Have you wanted to create voiceovers or demo videos for a product? Connect with audiences using video and voiceover? If so, we have a fantastic team of professional male and female actors, all with their own home studios, and recording equipment, who are available to record for you. During the Covid pandemic, we are all accustomed to working online and creating from our home studios. We can do the same for you. 
Our team members are happy to audition so that you can find the perfect fit for your requirements. 

If you feel we can help, and would like to discuss further, please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com to discuss. 

We must apologise for the quietness over the last few weeks - lots of things have been happening! 

Taming of the Shrew news
First of all, we must apologise for the cancellation of The Taming of the Shrew. Due to illness in the team, it was impossible to continue to the deadline. (for the record those affected are recovering well!). The team behind that project plan to resurrect it in the future, timing to be decided in that team. 

Sir Walter's Women
On the plus side, the performance of Sir Walter's Women went very well, with great feedback from the author - we certainly hope to work with Rachel again, especially when shows come back to the live stage in the future. It is wonderful to find a playwright who, like us, loves researched historical plays. 

​BSL Christmas stories
We are currently working on a pair of children's Christmas stories, both spoken as recordings and recorded in BSL (British Sign Language), which will be available for free via this website, in the next few days. (The signing for the second story is being done as we speak). This project has been very kindly funded by Western Power Distribution. It is the first time we have worked with getting BSL signing (the first of many projects, and increasing the accessibility of our productions) .

Welcoming new stage crew
​We are delighted to be welcomeing new stage crew, Sophie on tech and set design, Rebekah who is a trainee ASM and filmmaker, Pete assisting with research and digital shows, and Jean on costuming. We are still looking for a stage lighting/ sound tech to join the crew - please check our Crewing page if you would like to be considered to join our upcoming team. 

Next castings coming up:
We have our next open casting announcements coming up. With show dates for both virtual projects and "live" shows in discussion (we have provisional live show dates booked for later in 2021, but of course physical rehearsals and shows are dependant on covid safety, and venues being able to re-open to audience numbers which makes a show tour viable in terms of ticket sales for our actors.). 
Please keep an eye on our newsfeed for the latest castings - we hope to announce during either December 2020 or Jan 2021. 

Housekeeping
We are currently in the final stages of updating the company documents and governance documents. As a lot of these are the policies and procedures by which we run, we ask that all actors, crew and anyone else who works with us, pops over to the Policies page to check up on them. As always it is all just really about checking the latest best practice, and making sure that our paperwork reflects what we do anyway. We find that it is best to keep things open and clear. 

Next shows coming up:

Coming up next, we have two virtual shows already planned, Lost Girl and Jack The Ripper, rehearsals for both are well underway, and the tickets are on sale on our box office page 

With online productions continuing, as people find new ways to work, and with Covid-safe filming now happening on various features, and TV programmes, we are open once more to external castings for our actors. Every actor put forward for external work from us, has worked with us to the highest level of skill, reliability and professionalism. 
If you have a casting for work that can be done from a home studio, or that is filming on location in Devon and Cornwall with a Covid-risk assessment and safety procedures, then we would lov to put forward those of our team who may fit your casting, for audition. Please send the casting details to southdevonplayers@gmail.com
​
This is, of course, for paid work only. 
When you contact us, please ensure that you include details of
- pay/expenses
- synopsis 
- dates
- locations
​- who the production company are. 
- Covid safety details/ risk assessment

Payments from Snow and True Spooky Tales of Brixham
Payments to cast and crew from these two productions are currently going out. 
​
All cast for Spooky Tales will have recieved their payments last night. 

Those whose payment details we have from Snow, also went out last night, we are just waiting on a couple of cast to let us have their payment details so that we can get theirs en-route as well. 

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”. 

Hello all! 
This is just an update with news all in one place! 

Overall, the news on theatres reopening remains the same. While some theatres are able to put on subsidised performances, it is impossible for most of us, sadly as outlined in our update on the subject, to return to distanced physical shows, for us and very many theatre companies. Most of the UK theatre industry is awaiting the announcements due in November from the UK government's Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, as to when theatres can re-open. With vastly reduced audiences due to (the very sensible!) distancing, it is impossible to run shows viably, and make enough from sales to pay for a venue and also to pay cast/ crew. 

