exeter is sold out but the rest have tickets available) please pop over to our Box Office page for dates and booking information.
Hello all! We have two lovely videos to bring you. First of all is our lovely Sean, in rehearsals as the Porter last night and absolutely rocking the role. Then, our lovely Michael, put together a video trailer filmed down at Battery gardens the other day. Yesterday our Macbeth cast took excerpts of the production into a local primary school. It was an absolutely amazing lovely day. It is always great to work with such interested, engaged youngsters, and bring theatre, arts and literature to life.    A big challenge which we have had since the day we started is support accessing writing grant applications and networking etc.
With being one person doing all that, and the theatre company admin, while also being autistic and of a minority, Laura has found it largely inaccessible both in terms of time and in terms of people/ organizations/ funders making negative judgements on “someone different from them”, and her own social anxiety and c-ptsd. This has of course had a huge knock on to what we have been able to achieve for the amazing local people we work with. Appeals for reliable help on this, for 17 years, fell on deaf ears. Now the lovely Sue Slade from Paignton, also mother to two autistic teenagers who often become involved in our shows, has come on board as Laura’s access support for applying to grants, networking and building up those things, and being that contact whom outside bodies for funding, networking and the arts, may feel more comfortable accepting.. Already on Day 1; two applications have gone off with another two in the drafting stage. . So, it has been a really long time since we got to update this page. Our tour of Les Miserables through May and June gained fabulous audience feedback at all venues, excluding Plymouth which we had to cancel due to a bereavement on our team and an outbreak of Covid among the venue staff. Soon after the start of the run, the director's mother passed away suddenly, and other cast members also had illnesses and family emergencies, so it was quite a trial of fire to keep the show running - however, thanks to an amazing, supportive team of people, we kept it running. It has been an absolute honour to work with such an amazing team of people. We hope very much to work with many more times in the future and all of whom I would highly recommend as amazing and competent theatre actors and crew. Phenomenal audience feedback for the show, building a real fan following for our work there too. We are having quite a short turn around before we come back in for Macbeth,  A huge thank you to a bunch of our lovely actors who braved the heavy rain to join in with Brixham Future's Coronation parade to promote our performances of Les Miserables - and got lots of interested responses! And then a huge thank you to the Crafty Cwtch cafe for being a great base for drying off and getting a hot cuppa. #theatre #acting #actorslife #brixhamtheatre #britishtheatre #actors #lesmiserables #lesmis #devontheatre #DevonActors #torbay #Coronation2023  A huge thank you to our long time friends and supporters The Naked Sheep Hayle. This amazing family owned company in Cornwall makes handmade clothing and homewares from natural wools, sold all over the country. They are now supplying beautiful handmade tea cosies for sale at our friends cafe (Crafty Cwtch, 66 Middle Street, Brixham. , to raise funds for us here at The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, Brixham. Thank you sooo much Allie and Janet
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