Yesterday, we received a message on an advert for our upcoming auditions for A Midsummer Nights Dream, that was absolutely heartbreaking. 
"I would like to audition, but I'm black" 
Obviously we (Laura as representative) replied immediately to let the person know that skin colour or ethnicity, is no barrier to working with us, but this warranted a bigger clarification. 

In South Devon, where we are based, the local demographic is less "diverse" than in other parts of the country, but that does not mean any kind of discrimination in our cast or crewing. There is no issue about skin colour, religion, ethnicity, LGBT orientation, or anything else like that. In face we have quite a diverse team, who all produce incredible, world-class work together. 

Selection in castings is based entirely upon auditions and professionalism, as stated in our audition page , and there are no other criteria, either overt or covert. No other details have any relevance to the selection process. 

On a wider scale, discrimination on such grounds is not only unethical, it is also illegal, and should be reported to Equity or a similar authority. 

In these times, with budgets stretched, and marketing of shows always being a challenge for any theatre company, we are proposing this new initiative, where theatre companies exchange advertising. A text page of line adverts in a programme, where we list each others productions in the same region, means that we all reach more audiences, encourage theatre-going, and grow together.  This isn't intended to exchange money, just help one another with a few lines of text. 

Since it is based on an exchange, (just with the provision of a checking copy to the companies involved, to prove openly that agreements are honoured), it should hopefully be something that is accessible to all companies. 

We are based in the Southwest (Southwest UK), and that is the area that we would cover, but if people in other areas of the country want to initiate the same kind of idea - that would be awesome :) 

Please get in touch if you would like to exchange with us, and get involved in this new idea. 
​Laura (company director) - email southdevonplayers@gmail.com

So, the last few days have been spent at Brixham theatre, setting up for, and performing, our production about the 1866 Great Gale of Brixham with an amazing cast. We now break for Christmas, although we are back in January for another performance at Ivybridge! (Box office details here)   Our retiring collection raised approximately £95 for Brixham Fishermans Mission. 

Show photos by Laura Jury and Gemma Burford. 

The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, in conjunction with the South Devon Players Supporters Trust are launching the next part of our fundraising drive, with the corporate sponsorship pack.  This is to raise funds for ongoing productions; expenditure includes rehearsal hall hire, costumes, props, printing of scripts & publicity materials, insurances, wages to cast & crew, provision of educational workshops & training. This supports the cultural work of our company, leading to the creation of educational experiences in theatre, literature and history, for our audiences & cast, as well as the development of both theatre-industry specific skills, and wider transferable skills for general employment and day-to-day life, for those working with us. 

For more information; or to chat about this project, please contact southdevonplayers@gmail.com, or call Laura on 07855 090589

These wonderful cast appear as the team on stage in our production of The Great Gale of Brixham 1866. 

On the evening of November 2nd, 2019, the South Devon Players won our fourth award. We were one of the organistions who won the Brix Award, a local award by the community organisation Brixham Yes at their community hub The Edge.  
The Brix Awards celebrate the contribution of local organisations and individuals, to the local community, and making Brixham a positive, and vibrant place to live. 
The South Devon Players founder, Laura Jury, and our stage manager, Sammy Hickman, attended this Musical Theatre themed event in costume, and were thrilled to win this award. 

This is the fourth award won by the Players.
While our other awards have been local (2010 Torbay Together's Arts In The Community), national (2017 Epic Award for England; All-England winner), and international (2019 Long Island Theatre Festival - Theatre Partner Award), all of them mean so much to us and our lovely team members. 
We are a highly ambitious professional theatre company, making opportunities for local people, and sharing our work as widely as possible, but we also value our contribution to the local community highly, and it was a huge honour to be recognised for it. 
It is often hard to be taken seriously as a regional theatre company, and things like this are a huge morale boost to everyone involved with us.  We are very happy today after this great news. 

