The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

Intensive rehearsal week to open August

19/8/2019

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The start of August was incredibly busy. We had a lot of catching up to do with rehearsals, alongside our Macbeth having an entire week free for rehearsals, and a couple of cast who needed extra help - so we took advantage of it! Rehearsing daily all week, sometimes at the community centre where we normally meet, and sometimes taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather at the beach combining rehearsal with beach party, with whichever cast members were available, we perfected the fight scenes, helped the cast who needed extra help, and fine-tuned our own performances.
We are back to our usual schedule of Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons now, with things really on track to be absolutely incredible, with a team who are second to none!

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In the paper :)

18/5/2019

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Tickets on sale for Macbeth in Ivybridge

10/5/2019

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Great news!

TICKET LINK: https://ivybridgewatermark.ticketsolve.com/shows/1173593965

Performing William Shakespeare's original unabridged text, the award-winning South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, homegrown in Brixham, bring this drama to life in an all-new production. This classic tale of ambition, destiny and murder takes place in the near future, dramatized across a post-WW3 landscape, performed by a strong team of local professional actors.

This show was performed in Jan/ Feb 2019 around Devon, to five star reviews and is currently nominated for a theatre award in New York.

Winners of the 2017 Epic Award for England, an annual national award for groundbreaking innovation and creativity in the arts, the South Devon Players specialise in high-quality productions based on classical texts, and researched history, developing and showcasing the talent of actors and other creatives from around South Devon.

Ivybridge performance will take place on
Friday September 13th 2019 - 7.30pm, at
The Watermark,
Leonards Road,
Ivybridge,
Devon PL21 0SZ
TEL: 01752 892220

Tickets £10 (£8 child/ concession)

CONTENT
- Moderate bloodshed
- No strong sexual content
- No strong language

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The Les Miserables character photoshoots!

30/4/2019

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On Saturday and Sunday we had the cast photoshoot for the vast majority of the cast, and these photos will be going out this week (some already have) attached to press releases marketing the show!
Many thanks to Brixham Theatre , one of our show venues, for letting us shoot on the stage in the morning!
Photos by Andrew Barnes and Laura Jury.

Shows are Friday May 31st, and June 1st at Brixham Theatre, and then June 7th at the Barnfield Theatre in Exeter. Our box office page HERE has links to all the relevant tickets! Book today!

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The South Devon Players Shakespeare production nominated for theatre award in New York.

24/4/2019

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Brixham based theatre company's Shakespeare production nominated for theatre award in New York.
Following a hugely successful production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth this winter, the South Devon Players have been nominated for a theatre award in New York, specifically the Long Island Lighthouse Theatre Awards, in the Theatre Partner Award category, specifically for productions outside the Long Island Nassau County area. As a company who (by force of circumstance, with the difficulty of finding funding in the local theatre sector) work on profit share from ticket sales to our cast and crew, we fall somewhere between the voluntary and full salary sectors, and therefore are eligible for this award. The VTAA , who sponsor this award are mainly US based (but open internationally) and are the "Equity for voluntary and low paid theatre" of which we have been an organisational member for several years.
During January and February 2019, the South Devon Players performed a post-apocalyptic set production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Completely unabridged and unchanged from the original text, other than being set in a post World War 3 near-future, this production attracted such audience feedback as

“The power of the final scene was such that the audience sat transfixed in silence, barely able to comprehend the beauty of what they’d just witnessed. “

“Easily on a par with the production of Macbeth we saw at the Globe”
The show was almost called off, after the lead role needed to be recast with less than 10 days before opening night. French/Irish actor Christophe Lombardi stepped in, learned the role in a matter of days and travelled to the UK to take the role, alongside Ryanna-Mae Lloyd as Lady Macbeth, with a powerful team of actors; and techs.

Despite this crisis, the show attracted fantastic audience feedback, from the shows at both Brixham Theatre & Torquay Museum, swiftly followed by invitations for more shows in the UK, and abroad. While work continues to get the team out to the venues abroad, the team are taking up the show invitations in the UK, at Ivybridge's Watermark theatre, and Exeter's Barnfield Theatre and are also booking additional dates at the end of the summer and during the autumn of 2019.

At Brixham Theatre, the show was filmed by a local filmmaker, and the resultant film was submitted to the 2019 Long Island Community Theatre Awards. The South Devon Players were informed on April 24th 2014, that the production of Macbeth was nominated for; the outcome of the awards will be finally known on June 10th in the evening, New York time.

The South Devon Players, founded in 2005/6 on the proceeds of a carboot sale, and funded in much the same way, are already winners of the national Epic Award 2017 for England, a national arts award celebrating creativity and innovation in grassroots arts, and international nominations for past productions. Based in Brixham, the Players pride themselves on supportive, friendly, and ambitious grassroots team of professional and aspiring professional actors at all stages of their careers, who primarily specialise in researched historical theatre productions and Classics, to provide an opportunity for local people to develop their skills in creating shows to a national standard, in order to develop internationally recognised professional skills, portfolios and credits.

They always welcome new performers and creatives who would like to get involved. The Players are working hard to be able to offer more education, steady employment, and more regular shows at an international standard.
Laura Jury (Director) studied performing arts at South Devon College, then a Bachelors degree in film & TV production from the University of Plymouth, before progressing to a Masters in teaching theatre from Exeter University With a history of performing since 1996, and directing since 2000, in between her training she has also pursued a career as a professional performer, and in 2006 founded the now multi award-winning South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company with three others, to create new projects in Torbay.

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Les Miserables now booked at the Barnfield!!

23/4/2019

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We are delighted to announce today that the tickets are now on sale for an additional performance of Les Miserables: The Memoirs of Jean Valjean, at Exeter's Barnfield Theatre, on June 7th 2019.

Barnfield Theatre ALL TICKETS £10, (or £8 concession)
Friday June 7th 2019 - 7.30pm - TICKETS

Barnfield Theatre,
Barnfield Road,
Exeter. EX1 1SN
Box Office Telephone: 01392 271808
www.barnfieldtheatre.org.uk

This is in addition to our already booked dates at Brixham Theatre.

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Great news for Macbeth

16/4/2019

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Fantastic news - by audience request, and word of mouth, we have been asked to reprise our post-apocalyptic, original uncut text production of William Shakespeares Macbeth. While contracts are still being sorted out, tickets will be on sale soon.
We have been invited to venues in Europe as well, for this show, and it is all depending on Brexit and funding to try and get out to those venues as well, but the UK shows are being booked up like crazy.
This is such a fantastic piece of recognition for all our amazing team members.
Watch this space for announcements soon, on upcoming ticket sales!
www.southdevonplayers.com

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The Cowtown Project

25/3/2019

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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

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Les Miserables rehearsals Act 2 - March 24th 2019

25/3/2019

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Fantastic day again at Les Miserables rehearsals for Act 2. Here are a few pictures nabbed in between racing around and dying over the barricade - and some partial costume starting to appear :D . A LONG afternoon today, but it really paid off, with the cues and reactions, especially on the extremely fast paced barricade scenes. Thank you so much to all the great people who helped make it happen.

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Behind the scenes at Les Miserables rehearsals

18/3/2019

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Rehearsals are now well underway for our production of Les Miserables; costumes will begin to appear over the next few weeks now. The cast are working together as a fantastic team regardless of age and background. Over the next three/four weeks scripts will go down and costumes will appear!

Photos by Tabatha Cart