Jack the Ripper
We are now rehearsing over Zoom each Sunday afternoon for this show, with plans for an online performance if the physical shows end up delayed. Jack The Ripper will return to the physical stage as soon as theatres are able to reopen (all being well, our bookings are for the end of January and early Febuary, with ticket sales going live once we know more from Mr Dowdens announcements in September. 
The production team are really pleased with how the rehearsals are progressing, with this Sunday being a characterisation workshop session. Our return to the physical stage, in 2021, will also mean that at least one performance of each show run, will be livestreamed to audiences who either are unable to access the venue, or who may still not wish to attend theatre in person after the pandemic. 

Shakespeare in 2021
Our 2021 Shakespeare show will be Henry V, as is already being booked for summer 2021. We are also hoping to finally get to tour our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was postponed due to the pandemic, subject to cast and venue availibility, as it now appears highly unlikely that we will be able to tour the show this year. 

Virtual Season
Casting announcements will go out within a few days for the first of our Virtual Season, the dark adaptation of Snow White, by Ashley Griffin. There have been a few delays while the cast are being selected, but we will have that sorted out by the end of this coming weekend. Tickets have already begun to sell, and as soon as the casting announcement goes live, we will be able to send out press releases, distribute posters and online events listiings to really push for the ticket sales.  The ensuing plays, The Lost Girl and Sir Walter's Women, will be cast during the later part of September. 

Spooky Tales of Brixham
This project telling of our local town's folklore, is well on track, with a release date of Halloween. 
We have acquired a wonderful collection of Victorian images of Brixham, for some backdrops and intro cards, and are currently in talks with local filming locations. All filming will be socially distanced, and outdoors in a Covid-secure envriroment. 

The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company responding to DCMS's call for input on the Impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors




Organisation summary:
The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company is a small, but growing, female/ mixed-race-led touring theatre company based in Torbay, in South Devon, England. Founded in the winter of 2005/6, the Players was formed by local actors, to create world class performance opportunities for professionals and aspiring professionals, in the region, as a response to a local lack of opportunity for careers in theatre for local people. Welcoming performers and crew of all races/genders/sexualities/religions etc, equally, the company has won a number of local, national and international theatre awards.

1. Immediate impact of COVID
   

The most immediate effect was the suddenness of the pandemic, resulting in an almost complete disruption to plans for performances and rehearsals. Social distancing regulations and the lockdown mean that it is impossible to meet to rehearse, and also impossible to put on shows to physical audiences. To elaborate, we have found that performances have to be booked at performance venues; eg theatres, 12 – 18 months in advance. We also need several weeks to cast, rehearse and prepare our productions before that, and 6 – 24 weeks to market the shows to potential audiences.
Solution: We had to decide very quickly whether to close, or whether to explore more creative solutions for interim survival. Within our organisation we decided to embrace digital technology to survive, and are remaining active with productions which are cast, rehearsed and performed solely online with the actors working from home using video conferencing software, and streamed on our website and social media platforms, using ticketed links to earn ticket sale income for the actors.
Issues we have encountered have included:
A) No access to external technical assistance; we all had to teach ourselves, and help those team members less confident with technology.
B) Relying on peoples home equipment and internet connections. In a very low income area, meaning that people are using old second hand equipment, with known slower or non-existent internet speeds in some areas of Devon, this resulted in a number of unavoidable technical difficulties, namely 3gb upload of a performance to our website taking over 12 hours (May 30th 2020 in Brixham, despite the new fibreoptic cables laid in the area).
C) Lower spending power of audiences due to job losses or furloughs resulting in lower ticket sales.
D) Illegal foreign streaming website targetting our show and streaming it on their site without permission or recompense. (No response from official copyright authorities when we reported this, though finally managed to get the hosting company of the illegal streaming site to remove the video).
Requests for assistance to relevant departments, organisations, or funding bodies, with regard to all these issues have gone unanswered.

