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

Our production of Macbeth at Torquay went as well as the Brixham shows did, with more excellent feedback. A local newspaper reporter, Bob Jope, attended to review the production - here is a link to his glowing review:
Macbeth in Torbay
while other audience feedback and reviews on social media was just as encouraging.

It was also an exciting first for us, as the actor/ technician Dorothy Laity Lombardi attended to run our lights. It was fantastic to work with her - and to meet her  theatre-trained service dog, Emma. Dorothy and Emma proved without a shadow of doubt just what an amazing team they were!
(photos below of rehearsals, and preparation for the Torquay performances - and featuring Emma!)

So, we have got 1307 at Brixham Theatre under our belt. It is a really excellent run, and the feedback funneled back to us by the Brixham Theatre front of house staff, has been that it has been our best show to date.
Appleton Event Photography has filmed the production and this will be made available online to everyone as soon as possible - meanwhile we still have one more performance on Thursday at the Barnfield theatre in Exeter. Our amazing composer will also be there from Grace Marie Hancock music

In the meantime, work is beginning on our plans for our next show; William Shakespeares Macbeth.
We are working from the original script, and in order to create not only the best show possible as well as  the best experience and skills building for our cast, we dropped a line to the Globe Theatre asking if they had any recommendations or links to material. They are being incredibly supportive and helpful, we can only say an enormous thank you for the materials being supplied which will be invaluable learning for every single one of our team!

And that is where the news stands at the moment.

Oh and if you are free on Saturday, do come and see us at our fundraising stand on Saturday at the Brixham Happenin at St Marys Park in Brixham. We will have our stocks as well as a stall selling a wonderful collection of CDs, and some newly made tote-bags, fundraising for our coming projects.

Laura

We have been downloading more images from the film; here are a look behind the scenes at another location of the film (which is all currently in editing :) )

On January 6th, our team embarked on what we hope will be a new and very excellent series of collaborations with a local radio station, starting, with recording a radio drama of Les Miserables, for broadcast over the next month or so (just needs editing and adding in sound effects etc!)  - watch our social media for shared links to the broadcast. :)
It was fantastic to have a team of both established performers and new performers who worked together like clockwork to record the drama!

Having been in discussion with our editor, Michael, there will be, at last, a rough draft done when he is back in Devon, in Feb 2018, when he, and the South Devon Players committee will be meeting up, viewing, and then discussing the tweaks and next bits. At that point we should have a lot more info on the final timescales on the project.
In the interim, we are well aware that all of the cast and crew and supporters who have poured time, effort, money, logistics - or who love the project - are waiting very patiently, for news on the final timescales, so while we havent anything major yet, we should do soon, and in the meantime, I have decided to grab a few stills from the uncut footage. If cast would like a footage still or two, like the ones below, then do drop me a line and I will see what I can sort out  Thank you so much for your patience everyone :)

Laura

A new "take" on showteam shows was trialled on Thursday. Some years back we had our Three Musketeers showteam, which is still something which can be resurrected. But in the meantime through a series of events - an afternoon of impromptu fight show between Laura and Anth, back in the summer, and then the fact that a number of our performers are Assassins Creed fans, the natural thing happened.

And the Assassins Creed-theme showteam was born, we decided to put together a fight show for the final Brixham Buccaneers Pirate Thursdays. This is a charity, volunteer-run annual series of family friendly events - mainly pirate, but they often want different entertainment, and we work with them a lot.

Lucius, Steve, Ray, Laura and Rich created the final performance. It went so well than we have been asked back for the Pirate Thursdays next summer!

A busy weekend of external jobs is now past, with great feedback.

On Friday evening, Steve, Lucius, Laura and Rhia were booked to be the in-character entertainers at a medieval banquet for Hatherleigh Primary School  raising funds for their woodland area. So, Lord and Lady Bloodraven, along side Lord Redvers man at arms and Lady Eleanor Belstone (yes, using all local names!) alongside some other actors  created a rolling drama of a stolen jewel, a drunken Jester who took religion after some time spent in the stocks. Unusually for us, this was not a strict historical period, and more generic in its medieval theme, so we had a lot more latitude than we normally allow ourselves!

Feedback from one of the organisers who booked us:
"Thank you sooo much one and all. Well all of the guests adored "the actors". I do feel without you all there, it would not have been a success"

Then, on Saturday, we had our second engagement, six of our lovely team booked as 1960s hippies, for the Ageing Well 2017 festival at Lupton House near Brixham . A great day of handing out flowers to people arriving, filling the front of the house with bubbles, dancing, and welcoming the event guests.
Again, great feedback from the organizers
"You really made me feel I was back in the 60s thank you so much for your hard work on the day. I could feel the love in the air"

Photos by an audience member (William Kehoe) at Plymouths show.

Some in-show photos by the amazing Nicole Rosen, from our Jack the Ripper theatre show.