#recycling #zerowaste #britishtheatre #equity
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
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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. 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 THEATRE - TORBAY/DEVON - PROFITSHARE Character: Fluellen- Shakespeare's Henry V. Gender: Any (castings for this show have all been genderblind) Age: playing age 18-80 Pay: Equal profitshare of ticket sales (100% of ticket sales divided equally among actors & crew), plus show photos and a video of the full performance. Rehearsal location/ Dates: Brixham, in Devon Sunday afternoons: Oct 31st, Nov 7th/ 14th/ 21st plus tech at the theatre venue on evenings Weds Nov 24th & Thurs 25th Performance location / dates: Brixham Theatre in Devon: Fri Nov 26th (evening), Sat Nov 27th (matinee & evening) To apply: email southdevonplayers@gmail.com Requirements: Ideally can do a Welsh accent though this is an optional bonus! Should also be based in the South Devon area as will need to attend the rehearsals and performances in person. Notes & general information: This is a recasting to join our team who have previously done broadcast performances online of Henry V for Bristol Shakespeare Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Sadly our lovely original Fluellen is moving up-country for a new "day-job" and will be unable to do the "on-stage" performances. We will be asking our new Fluellen to learn lines between the time of casting and the "physical" rehearsals, as the physical rehearsals will mainly focus on the blocking and tech for the stage shows. One to one sessions at mutual convenience, with the director over Zoom can be arranged in addition. The script has some small cuts in it but is largely the original full text, set and costume styling is a mildly post-apocalyptic near-future. Video of previous "online" performance and featuring the full cast you'll be working with, also available. Our website casting page, although currently geared to our next main production casting, explains how we work with all our castings and shows including full details of how the profitshares are worked, our inclusion and covid-safety policies, and example of our actors agreements: https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html And here is a video from our founder (also the director of this production) also showing a clip of a previous Shakespeare show performance by our team - on the same stage as we will be performing Henry V: https://youtu.be/ggB6sYWnd30 Play the #Torbay Lottery for just £1, support our #theatre work & creating arts opportunities for local people - AND be in with a chance to win a luxury #staycation- to enter, visit:
https://www.torbaylottery.co.uk/.../the-south-devon-players Very important for us- and all theatres and performances
https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/society-of-london-theatre-uk-theatre-guidance_54471.html #theatre #covid_19 #safety #uktheatre #britishtheatre (news at https://www.equity.org.uk/news/2021/july/2021-committee-election-results)
From Laura: As an actor & director who has always lived in Devon, the fortunes of regional theatre (as well as best practice, making more opportunities for people in the regions and improving things for those involved in it, etc etc) are forefront of my interest! Do always message me if there's something you want to discuss, ask, input/suggest etc, and I will get back to you as soon as I'm able. ( and if I need to redirect you, I will do my best to point you to relevant help). I don't claim to be an expert (we are all learning and developing, all the time) but I do claim to be someone who really cares. - Laura Dear all,
We continue to fundraise as best we can for our upcoming shows, rehearsal space, and to be able to get things form the charity shops etc for making into costumes and props (as well as the insurances and the other costs behind the scenes like that). To this end, we are just reminding everyone that one of our regular ways of fundraising is to sell "lots" of used postage stamps to collectors on our Ebay shop (take a look at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/southdevonplayers) . We are incredibly grateful for donations of any used stamps - after all, if you do not collect them, we would be hugely grateful for any donations. They can be sent to us at the community centre where we usually rehearse, or email us if you are local to Brixham and one of us can collect. Please help us by sharing the word, and thank you so much for supporting local theatre work Laura The tickets for our production of Henry V at Bristol Shakespeare Festival are now available through two outlets. You can either buy via the Festival at
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-shakespeares-henry-v-the-south-devon-players-theatre-film-comp-tickets-156262343877 Or via our website at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html!!! We hope to see you there! Hello lovely people!
Apologies for the delay in updating. Mailchimp First of all, we think and hope that we have got the mailchimp glitches sorted out. It should all come out smoothly only Friday to everyone again as usual. We do ask anyone recieving our newsletter to let us know if anything seems glitchy though! Edinburgh Fringe Festival In very good news, we are, for the first time, but not the last, bringing our shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This year we will be taking Henry V, and next year Ben Hur. Many thanks to our actor Eve Germaine, for finding the details of such a fantastic opportunity! As soon as we have ticketing information, we shall of course be sharing the details all across oour website and social media. Henry V The rehearsals are going fabulously well; it is a real privilege to work such brilliant cast! Everyone is almost off-book and thier characterisations are flawless - it is simply a case now of practicing the techincal aspects and the show will be ready. Ben Hur A number of people have been asking for the audition packs and sides - which are already available. The information packs are on our website - and please email us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com for sides. Other Over the past months three people have been able to get their membership of Spotlight approved based on their South Devon Players credits - which is a question we are often asked - so it does indeed look as if the credits are easily accepted. Again, all fantastic news for everyone building thier careers. And that, in a quick summary, is the main news of the last little while. Stay safe, and keep well! |
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