After a brilliant run of shows at Brixham Theatre we are now going on to our sold out show at the Barnfield in Exeter, before coming to Torquay, Kingskerswell, Ashburton and Stokenham. 
It is brilliant to also have multiple schools coming along and being involved, and to have great audience feedback from the shows. 
If you want to get tickets to any of our shows, (obviously Exeter is sold out but the rest have tickets available)  please pop over to our Box Office page for dates and booking information. 

 We are looking for an actor to take on the role of Quintus Arrius, plus some additional one-scene roles for our theatre production of Ben Hur. This is a touring theatre show (touring the southwest of England), on our biggest tour ever, set in the 1st Century Roman Empire, based on the novel by Lew Wallace. 

Covid Safety
Covid safety protocols are in place for the rehearsals and shows, in line with that provided by Equity. All actors and crew are asked to test themselves before attending. We keep a good airflow through the rehearsal space at all times, and the director & fight trainer together disinfect the space (a rented community centre room) thoroughly before the rest of cast and crew arrive, ahead of each session.  

Actor's roles: 
Recasting Quintus Arrius. 
Quintus Arrius is a pivotal character in the story of Ben Hur. Arrius is the Roman naval commander who is rescued during a sea battle by Judah Ben Hur, and later frees, and adopts Judah. 

The original character in the story is male although the original actor playing the role with us was female, so the casting is genderblind and based purely on "rightness for the part".
Age is unimportant, we are ideally looking for late thirties up to seventies, but happy to be flexible. It is not a role suitable for a child. As with the majority of actors in our show, the actor will also be asked to take on small additional roles in the show. The main scenes are below.

FULL speaking scene list for this actor
- (As Roman soldier): The arrest of Judah Ben Hur & family
- ( As Quintus Arrius): Arrival at the port in Misenum
- ( As Quintus Arrius): The Roman Galley
- ( As Quintus Arrius): The Sea Battle
-  ( As Quintus Arrius): meeting Emperor Tiberias in Rome
- (As gladiator): The Roman Games in Jerusalem 
-  ( As Quintus Arrius): Final scene where Arrius reunites with the Hur family

This role involves fight action (Sea Battle and Roman Games). Fight scenes are choreographed with out fight choreographer and cannot be "improvised"

No scenes for this show involve nudity or sexual content. 

The actor must be based in Devon, UK (Ideally in the Torbay area) because of attending rehearsals in person. 
 
We are delighted to consider any actor who wishes to apply, regardless of ethnicity, religion, nationality, or accent. 

Script, costumes, rehearsal refreshments all provided. 

Rehearsal Dates & Location
Rehearsals are already underway, and take place on a Wednesday evening 6.30pm - 9/ 9.30pm, and Sundays, 12.30pm to 4/ 5pm. Rehearsals are in a large community centre room at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon TQ5 0SA. 

We expect 75% attendance for the rehearsals in which your character appears. For safety, we do require you to attend all mutually agreed fight calls for your gladiatorial scene. If you cannot attend rehearsals, you do need to let us know ahead of the session. Just as you rely on the other actors in your scene to be there to rehearse with, so they rely on you as well. (any absence due to Covid etc is treated as unavoidable and not treated as "missing rehearsals".) Ongoing no-showing may result in the role being recast

Show dates
Our confirmed show dates are as advertised on the left, with the note that we are in discussions about two additional performance dates. These would be either a Friday evening or a Saturday within/ close to the timeframe of the other shows. The potential locations are in Torquay and Exeter. 

Payment (financial) and remuneration (in kind)
- Equal profitshare. This is the money we earn from ticket sales performing at the venues, split equally among the actors and crew in that performance. We do not deduct for costumes/ props/ rehearsals/ advertising costs as those are funded by selling second hand items on ebay etc. All actors and crew are given full access to the final box office sales reports from venues, for openness, in all profit-share situations. 
- Portfolio photos and videos. We always do costumed/ character photoshoots for each actor, to promote the show, which the actors are also most welcome to use in their portfolios, and we may also be able to provide generic actor headshots. We also film the show for streaming and online screening, all cast and crew are also provided with the footage for their own portfolio/ showreel use. 
- Refreshments We always supply simple refreshments at rehearsals and backstage. These are tea, coffee, squash and biscuits. 
- Spotlight eligibility  Several actors have been able to get their Spotlight registrations at least in part based on credits working with our shows. A credit in a show with us, therefore, counts towards getting your Spotlight, if that is something you are working towards. 

NOTE: We are currently waiting to hear from the Arts Council re funding for full payments but as it is therefore we can only promise what we can guarantee. 

All actors and crew in our shows, join on a project by project basis, as self employed, freelance creatives, who must report their earnings to HMRC. 

​The show is fully insured. 

About the director
The show is directed by our theatre company founder Laura Jury. Laura is a freelance actor, as well as working with the South Devon Players as an actor, director and producer. She has been an actor since 1996, a director since 2000, and founded the South Devon Players in 2005, to make opportunities for local freelance creatives and those wishing to embark on a career in theatre. 
Laura is a member of the Equity trade union Directors & Designers committee. 
Laura is also autistic, this is stated openly in case it affects communication or why she may appear "different", but doesn't affect the creating of awardwinning theatre projects, and it does not affect the care and respect for the rest of the team! 

