The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

The audition pack for Ben Hur is now available!

2/4/2021

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Please visit our AUDITIONS page here for full information on our production, work, etc.

We are delighted to be launching the audition information for our stage production of Ben Hur.
This stage adaptation of the classical story by Lew Wallace (want to read the original book? It is available HERE on Project Gutenberg) has been a script written over about a year during the Covid lockdowns, by our company founder Laura Jury, looking towards a time when we can return to live rehearsals and theatre.
Of course, all these timings and plans are subject to the easing of the pandemic, and relevant safety being possible. If things dont work out with the pandemic easing, then dates may be altered. This is not a play that would work as a Zoom production.

As always, regular and new actors (and stage crew!) are equally welcome to apply, and we look forward to hearing from everyone who is interested. This is looking to be our biggest single stage tour yet, with more venues, and streaming performances to global audiences from at least two venues.

If you would like to find out more, or discuss the project, then do please drop us a line on southdevonplayers@gmail.com

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The next digital theatre shows - tickets available now

26/12/2020

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New digital theatre shows coming up in January and February 2021. TICKETS ON SALE NOW. Please share this information to anyone who may be interested!
The Lost Girl, is a drama set in Edwardian England, following a young woman, who feels stifled by society's conventions, whose father takes on a theatre, as a new business venture, with unexpected consequences.
Jack the Ripper is a steampunk-styled drama based on research into the Ripper, and theories as to his identity.
All funds raised from ticket sales are used to pay the actors and production crew (in equal shares), creating some work for professional creatives during the Covid-19 crisis. #supportuktheatre
Full viewing information and how to buy tickets, is all over on our website's box office page at
https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

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Launching the Christmas children's stories.

18/12/2020

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Thanks to Western Power Distribution, we are delighted to announce the launch of our Christmas offering of two new children's stories;both in spoken word and BSL.
To access them, please click here: LINK - there are all the video versions as well as text versions of the stories available together on one dedicated page.
We really hope that families will enjoy them, both around Torbay and wider afield.
Wishing you all a wonderful and safe Christmas, from everyone in our team.

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Early December updates - Hello again!

15/12/2020

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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.

Triniman's Basin
While working on Sir Walter's Women, we also were commissioned by Ivybridge Community Arts, to produce a video about a local Ivybridge legend. The Legend of Triniman's Basin, telling the story of how a young gardener from Stowford House was murdered, and how a point in the River Erne came to be known as Trinimans Basin, after the death of the murderer there, was recorded at almost the same time, and is now available to view online.

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

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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!!

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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Announcing the autumn lockdown season - & auditions!

26/7/2020

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We are delighted to announce the lineup, and launch the open auditions for our lockdown season.
Working with four teams and three external writers.

The lineup will be:

Snow, by Ashley Griffin (PARTIAL CASTING OPEN)
Exploring the power and importance of storytelling, Snow (a new play by Ashley Griffin, creator of the pop culture phenomenon Forever Deadward, and the first person ever nominated for a major award for both playing and directing Hamlet,) follows three disparate storylines that all revolve around the fairy tale Snow White. Utilizing a structure similar to Cloud Atlas and The Hours, six actors playing multiple roles tell the stories of the Grimm Brothers (who originally collected and published the classic fairy tale), the Campbells (a Victorian theatrical family whose lives begin to mirror Snow White), and modern day Astrid (a young woman who, after her abusive mother puts her in a coma, must decide whether or not to wake up). Incorporating aspects of American Gods, and classic storytelling techniques a la Peter and the Starcatcher, Snow is a dark and moving play that mines our storytelling traditions both in style and subject matter.

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!" Another of her D.H. Lawrence adaptations, THE VIRGIN and the GYPSY, received a reading at the 2018 Festival of New American Theatre.

