The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

Macbeth shows dates coming this autumn.

2/7/2019

We are just checking in to update you on the shows. Tickets are now on sale for our performaces in Brixham, Ivybridge, Bristol and Exeter - and we would llove to see you there. We are working on booking more venues around the UK, so there may be more to come.

You can find the booking links at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.htmlwww.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

In the paper :)

18/5/2019

Tickets on sale for Macbeth in Ivybridge

10/5/2019

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

The Les Miserables character photoshoots!

30/4/2019

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!

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

24/4/2019

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.

Les Miserables now booked at the Barnfield!!

23/4/2019

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.

Announcing our open auditions for Les Miserables

10/12/2018

Open auditions for our production of Les Miserables.
Based off the original novel by Victor Hugo, this show requires a full cast, aged from 10 - 70, male and female, for named speaking roles. It is a non-musical dramatic adaptation of the novel, for full scale stage performance.
All roles except "grown up Cosette" open for casting, please scroll down for a list of all roles being cast.

AUDITION INFORMATION PACK AVAILABLE FROM
https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html

Auditions are on Sunday Feb 10th 2019, at Chestnut Community centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon TQ5 0SA. Please arrive to begin at 1pm. (doors open from 12). .

Castings will take the form of reading and characterising excerpts from the script.

As with all our in-house shows, all persons appearing as cast and crew for this production will be entitled to remuneration as
- equal profit share (ticket-take less venue hire cost)
- portfolio photos and video for portfolio use
- copies of all press in which the character is featured
- programme credit
(and anything else we find that we are able to offer)
More information on our audition process is to be found at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html

THERE IS NO CHARGE TO AUDITION OR BE INVOLVED WITH US.

SHOWS
Brixham, Torquay, Plymouth, on Friday-Saturdays in June 2019

REHEARSALS
Rehearsal dates: Wednesday evenings 7pm - 9.30pm, Sundays 12.30pm - 5pm,
at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 0SA, the same as the auditions. For this reason, priority will be given to performers who live in the South Devon region. Please note that you will be expected to attend regular rehearsals.

NOTES
Due to previous incidents we need to state that
1) All cast will need to be able to attend regular rehearsals, and to be able to learn characterisation, lines and blocking,
2) Actors will be required to wear costumes
3) All people in the production are expected to adhere to socially acceptable behaviour at all times.
4) Performances are on an open-book equal-profit share basis.
5) We welcome performers of all backgrounds.

MORE ABOUT US
www.southdevonplayers.com
www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers
www.twitter.com/sdevonplayers
www.instagram.com/sdevonplayers1

ROLES BEING CAST:
(Key: *= roles we may be able to combine, L= large roles)

Roles spanning both acts

Jean Valjean (middle-aged or older male) L
Javert (middle-aged or older male) L
Thenadier(male)
Madame Thenadier (female) L

Roles in Act 1

Brevet (male, convict)
Fantine (female, single mother) L
Factory Boss (male or female) L
Bambataois (male roustabout and fop) *
Little Cosette (female child around 12/ 13 years -Fantine’s daughter) *
Bishop (male) *
Mlle Baptistine (female, Bishop’s housekeeper) *
Innkeeper in Digne (Male or female) *
Petit Gervais (child, age 9 - 13, ideally male, otherwise female) *
Factory girl 1 (female) *
Factory girl 2 (female) *
Sister Simplice (female, nun who takes care of Fantine after her rescue)
“Gendarme” (male, policeman) *
Estella (female, prostitute) *
Bernardo (Male, sailor)*
Sailor (male, sailor) *
Landlord (Ideally male, otherwise female, who tells Jean to leave his inn) *
Prosecutor (Male, at the trial of Champmanthieu) *
Champmanthieu (male, needs to be a similar build to Jean, as mistaken for Jean) *

Crowds:
Factory workers (female) *
Prostitutes (female) *

ACT 2
Marius (male. Law student, revolutionary) L

Enjolras (male, student, revolutionary, very dedicated to his cause) L
Grantaire (male, student, revolutionary but more interested in a few drinks) L
Mlle Gillenormand (female, Marius’s aunt) L
Coufeyrac (male, law student, friend of Marius) L
Eponine (female, almost destitute, in love with Marius, but her interest is not returned) L
Gavroche (child, street urchin with an attitude age 8 - 13 – male)
Jean Prouvaire (male, student, revolutionary, much quieter spoken than the others) *
Madame Mabeuf (female – male in the book, but changed to female for ease of casting,
elderly bookshop owner whose shop went out of business) *
Le Cabuc (Ideally male. revolutionary and a generally not very nice person! )*
Toussaint (female, Jean and Cosettes housekeeper. )
Madame St Just (female, homeowner killed by Le Cabuc) *

Macbeth tickets now on sale!

2/10/2018

We are delighted to announce that the tickets are on sale earlier than expected, for our winter production of Macbeth!
"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 Scottish landscape, performed by a strong team of local professional and semi-professional actors.

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.

You can get your tickets for Brixham Theatre, for performances January 18th - 19th,
from their ticketing section
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/devon/brixham-theatre/macbeth

And you can get your tickets for Torquay Museum, from our ticketing platform
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/southdevonplayers

Fundraising quiz nights announced!

7/8/2018

With the advent of some lovely new people helping us get the group moved on to the next level, we have now got the manpower (and ladypower!) to run fundraising quiz nights.
The Rising Sun pub in Brixham have kindly agreed to host our quiz nights, and therefore, Laura, Maggie and Gareth can now proudly announce the first of what we hope (and intend) will be many events! All funds raised go directly into funding rehearsal space, costumes & props, etc, for our productions.
Come and test your knowledge, and win several bottles of wine! Starts promptly at 7.30pm, finishing by 10pm.

Venue
The Rising Sun,
8 The Quay,
Brixham
TQ5 8AW

Lively, friendly quiz night, the first of (we hope) many regular quiz nights at the Rising Sun, raising funds for The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, Brixham

Have a great night out, and support your local artistic community, at a beautiful, family-run traditional harbourside pub.

There are 8 rounds, of 10 general knoweldge questions in each round, with a break in the middle to refill at the bar! Entry is £10 per team (payable on the day), teams may comprise up to 6 entrants each.

Please contact us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com with any questions or if your team wish to reserve a table in advance.

Brixham Pirate Festival 2018

11/5/2018

Many thanks to all of our lovely helpers at our fundraising stand at the Brixham Pirate Festival - we raised invaluable funds for our productions :) Also many thanks to Judi for allowing us to use the space, and to the local Brixham Police, and festival security, for coming along and volunteering to be in our stocks :)