The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

Please support us through Torbay Lottery

8/10/2021

The all important link to all the information: https://www.torbaylottery.co.uk/support/the-south-devon-players

The Torbay Lottery is a locally run lottery which supports verified local charities and non-profit / community organizations. You play from £1 (and can win up to £25,000! We have already had two winners of smaller prizes) and in turn this helps raise funds for us as well.

We would (naturally) be enormously grateful if you would like to sign up to support our work, in creating exciting new theatre, and providing inclusive, exciting opportunities for local people of all demographics and backgrounds to get involved in theatre, to build experience in theatre towards or as part of careers in the arts, and work towards their Equity cards & Spotlight registrations if they need to.

100% of everything raised via Torbay Lottery goes directly into our work: hiring a room in a local community centre for rehearsals; costumes, props, insurances, printing posters and flyers to advertise the shows, developing free education packs for schools and audience members.

A look behind the scenes at the Ben Hur rehearsals

5/10/2021

Our amazing deputy stage manager, Jenny Abrahall, captured these fab photos of some of the Ben Hur cast in rehearsal last Sunday. We hope to start bringing in costuming soon soon very he next few weeks (we are still in early days!) . The characterisation and focus of the cast is brilliant.
With many thanks to Crafty Cwtch and Tesco bags of life who are helping with sponsoring costumes and such - these are some of the amazing local actors who you’re helping!

Welcoming a new tech

3/10/2021

Today Awesome Sarah (and the lovely Ziggy!) joined our tech team- today, Sarah came along to meet us, find out what our rehearsals are like, etc. Sarah will be one of the new people helping with tech on our shows- we will have 4 technicians for sound/ lighting so that there’s always one, and ideally two, technicians available for performances - around their life/ jobs/ family / other commitments
The other new technicians will be coming along to rehearsals over the next week or so to also sit in on a rehearsal and meet us- then training will begin!
#womenintheatre #theatre #performingarts #stagesound #stagelighting #brixham #britishtheatre #devon #torbay #arts

Rehearsals for Ben Hur Oct 3 2021

3/10/2021

Absolutely great Ben Hur rehearsals again today- including the galley slaves, Judah Ben Hur’s return to Jerusalem, and the trial & Crucifixion of Jesus. The cast are doing absolutely fabulously- and an enormous thank you to those who read in for those not able to attend with the petrol shortages etc
Our fabulous deputy stage manager, Jenny, also got some fabulous photos which will appear on our social media over the next week or so.
#theatre #Brixham #BenHur #actors #actorslife #theatrelife #Devon #Torbay #britishtheatre #stage #theatrerehearsal

October 02nd, 2021

2/10/2021

We are so pleased to be closing the call for the tech crew, and welcoming some great people who will be getting involved with us.

With the pandemic, our most frequent tech, Simon, is also a paramedic, and is snowed under with his job, so we all agreed to put the call out for some other people who would like to get involved with the tech side of theatre, with lighting and sound etc. We agreed to find two other people, so that shows could be teched reliably, working alongside everyone's availabilities and commitments of life, work, etc, - and to be willing to provide training as well.

As it has turned out we will be welcoming three fabulous ladies who will be learning to run tech on the shows. Over the coming rehearsals, they will each be coming to visit and sit in on a rehearsal to see and meet the rest of the team. Then, we will be arranging the tech training sessions for when they, and Simon are all available - that may take a few weeks to sort out around everyone's availabilities, but we will get there!!!

Ultimately between the four, we should always have at least one, ideally two, techs on each of our upcoming shows.
It is going to be so exciting to welcome them to work on our shows.

- Laura Jury

(photo: stock image at local theatre)

#theatre #theatrelife #stage #acting #stageshow #stagelife #stagelighting #stagesound #brixham #devon #torbay #britishtheatre #womenintheatre

Meet King Henry V

1/10/2021

Meet King Henry V!
An actor who frequently works with us, Rich Sandford, is playing the title role in our production of Shakespeare's play Henry V, on at Brixham Theatre at the end of November. (Psst! tickets are on sale now! Pop over to https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html for ticket links and show information).
Originally performed online earlier this year, this show went on to be well received as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2021.
Henry V now heralds the South Devon Players full return to the live stage at Brixham Theatre, after the pandemic, with three performances of this drama set in and around the Battle of Agincourt. Transplanted to a war-torn "near-future", but performing the original text and characters, the play follows the both the English and French nobility, as well as a group of “common soldiers” combining action, drama, and comedy as we follow the fortunes of a wonderful array of memorable, and diverse, characters though the events of the campaign.
At the end of October, the cast will re-convene, to re-rehearse the show; ready for three live stage performances at Brixham Theatre – on the evening of November 26th 2021, and a matinee and evening performance on November 27th 2021.

Introducing the gladiators...

26/9/2021

More fab rehearsals for Ben Hur today.
We started on the Games. We have two versions of this depending on the available tech at venues, but whichever version of the “Games” we do, it opens with gladiators.
This isn’t just brawling- the gladiatorial games, unspeakably brutal though they were, were entertainment and the actors appearing as gladiators will be recreating that atmosphere. Here are some of our gladiators, from all across the Roman Empire, today practicing their entrances for the first time.
(Photos by Sophie Rodgers)

Tickets on sale at Brixham Theatre for Henry V

27/8/2021

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 info@brixhamtheatre.uk

Finding driftwood for a prop! Recycling and saving money!

25/8/2021

A great bit of driftwood on the beach that will be critical for making a specific prop for our theatre production of Ben Hur. Recycling is awesome & probably saved us about £10 (which is a lot to us!)! The realities of making theatre in the U.K. regions
#recycling #zerowaste #britishtheatre #equity

Audience research 2021

8/8/2021

To get an idea of getting our shows advertising again after the pandemic, we ran a small survey about theatre-going. It wasn't enormous, we had 16 replies so far (it is stilopen) and we need to thank everyone who filled this out as it has revealed some very useful trends and information which we will be taking into account. For anyone wishing to still do the survey, it is online HERE

For theatre practitioners elsewhere, putting this into context, this survey was mainly shared around local discussion groups and forums in the rural southwest of England, aiming at reaching "the ordinary person in the street" to capture their views and feelings.

If you wish to share this information in a publication etc, please credit The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, 2021.