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Romeo and Juliet photoshoot

22/4/2025

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Meet some of our lovely Romeo & Juliet actors from our promo photoshoot last Saturday - many thanks to Crafty Cwtch cafe for being a great base camp, Brixham Police being very lovely when we let them know we would be filming and photographing around the town back streets. These arent all of the characters; this is the group who were able to make the photoshoot.
Public touring across Devon and up to Birmingham this summer, then stremaing online
Tickets & dates all at
https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html
Caught between violently feuding families, two young lovers seek to marry, with tragic consequences, but leading to the end of the feud.
This performance is part of a national tour and international streaming programme, involving public performances, full performances in schools, plus educational and literary talks & workshops for a variety of colleges, libraries and community groups, and a package of online content for students.
Content advisories: Suitable for audiences age 12+. Younger audience members are welcome but please be aware of the content. Please be aware that this production contains violent scenes, narcotic references & depiction of suicide.
If you have any questions about any aspect of our production, please contact us on [email protected] at any time.
www.southdevonplayers.com
Www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers
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The Three Musketeers - the tour begins!

11/11/2024

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​Well, the tour of Three Musketeers is under way (for all the upcoming venues between now and January see https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html )
As director, I love getting these "candid" sidestage photos of my incredible cast and crew in action. There is a truth to them, performing in the space, in mid-action, which you can never replicate with posed photos and pretty backdrops . Plus, with our more ambitious projects that sometimes we have people assuming we will never achieve, it is great to show the work in action.
This is a great team - theres an age range of about 50 years in the cast and crew, and a huge range of experience from people who have performed professionally for decades, through to people taking their very first step on stage over the last weekend. That is how we roll
It is impossible to choose just a couple of pictures of this team; so here is a gallery of sidestage photos taken at Brixham Theatre.
Our tour now goes on to Knowle Village Hall near #BudleighSalterton, Lipson Co-operative Academy's Muse Theatre in #plymouth, Stokenham Village Hall near #kingsbridge, Exeter Northcott's Barnfield Theatre in #exeter, Unleashed Theatre Company's Royal Lyceum Theatre in #torquay and Kingskerswell Village Hall near #newtonabbot.
- Laura (Director)
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Costuming starts for Three Musketeers

13/8/2024

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Well we are well underway with the costuming for Three Musketeers- here are some of the team looking beautiful at the initial fittings to see who fits what, and what we still need to make.
There’s loads to do yet - lots to make, but it’s already coming along so well.
I’m encouraging the team to rehearse in costume (unless it is super hot weather) or as much of the outfits as they have, as it will really help with being in character, morale and publicity shots

In other good news our actor in Midsummer Nights Dream whose car was totalled in a pre-show crash at the weekend, has had broken bones plastered up and is on the mend - and itching to get back in (they also are in Three Musketeers) even though I’ve ordered they take this week off. - Laura
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first release from the character photoshoot for Macbeth

4/10/2023

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Last Saturday we had a great photoshoot promoting the show at Brixham Battery Gardens, around the old WW2 bunkers, and we also got to use a jeep belonging to the parents of one of our young actors! Photos, and video trailers will be released over the next while to whet your appetite, but to start off with, here are some pictures created to test out graphics and effects for the rest of the release. Original photos by Michael Betts, Laura Jury & Simon Slade. ​...
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Les Miserables cast photoshoot

25/4/2023

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In April, we had a cast photoshoot for our Les Miserables team, which most of our cast and crew were able to attend. If you want a look at the actors bringing this super show to you in May and June; here you are! 
With enormous thanks to our friends at the Crafty Cwtch cafe on Middle Street, Brixham. for being the fab base camp for our actors photoshoot on nearby streets, 

Photos by Laura Jury and Sacha Spencer. 

Visit our Box office page (click here)  to book and find out more details of the show  :) we would love to see you at any of the venues 

Les Miserables: The Memoirs of Jean Valjean is a 3 hour stage drama (not the musical!) bringing Victor Hugos's famous novel to life.
​This is a show suitable for all ages, and is a classic tale of redemption, compassion and revolution; set between 1815 and 1832 in France.

