Just to remind all our lovely supporters; tickets are on sale for our digital performances of Shakespeare's Henry V - don't forget you can get your tickets over at ​https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

An absolutely fab rehearsal today for our production of Shakespeare’s Henry V , coming to your device next month as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival.
Get your tickets here https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

Behold! a  rehearsal clip from June 9th 2021, Henry V Act 2 scene 4, with Tanya Wylie as the Dauphin and Steve Walsh as the French King.
Director's note: Love the use of the wine-glass!

The show is coming to a screen near you July 24/25th as a streamed performance of the full production, as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival, and then later in August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Show and booking information at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

 The tickets for our production of Henry V at Bristol Shakespeare Festival are now available through two outlets. You can either buy via the Festival at
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-shakespeares-henry-v-the-south-devon-players-theatre-film-comp-tickets-156262343877 
Or via our website at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html!!!
We hope to see you there!

Hello lovely people! 
Apologies for the delay in updating. 

Mailchimp
First of all, we think and hope that we have got the mailchimp glitches sorted out. It should all come out smoothly only Friday to everyone again as usual. We do ask anyone recieving our newsletter to let us know if anything seems glitchy though! 

Edinburgh Fringe Festival
In very good news, we are, for the first time, but not the last, bringing our shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This year we will be taking Henry V, and next year Ben Hur. Many thanks to our actor Eve Germaine, for finding the details of such a fantastic opportunity! 

As soon as we have ticketing information, we shall of course be sharing the details all across oour website and social media. 

Henry V
The rehearsals are going fabulously well; it is a real privilege to work such brilliant cast! Everyone is almost off-book and thier characterisations are flawless - it is simply a case now of practicing the techincal aspects and the show will be ready. 

Ben Hur
A number of people have been asking for the audition packs and sides - which are already available. The information packs are on our website - and please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com for sides. 

Other
Over the past months three people have been able to get their membership of Spotlight approved based on their South Devon Players credits - which is a question we are often asked - so it does indeed look as if the credits are easily accepted. Again, all fantastic news for everyone building thier careers. 

And that, in a quick summary, is the main news of the last little while. 
​Stay safe, and keep well! 

Fundraising 
This week has been very positive. 

First of all, we would like to make a huge thanks to the healthy living shop in town, Oats, from whom we collected our fundraising pot the other day. It was counted up today and we had raised £22.28 - enough for a week of rehearsal hall hire when we return to our physical rehearsals later this summer; which is fantastic! 
You can check out Oats (who have a super shop) at www.oatsofbrixham.co.uk. 

Our lovely friend Alllie and supporter also brought up a stamp collection which was left to us for fundraising by her mother, Margaret, who used to love coming to our outdoor shows and events;  the stamps were amazing and have been put on sale online on our fundraising ebay account - if you, or a friend like stamp collecting, please pop over to our ebay shop at www.ebay.co.uk/usr/southdevonplayers 

Mailchimp
We have suspended the email newsletters on mailchimp while we sort out a glitch; a couple of recipients reported recieving the same email dozens of times, and while we get to the bottom of the glitch, and sort it out, newsletters are suspended as we dont want anyone else getting their inbox swamped. Hopefully it should only take a week or two!

Henry V
We are continuing with rehearsals; the cast and crew are amazing! And the education pack is coming along well, with videos and additional resources. We would love to create a video or document (or both!!) answering wider student questions, so if you have any about creating digital theatre in general, or about the show in particular, please send them our way ( southdevonplayers@gmail.com). 

​CASTING CALL (DIGITAL THEATRE & THEATRE) PROFITSHARE. DEVON. (contact us asap for zoom/ facebook call discussion and casting)

SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY V - CASTING FOR THE DAUPHIN

* GENDER: Can be played male or female with our setting,
* AGE: 20s - mid 30s (we can be a bit flexible, but needs to work with the playing age of the French King)
*LOCATION: Due to live performances in November, we are looking for Devon-based actors only.
* SKILLS: Must be confident with using Zoom, including how to mute and unmute microphone, change backdrops etc. We can supply greenscreen if needed. Ability to do a light French accent is desirable but not a deal breaker.

PROJECT & DATES: This is a production which is currently well into rehearsals (over everyone working from home over Zoom at the moment)sadly the actor cast as the Dauphin has had life circumstances change unavoidably. The initual perfomance will be online, using Zoom with costume and digital backdrops etc, as part of Bristol Shakespeare Festival in July.
Following this, our cast (it needs to be the same cast due to the cast having already learned the lines and characters for the digital show) will re-convene in physical rehearsals at our usual rehearsal base on Wednesdays in November to work through the blocking for the live shows which will take place at the end of November at Brixham Theatre (as long as the government road-map goes to plan of course!)
Rehearsals over zoom take place on Wednesdays 7 - 9/ 9.30pm, and Sunday afternoons 12.45 to usually about 4pm. We are aiming for scripts down by the end of May 2021. The Shakespeare festival peforming dates are July 11th (recording the full show in case of techincal issues on the streaming dates) and July 24th (live streaming date). After this the show is on ice until we reconvene in late October.
We then reconvene to get the physical show blocking done, and some nessecary weapon choreography, on Wednesdays from late October, at our rehearsal hall in Brixham, and then will be in at Brixham Theatre for final tech and performances on Nov 24th - 27th 2021.
As all dates are booked and contracted, we are unable to now alter them.

OTHER: As this is an emergency re-casting, we havent got all the blurb on our website, (the casting up on there is for another project starting in late August) however if you pop over for a look; all the details of how we work, profitshares (and why we are currently stuck with that glass ceiling), sample actors agreements etc, are all there and the same for all shows. Also do explore the website to see everything that we are working on https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html
​
QUESTIONS/ TO APPLY - you can message the page directly, email southdevonplayers@gmail.com, or phone Laura the director and company founder, (afternoons are the best time ) directly on 07855 090589.

As we move into 2021 - and beyond - we hope to begin creating education packs for children and students for each of our productions. The first one is already underway for our coming production of Henry V. 
As a unique part of these education packs, we are creating a series of videos in British Sign Language. 
For each show, we hope to create a video in British Sign Language, teaching  show to sign 10 (or 15) words specific to that theatre production. 
To begin, here is the sign language video for Henry V, signed by our lovely Sarah Gregori. 

Last week was the first  week of Zoom-based rehearsals (rehearsals 2 & 3)  for our production of Shakespeare's Henry V. 
The actors are already doing brilliantly, with characterisations, and action already starting to show through, and while of course this is the earliest days of the rehearsal process, and there is everything to yet work on, there is some strong work already coming through. As a director I am loving the expression in the tones. 
As part of our planned upgrade to blogging our shows, and including an education pack for each show from this production onwards, we are going to be sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes clips from rehearsals and interviews, as we work through the process. 

One of the challenges with performing in this way, is that very often, the actors are limited by constrained space at home, and while, later, green-screens will allow for production backdrops (we are working on the acting side of things first), the actors are expressing the majority of the action, expression and reactions/ interactions, theough head to chest images on zoom, and entering/ leaving the frame. They are also able to react to stimuli that their characters may percieve around them, off camera (which we will see in future videos). 
Therefore, in many ways. the acting, being closer to the camera, and therefore to the percieved view of the audience. 

The text and modern translation from the No Fear Shakespeare website HERE
​Follow the other updates for this production HERE