On Saturday Night some of our team (Wayne Cutler Allison Abbott Sarah Gregori Fiona Humphreys Laura Jury) supported Friends of Brixham Library with their concert celebrating their historical research of the farming area of Brixham ("Cowtown") as organised by Phil Trayhorn, at St Mary's Church Brixham

Photos by Christine Bovey and Laura Jury

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

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!

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/

(press release) #EpicAwards2017

Brixham theatre & film team, of local people, win national arts award.

The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company are excited to announce that on the evening of March 19th, 2017 at an awards ceremony at the Sage conference centre in Newcastle, they were presented with the Epic Award for England. Laura Jay, one of the founders, and Michael Mirsadeghi, who is the head of editing, and one of the cameramn of the Players current 6th Century Arthurian feature film Mordred, travelled to Newcastle to collect the award on behalf of the team, but as Laura feels it important to point out, this has been earned by efforts and collaborations of the entire team, not by any one person.

There is growing recognition in the media and in public policy of the importance of everyday participation in creativity. The Epic Awards  shines a spotlight on the incredible achievements of these groups each year.
Winning groups are those that demonstrate the four Epic qualities – Engagement, Partnership, Innovation and Creativity.

Matt Hancock MP, Minister of State for Digital and Culture in the UK stated ""The fantastic work of the South Devon Players shows what can be achieved by the ingenuity and determination of arts groups."

This is wonderful recognition for a group which was founded by local Brixham performers, 11 years ago, on the proceeds of a carboot sale, and has grown into a vibrant theatre & film team, who perform newly researched historical shows around Devon, and whose film work is gaining recognition and awards abroad.
In addition the Players work hard to promote the skills of local creatives, with workshops and training, networking events, and involvement with other local organisations.

The award will stand next to the Torbay “Creativity In The Community” trophy won in 2010.

The group are currently in rehearsals for their summer stage show, a steampunk theatre production telling the story of the mysterious Victorian killer known as “Jack The Ripper” and also busy fund-raising for the final few days of filming their 6th Century Arthurian feature film, Mordred, the trailer for which is already selected for screening at international film festivals, in Hollywood, New York, Barcelona, as well as at Torbays very own English Riviera film festival. The crowdfund – as well as more information about the film, is at https://igg.me/at/Mordred2017b/x/12578926 all assistance in promoting the crowdfund and the project is much appreciated.

(for press use -
full resolution images: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6rYYXmTbCQ9c2F6bU5pNVNkczA )


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Epic Awards - national arts award finalists

(Don't forget, please vote for us at http://www.voluntaryarts.org/epic-awards-peoples-choice-voting It only takes a moment)

We are over the moon to be able to announce that due to our work locally, and our film project Mordred, we have been shortlisted for a national arts award. Epic Awards is held annually to celebrate grassroots local arts, and this would be absolutely amazing to get further - although it is a huge compliment to be even shortlisted.


Semifinalists in Los Angeles Cinefest

Just as we were trying to get over that today, an email came in, to tell us that we are also semifinalists in the Los Angeles CineFest. Mordred, our first ever feature film, a dark, tragic drama set in 6th Century Devon and Cornwall, following the legends of King Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred is in the late stages of production, with a handful more scenes to film when the weather gets better, and has a trailer already released (you can view it here on Youtube   This trailer has been released to film festivals around the world, and has already made it into two US filmfestivals: Indieboost, and Los Angeles Cinefest, as well as the Barcelona film festival in Spain.

As those who follow our work will know, we are all about pushing our actors to achieve excellence in their performances, towards all creating professional performances, and breaking out of the stereotype that all local theatre and film projects must be "amdram" and that regional people may be "unskilled" - so we provide as much training as we can, and also let our team know about other training opportunities that come up, allowing our lovely people to expand skills so that there are a wide range of skills and abilites that they have both for projects with us, for later if registered with our casting agency, and for going out and finding performance work on other productions regionally or nationally. 

Yesterday those of our team who were able, attended a day course "Riding for Film and Television" at the fantastic Polmartin Riding Stables, in Cornwall (highly recommended if you wish to learn or practice your riding, run by people who do a lot of horse work for films).
Laura, Sharon, and Megan attended, and more of our team hope to attend similar courses in future. These are suitable for beginner and experienced riders, so absolutely brilliant.