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Promotional photoshoot for Ben Hur

17/2/2022

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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. 
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December 12th, 2021

12/12/2021

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​Some of the Roman swords and shields and helmets arrived today for our theatre production of Ben Hur- and will be prepared for the show over the next little while.
Many thanks to funding from Tesco community fund via Groundwork.
Getting reenactment gear wherever possible is brilliant for us with historical- set shows because it can add a brilliant dimension of realism to the show as well as an educational dimension for learning about historical aspects for both actors and audiences.
#theatre #acting #actors #Romans #brixham #tescocommunityfund #benhur #devon #regionaltheatre #britishtheatre #actorslife #stageproduction
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Fabulous news from Tescos Bags For Help

16/6/2021

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We are thrilled and incredibly grateful to Tesco Bags of Help/ Tesco Community Grants, for confirming today that they will contribute £1,000 contractually ringfenced for our production of Ben Hur over the coming year, specifically contributing to costumes, props, and making involvement more accessible for local people. A final usage report of the specific use of the funds will be made to Tesco Bags of Help will be available on our website, in the fundraising section, in due course. ​
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Sir Walter's Women - coming Saturday Nov 28th (a look behind the scenes)

26/11/2020

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We had all the usual fun - when gathering to put work together online, you have all kinds of issues - after all our actors and crew are all working with whatever computer or phone devices they have at home, and a chroma greenscreen that cost £10 on ebay - or a plain wall, to project the digital backdrops. So things like dropped internet signal, intermittant microphones which continued to resist every bit of techincal tweaking and toubleshooting, aand similar challenges, meant that we decided in order to provide a reliable performance, to pre-record this performance. 


And so, after overcoming a selection of challenges peculiar to digitally producing Tudor era theatre, we are delighted to be looking forward to the streaming of our latest digital theatre offering, Sir Walter's Women, by writer Rachel O Neill. 

As in the synopsis of our BOX OFFICE, (yes where tickets are available if you havent got one yet!) 
This is a one-act drama about the life of Sir Walter Raleigh as he manoeuvres his status as a favourite of Elizabeth I to satisfy his political ambitions. Into the Court arrives Bess Throckmorton. They fall in love and marry in secret, to the great and lasting displeasure of the Queen. The Queen dies and the envious James I comes to power and the play ends with Sir Walter's incarceration, trial and execution.

It has proven a busy and challenging week getting the production ready, but it is now all ready and our cast & crew - not to mention the author of course - cant wait for you to enjoy it over the weekend.  

As with all our shows, every penny from ticket sales is used to pay our actors and crew - each recieves an equal share. So with your ticket purchases, you are also helping keep amazing, talented, professional creatives in work, during the hardest times that the theatre industry has ever faced.  THANK YOU!!
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The edits themselves have been kept very simple, to allow for an experience as close to a live  digital  performance as possible. In our live performances, we always use scene title cards between scenes, to allow time for the actors to change backdrops, costumes or anything else. We continued that tradition, and the only other edit was to boost and equalise the sound from one cast members microphone, which had an intermittant volume drop that no amount of system tweaks could rectify.
The scenes were then dropped together in a simple edit and rendered out. The down side is that it is not live. The plus side is that less things like dropped signals or unexpected tech malfunctions  can happen. 

Twelve months ago, we would have never thought of creating or streaming performance in this way, but with the pandemic, we were determined to keep working and keep creating. Using Zoom to create theatre and keep working was the only safe way to do this. We can't wait to get back to the physical stage, and we have some really exciting projects coming up for when we can get back to touring, but we are also keeping busy in the meantime. Thanks to an amazing bunch of people!
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Introducing Some of the characters in 1307

19/6/2018

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This is an overview of some of the characters who appear in 1307. Some of our cast play more than one character and therefore the character cards focus on just one of those characters.
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A historical personage, De Nogaret was Keeper of the Seal to King Phillip IV of France.

A cunning and astute statesman, De Nogaret was involved in a number of medieval conspiracies, including a conspiracy against Pope Boniface VIII by King Phillip and his succession by Pope Clement V. 
He was also instrumental in the conspiracies against the Knights Templar, between 1307 and his death in 1313, and is credited with launching many of the investigations into their alleged "heresy".

De Nogaret died in 1313 in mysterious circumstances.