To apply
Please email Laura on [email protected] to arrange an audition.  Laura will ask to meet you for a face to face audition in Brixham, alongside Rich, the fight director, and some of the stage crew, as soon as is possible.  This will involve working with some excerpts of the show script. 

We had a brilliant meeting with our volunteer Vikki, to discuss the launch of the test phase of our free inclusion project, Theatre Buddies, helping local people struggling with isolation and loneliness to access and enjoy theatre- and make friends.
The draft ideas are at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/buddies.html

Due to autumn availabilities for Vikki, and Laura (group founder) being seriously ill and currently unable to take on extra things, Vikki and Laura sadly agreed that Theatre Buddies will publicly launch in Spring 2022. This allows more time for preparing the project. This is later than we would have liked but with illness and life commitments eating time this autumn, there has been no choice but to push it to Spring 2022. 

It will center around a befriender being available to meet with people who would like to attend our shows at the theatre but have nobody to go with and are anxious about going on their own. The befriender, Vikki, will provide that welcoming, friendly face at our shows. We are also considering having social meetups, maybe once every three months or so, where local people struggling with isolation, depression and loneliness, can meet up with others who have the shared interest of theatre. 

Great news! We are so pleased to be returning to the live stage this year, with our production of William Shakspeare's Henry V. 

Yes! A theatre show, on an actual STAGE! - **AT LAST!!**

Tickets have gone on sale at Brixham Theatre - you can book now at http://brixhamtheatre.uk
(direct link at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/brixham-theatre/the-south-devon-players-present-shakespeares-henry-v/e-vpblzv) 

Brixham Theatre will have full covid safety procedures in place when it reopens in September 2021, and any questions relating to keeping your visit to Brixham Theatre safe, can be answered by emailing [email protected]

Open theatre auditions for a southwest-touring theatre production of Ben Hur, based on Lew Wallace's classic novel.

The auditions will take place on Sunday August 29th, from 12.30pm - 5pm at our rehearsal base of Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 0SA.

People are welcome to "turn up" but with Covid-safety in mind, it is useful to contact us in advance because if we get a lot of applicants, we may stagger the castings through the afternoon to reduce group sizes.

We will let everyone who auditions, know the outcome of the casting by the end of the following week.

The rehearsals will take place many Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons (schedule dependent on role and actors availabilities given to us at auditions) at a local community centre in Brixham, before being performed in Devon, Cornwall and up in Bristol. Most of the show dates are already booked and are all on Friday evenings and/or Saturdays.
We do prefer that all actors are based in the Devon area.

Full Covid-safety procedures will be followed in auditions, rehearsals and shows.

We have roles for actors aged 18 - 80, which range from main principal actors, as well as smaller roles, and crowd scenes. We expect that most actors will end up taking on more than one role, other than key characters Judah Ben Hur, Massala, Myriam, Esther and Tirzah.

All actors and stage crew are guaranteed a minimum of an equal share of 100% of the ticket sales (as shared equally among the cast & crew) although our fundraising volunteers are also applying for specific funding to increase that to full Equity rates for you. Profitshares with us are very "open-book" and include full unedited copies of box-office sales reports.

This is a self-employed role and as such all actors will need to declare whatever they earn from the project to HMRC as part of their annual self-assessment.

Costuming is part-sponsored by Tesco Bags for Life.

All actors and crew will also receive copies of individual character posters featuring their main character, portfolio photos from dress rehearsals, videos of the performance, and copies of any press/ blogs/ reviews/ feedback in which they are featured.

Actors of all levels of experience are very welcome. We look at your talent and suitability for the role at auditions, not at resumes.

Some roles will require action (combat etc) scenes which will be headed by our fight choreographers. Training will be given. There is no nudity, or visual sexual content. There are a couple of verbal references to rape in a single conversation. There is very little bad language; the word "bastard" is used by one character. The show itself will be largely suitable for all ages.


All ethnicities, gender identities, religions, disabilities, and other demographics equally welcomed. The audition venue is fully accessible. If you have any questions abut this, or making the auditions accessible, please do get in touch and discuss (or with any other questions).
More info at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html

This production is working from the original text. As it is a longer play, we have made some cuts, and it tells of the events in and around King Henry V's triumph at the Battle of Agincourt. With drama, humour and a wonderful range of characters, this is going to be a fantastic project to work on. You can read the original uncut text for the play for free on Project Gutenberg HERE 
​

Ages. genders, etc at a glance. 
As with all our Shakespeare projects, we tend to cast the majority of roles as gender-blind - this means that any gender can audition for the same roles. Shakespeare's plays were notoriously male-heavy, originally, but that does not always fit a 21st Century way of working. People of all ethnicities are welcome to audition for any role. We are also very flexible on ages. While we are not casting children (under 18s) in this show, we do not have strictly preconcieved notions of characters ages, other than ensuring that any family groupings reflect a relevant range of ages. What is most important is that we select the strongest actors for the roles. 

As we come ever closer to the show for this amazing script, we are now rehearsing with the digital backdrops and most of the costumes for the final performance. We thought you woulld like a look behind the scenes, showing that digital theatre, can be great fun! (oh, and if you want tickets, our box office is over at ​https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html) The show itself is online for 48 hours from first broadcast to allow people all around the world to access the show at a time convenient for them.