Sir Walters Women, by Rachel O'Neill
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

The Taming of the Shew, by William Shakespeare (CLOSED FOR CASTING)
Three actors, performing the uncut show, combining digital media with performance, to create an all-new "artform". This drama is one of the great comedy plays by William Shakespeare. The play starts with the Induction where a trick is played by a nobleman on the drunkard Christopher Sly who arranges for an acting troupe to perform a play called The Taming of the Shrew.
The beautiful and gentle Bianca has no shortage of admirers (Lucentio, Gremio and Hortensio) but her father insists that she will not marry until her shrewish sister, Katharina, is betrothed. Bianca's suitors persuade fortune-seeker Petruchio to court her. The suitors pay for any costs involved and there is also the goal of Katharina's dowry. Petruchio marries Katharina and he carries Katharina off to his country house with his servant Grumio. Petruchio intends to browbeat Katharina into submission and he denies her food, sleep and her new clothes, whilst continuously singing her praises. Katharina is tamed. They return to Padua where Lucentio has won Bianca. At a banquet they wager on who has the most obedient wife. Each wife is issued with commands but only Katharina obeys.

Snow, The Lost Girl, and Sir Walter's Women, are all open for audition, with a wonderful range of roles available. Please visit our "auditions" page and scroll to the Virtual Season section, for the audition pack which gives full breakdowns for each play.

Our “virtual autumn season” is a response to the Covid19 restrictions on performing venue-based theatre. While we hope very much to return to normal theatre performance by early 2021, in line with the current government guidance, we feel it very important to keep working and creating in the interim.
For the time being therefore, we have moved into cyberspace, with our actors and crew joining us on screen from their home studios; rehearsing and performing over Zoom, and then streaming the performances to a paywalled online space, 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.
These are performed plays, not just a “scriptreading”, therefore we will be expecting all cast and crew to treat it as a full performance, with well-developed characterisation and line-learning. Working to sound and lighting cues, eyelines and “cross zoom” choreography/ interaction will also be necessary.
Cast requirements - We have a full range of roles for male and female actors aged from 18 up to 70+ . Cast and crew should be familiar with how to use Zoom, inclusive of how to use supplied digital backdrops, mute and unmuting microphones/ video, and have a quiet space at home with a plain wall (or sheet hung up etc) to work with the digital backdrops, and able to follow tech cues and direction promptly and confidently.
Because these are digital performances, actors can be based anywhere in the world to work with us, with the understanding that the shows and rehearsals will be working to UK timezones.  With short turnarounds, these projects are unlikley to be suitable for beginner actors.

How to watch - 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 will be sold via our website box office, linked to our ticketsource account.
Payment - Profitshare. All cast, crew and writers, will each receive an equal share of profits from the ticket sales for their project, and box office sales reports from ticketsource will be made available after the event, in the Facebook cast and crew group, for perusal. We usually provide clips to cast for showreels and demo reels when our scripts are inhouse or Shakespeare; in this case it will also be down to permission by the authors, as the script and dialogue is their intellectual property.

How to apply- Visit our auditions page, and scroll down to the castings for "Virtual Season", and download the audition pack. Read the play breakdowns, and contact us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com for the audition sides and audition form, stating the play and the character for whom you require the sides. Please ensure that you submit your selftape by the audition deadline for that project. Castings will be decided within a week of that deadline. In the selftape, we will be looking for strong characterisation and focus, with confident and positive acting.

ALL INFORMATION ON HOW WE CAST, HOW PAYMENT IS MADE, ETC, IS AT OUR AUDITIONS PAGE

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The audition pack for Ben Hur is now available!

The next digital theatre shows - tickets available now

Launching the Christmas children's stories.

Early December updates - Hello again!

Sir Walter's Women - coming Saturday Nov 28th (a look behind the scenes)

Announcing the autumn lockdown season - & auditions!

Updated by our founder
Laura Jury

Categories

Archives

The audition pack for Ben Hur is now available!

The next digital theatre shows - tickets available now

Launching the Christmas children's stories.

Early December updates - Hello again!

Sir Walter's Women - coming Saturday Nov 28th (a look behind the scenes)

Announcing the autumn lockdown season - & auditions!

Updated by our founder​Laura Jury

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Categories

Archives

Updated by our founder
Laura Jury