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Roger Flors is a historical personage with a controversial past. Originally a Templar knight in Acre, in 1291, Roger Flors was in command of the Templars flagship, the Falcon, and during the siege of Acre, he is said to broken ranks with the Order, and to have charged the wealthy citizens seeking escape, huge amounts of money, in order to take them from the city by sea, leaving the poorer citizens, and indeed his own fellow Templars, behind.

Following this action, he was expelled from the Knights Templar, and following further intrigues, he was excommunicated and denounced as an apostate. He went on to command a fleet for Charles of Naples, and later appeared in Genoa as a pirate.
He clearly did quite well for himself as he eventually married a Byzantine princess - but success did not last forever. 
Roger Flors was assassinated in Adraianople (modern day Edirne in East Thrace), in 1305.

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Isolda is a fictional character, who is representative of what would have been the life of many more well-to-do unmarried medieval women. As the crusades failed, Isolda's father was a secular knight killed in the battle to take the island of Ruad. She therefore became the ward of those entrusted by her father, until such time as she find a suitable husband of similar status, to marry, with her inheritance held in trust to be made over when she marries. 
In Isoldas case this means she is a ward of John Conningham at the Bristol Temple. When news of the arrests in France comes, and then the threat of the arrests spreading to England, the pragmatic Isolda is naturally extremely worried. Without her inheritance, she loses much of her eligibility for a wealthy marriage, and with the fact that the holdings and properties of those convicted of heresy - like the Templars, would legally either be taken by the Church or the King, the loss of her inheritance, held in trust by the Templars, is a very real threat. 
Eventually, she has to make a choice....

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 Introducing Rich Sandford as John Conningham and Guillaume de Beaujeu - a versatile actor, Rich portrays both historical personages, at different points in the show.
Guillaume de Beaujeu was the 21st Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Having joined the Order at the age of 20, he became Grandmaster in 1273, an office he retained until his death in 1291. Related to both King Louis IX of France and Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, he was a leader who was not afraid to make decisions unpopular with his peers; in order to preserve what remained of the Crusader kingdom in the East, he sought to maintain diplomatic relations with the Mamluks in the south and the Mongols in the north. Following the death of the Mamluk Sultan Kalawun, and attacks on Muslim traders in Acre by crusaders newly arrived from the west, served to finally break the fragile truce, leading to the final attack on the crusader port city of Acre in 1291. Guillaume de Beaujeu was killed during the siege.
John Conningham is a much less known character, appearing listed in inquisition documents simply as a senior Templar who had spent over 30 years in the Order, arrested at a Somerset preceptory in 1308, as the Papal suppression of the order across Europe spread to England. 
The Templars holdings in Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall, related to farming, although the Templars had extensive holdings in Bristol (remains of their church, and echos of their presence in numerous place and street names, can be explored now) and had contributed to the building of the docks, as a major trading port. The more rural farm holdings most commonly related to sheep farming, the funds raised serving, in the Templars heyday, to contribute to maintaining the costs of the fighters in the East. 
As he is listed as the longest serving Templar of those arrested in Somerset, we have made a leap of assumption and in our production his character becomes Preceptor of Bristol and Templecombe

