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Rehearsals between now and mid October will be a little off the usual routine as we will also have some rehearsals and performances for Macbeth, so the first Gale rehearsal (table-based script reading, sorting out the performers contracts, etc) on Wednesday Sept 25th - rehearsals start at 7pm, which is our "curtain up" time, though we encourage people to arrive early (doors open by 6pm). I hope that we will be back at our usual rehearsal base (Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, TQ5 0SA) after the flood, but if not it may be at Brixham Theatre instead if the community centre is still unusable.
Please let me know if you have any questions. It is going to be wonderful to get working with you all! I will bring printed scripts and contracts on the 25th. - Laura Dorothy Laity - Maria Sheppeard Aaron Dorey - Bob Sheppeard Megan Stander - Ruth Peter Carey - James Milton Rich Sandford - Samuel Crocker Alicja Bagier - Elizabeth Crocker Alexander Slade - Rob Green Christophe Lombardi - Mr Skivell Laura Jury - Martha Dugdale Pieterjan Eyckmans - rescued French sailor Still to cast: (Please contact us to arrange an audition). MRS BUCKNELL (flexible age but looking late twenties through to forties). The wife of a local fisherman, and one of the poorest characters in the show, Mrs Bucknell is a capable woman who can turn her hand to most jobs, including that traditionally done by men. AGATHA BUCKNELL Mrs Bucknells daughter, aged around 10 - 14. Hard working, capable, doesn't go to school as she, like the rest of her family work to survive. She is about to take on a job working at the Sheppeards inn.
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Christophe Lombardi, a friend of the Players, took up the mantle, learning the role and arriving from Ireland, in Devon for the final two rehearsals, to star alongside Ryanna-Mae Lloyd as Lady Macbeth and a team of dedicated local actors. The show, performed at Brixham Theatre, the South Devon Players home performance venue, and then at Torquay Museum, attracted record positive feedback from audience and critics, with feedback such as that it surpassed productions by the Globe in London, and the RSC. Hot on the heels of this success, came requests for a second larger show tour, including from Ireland and the USA, and a request from the Long Island Theatre Awards to enter the production for their 2019 awards. They were happy to accept a video submission of the show filmed at Brixham Theatre. Months later came the news, that the Players were among the award nominees, and a request from the Theatre Awards administrators to send a representative to New York. The Players were by this time working hard on their scheduled production of Les Miserables, with the plans underway for an autumn tour reprising Macbeth. Laura Jury, the South Devon Players founder and director of both Macbeth and Les Miserables, was unable to attend, but Christophe once more took up the mantle and travelled to New York, collecting the award on behalf of the Players, which will be brought back to Devon during the next week or so, as he travels back from the USA. Brixham Theatre was saved from closure in 2018 by a team of local volunteers, and it provides a critical base for local creativity, without which, successes like this, would not be possible for local people in their hometown. The Players owe this success to the continued existence of Brixham Theatre. The Players are now also beginning rehearsals for the second tour of Macbeth; keeping most of the original cast, including Ryanna-Mae Lloyd and Christophe Lombardi as the Macbeths; although also excited to welcome new performers as well. The tour is currently booked into Brixham, Ivybridge, Exeter and Bristol, with discussions underway to bring the show to London, and further venues, during the autumn of 2019. While plans for touring abroad had to be put on hold due to being unable to find funding to do so, this has no way dampened the team's desire to bring the show to regular and new venues here in the UK, and to revisit attempts to tour abroad in the future. Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's best known dramas, alongside King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, and Romeo & Juliet. It tells the tale of a Scottish war hero, who, tempted by ambition, power, and supernatural whisperings, begins a series of murders, to take and hold the throne. Returning home from war, Macbeth encounters three mysterious women, whose prophecy of kingship, sets in motion his ambition, and ultimately his fall into madness and blood... The Players perform the original, uncut Shakespearian text, set in the dark aftermath of a nuclear WW3, in a post-apocalyptic design, with the exotic of the supernatural, and immersive soundscapes, to create Macbeths world in a new vision of the drama. The South Devon Players, founded in 2005/6 on the proceeds of a carboot sale, and still funded in much the same way, are 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 primarily specialise in researched historical theatre productions and old “Classics”.              Well, we had a very successful run of Les Miserables at Brixham Theatre, and cant wait to take it to Exeter on Friday (Tickets for Exeter here). Two days, three shows resulted in an exhausted by triumphant cast! On Thursday's final dress rehearsal, with a few tweaks underway , local photographer Andrew Barnes came along to get some photos. On Friday, after final tweaks to set and costumes, we opened! It went great!                      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.      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! |
This is our new format news page. To read all our news between 2010 and Jan 2015, please see our old format news page HERE The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, is the trading name of The South Devon Players Limited;
Registered at Companies House: Company number 11569166 
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