Our lovely golden brick from the Brix Awards will join our other collection of awards. <3 

MALE ACTOR REQUIRED FOR LEAD ROLE IN LOCAL BRIXHAM HISTORICAL (TRUE LIFE) THEATRE PRODUCTION. - PAID - IN BRIXHAM (SOUTH DEVON) - ESTABLISHED & INTERNATIONALLY AWARDWINNING THEATRE COMPANY.

The show is set just before and during the 1866 Great Gale of Brixham, which largely wiped out the local fishing fleet and as a result led to Brixham having her first RNLI lifeboat, which was donated to the town by the people of Exeter later that year.

The character we are looking to cast is the lead male role: Bob is aged 35 - 50, owner of a local trawler and inn. His personality is roguish and intelligent.

Due to personal reasons an actor had to drop out, and we are looking to recast as soon as possible.
Show dates are Dec 13 and 14 at Brixham Theatre and Jan 18 at Ivybridge), We are also running a commemoration event in conjunction with Brixham Museum and the local RNLI on Jan 10th (the historical anniversary of the event)

Rehearsals are running now, wednesdays 6.30pm for 7 start to about 9 / 9/30ish, and Sundays 12.30 for 1pm start to about 3 or 4pm, at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham TQ5 0SA
The show is set in 1866 when historically winter a massive storm that wiped out most of the town fishing fleet, (lots of awesome stories of community spirit and kindness on shore amidst the tragedy) which led to Torbay getting its first RNLI lifeboat. The show is researched from newspaper articles of the time, and peoples local stories.

This is an internationally awardwinning, Brixham-based theatre company which prides itself on excellent shows, and is an ambitious, but friendly, hardworking team. Our facebook is The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, Brixham​; our Twitter is @sdevonplayers, and our website is www.southdevonplayers.com
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As with all our shows, this project is paid in full equal profit share from ticket sales (less venue hire, but all other show costs are fund-raised for with our market book-stall etc), PLUS portfolio character photos, production videos, and any/ all press articles featuring the actor.
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Please visit our AUDITIONS page, and see the right hand column for all information on how we operate. 

Our website has, on the audition tab, sample contracts, and information about how we pay our cast; for total openness. We are proud to say that while we are stuck under the glass ceiling of not being able to raise enough funds for hourly salaries at the moment, we have never once run a show in our 12 years, where we have not made back enough to pay our cast their profit-shares, from the show ticket sales.
To arrange an audition, please drop us a line on any of our social media, or email direct on southdevonplayers@gmail.com

So, other than the last albums of photos, paying the cast & crew, etc, Macbeth is over. 
What an incredible close to our tour of Macbeth, and 14 months of hard work. To everyone who joined us on the journey, you were incredible. From the lows of struggling to keep going to the highs of winning a theatre award in New York, this has been an incredible run, finishing with a public performance and a schools-only performance at Brixham Theatre, in our home town, where the first run of shows began last winter. The audience feedback has been brilliant, and it has been a completely brilliant experience. We are now working on a local history production; The Great Gale of Brixham 1866, and then the next Shakespeare show is already looming on the horizon: A Midsummer Nights Dream.
There will be a few more Macbeth updates, as other photos and show videos come in, and as we get further news, reviews and messages about the show. :)
Photos in this post by @Angela Harper of www.instagram.com/angeharperphoto/

In fantastic news we are back at our main  rehearsal venue of Chestnut Community Centre tonight! After the building flooded with the boiler upstairs that burst, we have been rehearsing at Brixham Theatre who very kindly saved us from some major problems, by allowing us to rehearse at the theatre instead, to keep our tour of Macbeth running (without finding somewhere for the final dress/ tech rehearsals, we could not have run the major part of our tour). A HUGE thank you to Brixham Theatre.
Tonight, the centre walls are still in need of repainting, but the building is now dry. clean and safe (including the electrics) so we are very excited to be returning to our home tonight for our first rehearsal of The Great Gale of Brixham 1866.