A new theatre review! On a cold and wintery day how lovely it is to receive a great review for our digital production of Jack the Ripper A huge well done to our awesome cast and crew LINK
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We heard this evening at 8pm, that our broadcast technician has fallen seriously ill, and will be unable to run the live-streamed show tomorrow. Therefore, as the rest of us in the team lack those specific broadcast skills and equipment, we are unavoidably having to prepare the show in a different way which will mean that ticket buyers will still get the same quality experience, but it will take us an extra couple of days to achieve this. Therefore, we are releasing the play online as quickly as possible, from 7.30pm on Monday Feb 8th. Due to the inconvenience for our viewers, the play will therefore remain online until 11pm on Sunday Feb 15th, allowing all viewers to catch up at their own convenience. The same link sent out to ticket buyers will remain the viewing link. We apologise profusely for this inconvenience and last-minute re-schedule. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us directly on southdevonpplayers@gmail.com, (please be aware that from 6pm on Saturday evening, replies may be slower, as all of us in the cast and remaining crew will be working on the production for you behind the scenes) and we will respond as quickly as possible. Laura (director)
This production is working from the original text. As it is a longer play, we have made some cuts, and it tells of the events in and around King Henry V's triumph at the Battle of Agincourt. With drama, humour and a wonderful range of characters, this is going to be a fantastic project to work on. You can read the original uncut text for the play for free on Project Gutenberg HERE
Ages. genders, etc at a glance. As with all our Shakespeare projects, we tend to cast the majority of roles as gender-blind - this means that any gender can audition for the same roles. Shakespeare's plays were notoriously male-heavy, originally, but that does not always fit a 21st Century way of working. People of all ethnicities are welcome to audition for any role. We are also very flexible on ages. While we are not casting children (under 18s) in this show, we do not have strictly preconcieved notions of characters ages, other than ensuring that any family groupings reflect a relevant range of ages. What is most important is that we select the strongest actors for the roles. As we come ever closer to the show for this amazing script, we are now rehearsing with the digital backdrops and most of the costumes for the final performance. We thought you woulld like a look behind the scenes, showing that digital theatre, can be great fun! (oh, and if you want tickets, our box office is over at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html) The show itself is online for 48 hours from first broadcast to allow people all around the world to access the show at a time convenient for them.
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. Coming over the next few weeks, we will be uploding the information on our main 2021 casting calls. (Please note that we expect there to also be a number of other smaller digital-only projects, especially while we continue to create digital projects during the Covid crisis. These two major shows look forward to when it is safe, and viable to return to the live stage).
We are excited to announce that the next primary casting calls will be for a production of William Shakespeare's Henry V, and for an all new stage adaptation of Lew Wallace's classic novel Ben Hur. There are likley to be additional casting calls for smaller digital-only projects which will also be released around the same time. At the time of writiing, the Covid pandemic continues unabated, with a shocking "second spike", but in positive news, two vacciences have been approved for national use, and so, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Some levels of lockdown do allow for theatres to open in a socially distanced way, but with rapidly changing infection rates in different regions, as well as the fact that with nessecary social distancing it is impossible to sell enough tickets to a venue to allow for the cast and crew to earn anything, and tight backstage areas where actors and crew are unable to socially distance (and that is before you even look at the mechanics of the interactions on stage!!!) Until we can perform viably and safely in theatres, our work will remain digital. Our lineup of live shows (when we can return to the stage) will be tours of - Jack The Ripper (currently in rehearsals, then a digital performance, which will then be held until we can return to the stage, for a live tour). - Henry V (subject to being able to return to the theatre during summer 2021, if not there will be a digital-only project linked with some larger national Shakespeare digital events) - Ben Hur (some work on visual and computer effects will begin summer 2021, requiring the two principals to be cast and contracted early, to have visual effects built around), but rehearsals etc will commence after Henry V, and the shows are hoped to be toured in winter 2021-2022. This will be our biggest and most complex show to date. Planning has never been so difficult - as it is not a simple case of scheduling one show after another, as in normal times; it is also affected by the undercertainties of the pandemic. This means that dates are still highly uncertain at the moment, even to return to the rehearsal hall. Following the digital performances of The Lost Girl and Jack The Ripper, we will be having a week of "down time" to assess what the likely timeline is at that point. This means that we hope to start accepting auditions for Henry V, in the middle of Feb 2021. We may also schedule some short-term digital-only plays, if, at that point, it looks as if we will be remaining digtal-only into later summer. As always we are happy to keep a note of anyone interested in auditioning for us, in order to send a reminder when the audition packs are uploaded. We are working on #fundraising -yes some creative approaches- to prep for 2021 - because as soon as it is safe and viable, we will be back to the live #stage (in the meantime we will continue working on digital broadcast) Please pass to anyone willing to help!
Info on our fundraising at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/fundraising.html. Fundraising like this for some of the day to day core costs, allows us to support our actors and creatives as much as possible from the show ticket sales, as well as to improve equipment and costume/ prop/ set resources, to create higher quality, more creative shows, and to develop free educational resources. We are collecting used postage stamps to help fundraise for our theatre productions. All used stamps (any age, or country of origin) are gratefully welcomed. The stamps are sorted and sold to stamp-collectors, which help raise invaluable funds for us. Every penny raised from this fundraising is used for - sourcing props & costumes -hire of rehearsal space (or Zoom subscriptions during Covid) - printing show posters & flyers - saving for & buying basic technical equipment - insurances/ script copyright registrations Please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com for a UK postal address to send the stamps to. (while the covid pandemic is happening, we pop in at our usual shared rehearsal base less often, so it is easier to send direct to one of our team at the moment) This is an ongoing appeal with no end-time. #SaveUKTheatre |
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