Yesterday our Macbeth cast took excerpts of the production into a local primary school. It was an absolutely amazing lovely day. It is always great to work with such interested, engaged youngsters, and bring theatre, arts and literature to life. 

We recently had a wonderful work experience student with us, from a school in Somerset - it went brilliantly and we cant wait to welcome him back - he is hoping to return to get involved with some of our shows next year. 

We are currently embarking on our next theatre production, a dramatisation of the Anglo-saxon epic poem, Beowulf, which will be performed around the South Devon area and Torbay in November/ December 2022. 
We always create educational materials around each of our productions, and would like very much to hear from any schools or homeschoolers teaching this poem as to what materials they might especially find at use - created for free or "at -cost" which we can make available online. 
We would also very much like to hear from any schools in the area, or homeschooling groups who would be interested in arranging either a trip to one of our performances in November/ December, or to recieve the theatre show streamed online (available from the end of November). 
Please do get in touch at any time to discuss, we would love to hear from you. Our direct email is [email protected]


Our education side is led by our founder Laura Jury, who has a masters degree in education, focussing on the teaching of theatre, from the University of Exeter
The South Devon Players offers a new approach to theatre-making of world-class standard. Involving people of all levels of experience, from beginners to seasoned professionals, we create full scale dramatic productions primarily focusing on historical events, literature, and classical texts. 

We perform in our home-town of Brixham then tour around the Devon area, as well as streaming our shows online to global audiences. 

We were founded during the winter of 2005/6 to create inclusive opportunities for people in the Torbay area (and some from the wider Devon area) to get involved in creating high-quality theatre and thereby develop / further professional skills, careers and portfolios towards, and as part of, professionally working in the entertainment industry, led by three volunteer company directors.

People starting out with us have also gone on to work in large scale film & TV productions, to further training inclusive of RADA and Bristol Old Vic, working with us helps them obtain the credits needed for professional registration with the professional actors Spotlight directory, and Equity (the actors and entertainment creatives trade union) which in turns allows them to be able to apply to register with larger actors agencies. We also attract established professional actors seeking to expand and grow their portfolios. 

Audience feedback is also very positive from our shows and projects, frequently likening the quality of our shows to rival that of the Globe, and other famous theatre production companies. 

Our work, over the past few years, has won several awards including on a national and international scale; we are the All-England winner of the "Epic Award" 2017 (now rebranded as the Creative Lives Award) and the Theatre Partner Award in the Long Island Theatre Awards 2019 (New York), putting theatre from Brixham squarely on a national and international map.
You can read more about us at www.southdevonplayers.com, or www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers
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We are opening our training zone! With lots of thanks to several contributors who helped us locate free online resources. 
While we lack the people-power and funds to run formal training sessions as activities, we do consider it very important to provide a resource where those newer to professional theatre (or anyone who wants to refresh on something) especially in an area where there is not immediate access to theatre training for adults. 
The new zone, consists of an online library at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/training-zone.html  as well as a discussion / learning group on Facebook at ​​https://www.southdevonplayers.com/training-zone.html   

We will of course continue to offer specialist training sessions for specific skills for actors in our shows, when we get back to physical rehearsals and shows, but this training zone covers a much wider range of skills than we have the the facility to run classes in. 

​We  hope that you find it useful. 

This evening launches the first of our projects to try to generate remote online work for at least some of our wonderful self-employed actors and creatives, who have lost their usual work in theatre, film, and TV during the corona-virus crisis. 
We are a nationally, and internationally, awardwinning team, now making our expertise available to help those who are now studying from home. Our members who have current DBS clearance, are available to teach both adults and children, while the rest of us are available to teach adults. This can be done via Zoom, Skype, Messenger or email. 
There is a fee for this service, because this is an attempt to generate work for actors and creatives who, as self-employed, have lost part or all of their incomes but not been eligible for some of the government bailouts for those who have been in regular employment.
EVERY PENNY they earn is directly forwarded to them - this is helping real, dedicated people pay their bills and buy food at these times. 

We have a wide variety of subjects, from basic to degree level: 
- Drama/ theatre
- Media
- English (including English as a foreign language)
- French
- Physics
- Teaching (teacher training - may be of use to homeschooling parents) 
- Mathematics
- Expressive arts
- History

We may take on some more tutors with additonal subjects/ agegroups  - if seeking a tutor for a subject/ level that is not listed on our Online Tutoring Service, please contact us and enquire.
[email protected] [email protected]

DISCOVER OUR ONLINE TUTORING SERVICE HERE

Shows & Performance dates: 

Brixham - As you may have seen, most theatres have closed for the time being (our home venue Brixham Theatre is closed until May, as things stand). We have resceduled our performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream there for August (details now updated on our Box Office page). 

Brixham Brixfest - our excerpt performance of acts 2 & 3 of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Brixfest in May, is cancelled, as Brixfest, an annual festival celebrating local arts, culture and business itself is cancelled. We will be working with them to perform in 2021 - discussions have already commenced

Plymouth - We are planning to reschedule oour performance st Stoke Damerel Church in Plymouth also to August, but we are currently awaiting a reply from the churchwarden to discuss new dates. When this occurs, all tickets bought for the current date will be honoured, or can be refunded (no quibble), if the new date does not suit.

Bristol - We have discussed with Bristol Shakespeare Festival, who are working on the best case scenario to run still in July. Both the festival and the venue are very happy to have us, and so as things stand, this date will go ahead. If we are forced to postpone, we will postpone until later in August/ September, and then perform "under our own steam". 

We are also exploring the possibility of online broadcasts and readings/ performances. 

Rehearsals: 
The vast majority of our rehearsals have now moved online, to protect the health of our actiors and crew;  using the video-conferencing programm / app, Zoom. Cast and crew should stay in regular contact via email or Facebook with the team, as we send the conference links out to everyone on a twice-weekly basis, and send out updates about online work opportunities for actors for our team. 

​Castings for Jack the Ripper
Our audition date in late July, remains as-is. We hope that the worst of the crisis will be over by then, but if it is not, we will be looking at alternate ways to cast the show and send out scripts etc to cast. Please keep an eye on our news, social media and the auditions page for any updates. People who have emailed us will be updated as well. 


Making online work
In this current crisis, most work for actors and crew has dried up - even big TV series and film shoots have cancelled. This leaves the nations entertainers unable to pay rent or the bills. We are doing our best to help our team with creating various online work opportunities. All we can do is but try, and do our best, rather than giving up. 
Our first opportunity for our team is offering online tutoring for adults and children; chiefly in drama and English, but also in other subjects as well, by an expert team of creatives. We are in the process of setting up, but expect to have it done open for business by Sunday March 21st 2020. You can find it at ONLINE TUTORING SERVICE.  In the interim, if you would like to be contacted as soon as this service is live,  please email us on [email protected]. 
You or your loved ones will be able to access expert tutoring, and also support some of our nations entertainers and creatives, during this hard time. 

Some of our team have been working with a multi-agency team led by Childrens Services at Torbay Council, at St Cuthbert Mayne School in Torquay, as part of the 16 Days of Action, raising awareness of coercive and abusive behavior, and how to seek help. 

Our contribution at the school was for two of our team, to work with the students, through drama workshops, to create a play based on students experiences. This will be performed back to the school during 2020.