1. How effective has support from DCMS, other government departments and “arms length” organisations addressed the sectors needs?
   

There is no other war, from our view, to express this feeling other than sheer abandonment. We have been unaware of any support given by DCMS or government departments. A few of our more established actors, who have been self employed for longer, have been able to access the self employment support scheme, but many others, newer to the industry, have not. For us and other organisations, one may read daily how theatres and theatre companies, from the largest to the smallest, cannot hope to survive without significant assistance. And while theatre & performance may be seen as frivolous and unimportant, there are a large number of academic studies which show how important culture and entertainment is to peoples health, well-being, education, personal work skills, sense of community, and a myriad of other positive outcomes, for both audience and participants, that stretch far beyond the concept of a simple “frivolous night at the theatre”.
As an organisation, and despite having a strong fundraising team, we have applied for various grants for short and long term assistance, and barely had any response at all (none positive). From our observations, the assistance has either gone to large organisations, or to voluntary organisations only, leaving those of us who do not fall into one of those extremes, with absolutely nothing other than to try to survive by our own devices.
This is not entirely new. We have found that long term there are a number of clear misconceptions about theatre companies such as ours, namely that regional/ rural based theatre is “all amateur” (we encounter a lot of surprise when we challenge this misconception, usually surrounding surprised exclamations of “but you are local!” or “you are not based in a city!”). We also find a great deal of wariness in all sectors of society, of theatre that is led by a woman, and even more so that it is led by a woman of mixed race heritage. In an experiment, in 2015, we fronted a marketing campaign with a person of white heritage, and found positive response to first contacts, increased by an additional 50%.

Due to these aspects we have always found ourselves pushed to “the back of the queue”, and despite a huge international following for our work (evidenced social media following around 22,000), and local, national and international awards, there is no actual support, funding, or advice available.
We have been completely reliant on our own devices to survive, since all enquiries for information, or appeals for assistance, have been either unanswered or turned down.

1. The likely long term impacts of COVID on the sector will affect all aspects of creating theatre. In general terms, as already stated, it can take 12 – 18 months to book shows into theatre venues. These venues need to know that they will have survived and be able to reopen. 2 – 6 months is needed for marketing these shows. There is likely to be a fall in numbers of audience; many theatre audience members who are in “at risk” groups due to age, or health, will understandably have less confidence about returning to a crowded indoor venue. Theatre auditoria are not places where it is possible to socially distance – a regular theatre that we attend, of 240 seats, would be reduced to around 16 seats in order to allow for social distancing, and neither the venue, or the theatre company, can afford to run an unsubsidised event on only 16 ticket sales, with any hope of survival.
   

Backstage areas in theatres, and dressing rooms, tend to be quite cramped busy places, there is no way that a cast would be able to keep a two metre distance apart.
This situation can only be remedied by a vaccine or other highly reliable treatment for COVID, meaning that the distancing is no longer necessary.
On a positive side, it has temporarily forced organisations, especially those in our position, to be very creative, or learn new ways of creating work, to survive. For example, our choice to work online, has resulted in the creation of new approaches to delivering our work to audiences, and in a post-Covid world, will mean that we are able to livestream our shows to people not able to physically attend our performance venues.

1. Lessons to be learned. Nobody could have foreseen this pandemic, and it has harshly illustrated how fragile the theatre industry is. It has been hard – in many cases impossible – to find official information for our sector; and what there is, has usually been passed around by word of mouth between practitioners personal networks, or via trade unions; eg Equity. Regional performance companies seem to have been largely ignored (see previous comments), and even now, while there is some guidance appearing for film and TV productions, there is nothing out there for theatres; certainly nothing that is backed up with credible information or assistance. Most actors, and stage crew are out of work.
   

There is not a central network of information, funding, guidance, etc which can be accessed by all organisations or practitioners in the theatre sector.

1. In the future, new ways of working will need to grow from this situation; identifying, challenging and rectifying outdated marginalisational stereotypes, and developing a more co-ordinated, robust, central system where organisations could locate information and potential assistance; maybe a national directory of venues and performance companies – and those who rely on them – and emailing list for national information relating to the industry.