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Valentina is a fictional character, but representative of personages of the time. A wealthy Venetian merchant in Acre, she flees the city with Roger Flors when the attack on the city comes. In Acre, a crusader port city, the Venetians were one faction of powerful merchants within the city.
After a historically documented incident where western crusaders, newly arrived in Acre attacked Muslim residents, some of whom were only saved from the rioting by the intervention of the Templars, Valentina is among those who blocks the surrender of the guilty parties to the Muslim sultan for punishment, as counselled by the Templars in order to preserve a shaky truce protecting the city from attack
At odds with the Templars after this, Valentina begins to suspect that the Templars may have thier own secrets, and begins to search for more information, hoping to at the very minimum increase her own wealth and influence.
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King Philip IV is a pivotal historical personage in the production - and indeed in the history of the demise of the Templars. 
King of France from the age of 17, King Philip incurred huge debts for France with wars against England, and Flanders, as well as inheriting a large national debt from his father. In his own right, he also became deeply embroiled in Papal intrigues and plots surrounding the Catholic Church, forcing Pope Clement V to reside in France rather than in Rome. 
King Phillips plots, and debts, finally led him to target the Knights Templar, who although a monastic order of warrior monks individually sworn to poverty, were enormously rich as an organisation. In conjunction with Pope Clement and his own advisor's such as Guillaume de Nogaret , he set in motion the demise of the Templars, ordering their arrests on accusations of heresy against the Church. 
It is said that even as he was present at the execution of the Templar Grandmaster Jacques de Molay, the doomed Grandmaster cursed him; and King Philip died the following year.
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Jacques De Molay, is probably the most famous historical character in the production. The son of a noble family in Burgandy, France. Little is known of his early career as a Templar; he is believed to have joined the Order at the age of 21. Debates rage for and against as to whether he was present at the fall of Acre in 1291, although he was believed to have been in the East from around 1270 onwards for at least 20 years, before being elected as Grand Master of the Order in around 1293. 
In 1306, De Molay travelled to France for a meeting with King Philip, the Pope, the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, and other dignitaries, but plots within the French court framed both De Molay, and the entire order of the Knights Templar for heresy, and on Friday October 13th 1307, secret orders were opened across France, seeing the arrests of the Templars at all locations. 
Under torture, confessions were extracted in the ensuing inquisition. and following many other executions and plots, On March 18th 1317, Jacques de Molay, and two other members of the Order were burned at the stake in Paris as unrepentant heretics, by the orders of King Philip "the Fair".
The conspiracies between, and within, both Church and State, that led to the demise of the Templars have given rise to myriads of theories. Were the Templars really heretics, or guardians of suppressed knowledge not in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church? Or was their demise simply engineered by those who were deeply in financial debt to the Order? Theories and legends abound. 
Our theatre production can only explore some of those theories

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Ann Martel is a fictional character. Originally from Bristol, and widowed at the 1291 siege of Acre, Ann is a tough independent woman who returns to Britain, running her own tavern at the Bristol docks. 
In a society where women were traditionally often seen as second-class citizens, Ann does not re-marry, but carves out her own life through thick and thin. 
Having been rescued from Acre by the Templars, among those surviving citizens rescued as the city fell, in the last ship, Ann is grateful to, and has a sort sport for the secretive knights, and as the dangers increase to the Templars, she comes to do what she can to help them escape the inquisitors.
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Hughes is a fictional character. Dedicated to the Temple, and taciturn, having spent his whole life in the Order,  Hughes is a a trusted member of the Grand Masters council, and privy to many of the Orders deepest secrets. One of the few survivors among the Templars from Acre, and following the arrests at the Paris Temple, one of only two members of the Grand Masters council still free, Hughes is one of those charged with concealing artefacts and secrets belonging to the Temple.
His character is almost broken by this charge, as he learns more about the inner knoweldge of the Temple, while also having to keep it safe, and seeing the Order, to which he had sworn his life, collapse around him.
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Arthur is a fictional character, a young knight, newly initiated and still settling within the Order, but already well trusted by his more senior peers, at the Bristol preceptory.
He is a local boy from a wealthy family, who joined the Temple, and from his life in the countryside is as skilled in working with horses, as he is as a warrior. When tested by the most unexpected and difficult circumstances, Arthur proves equal to the task, standing staunchly alongside the Templars still free as they race ahead of the Inquisitors, and with the appearance of youthful inexperience, has a greater chance of getting past the inquisitors than the older members of the Order.

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A fictional character, Margery is a young girl growing up in Bristol. She is friends with, possibly a little more than friends, with the young Templar knight Arthur. While both she and Arthur know that with his monastic vows, nothing can come of thier relationship, they are young, enthusiastic, and prone to getting into trouble.
Unfortunately, as the inquisitors close in,  more dangerous and manipulative people have already noticed and see to take any advantage to bring the Temple into further disrepute
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A fictional character.
The common belief and indeed stated modus-operandi, of the Templars is that women were not permitted in the Order. However, there is research in existence which controversially suggest this may not have always been the case. 
Angelo has lived with the Order since childhood, and has always appeared to the others as a man, Angelo.  Angelo has become a member of the Grand Masters council, and alongside Hughes is sent from the Paris Temple when the arrests come, to conceal the Orders secrets.
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