We are thrilled to announce that from the start of November, we will have a regular fundraising stall at Brixham Pannier Market, as arranged for our us by our lovely supporter Maggie Donaldson, every penny raised goes directly into funding our theatre rehearsal space hire at Chestnut Community Centre, and anything over, into the costumes, props, equipment and insurances needed for our shows.​  This allows for bigger and better shows, which in turn provide more opportunities for local actors, more work opportunities, and, though the use of local rehearsal venues, also goes on to support wider community facilities here in Brixham. 

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.

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.

Another great show at Ivybridge, and a lovely visit from Ann Laity the Mayor. The Watermark at Brixham is a fantastic space for performing, with a lot of versatility in the space. We had a great night, with a fantastic cast- it was a bit too busy an evening to get lots of photographs but we are planning a big photoshoot at Bristol. A huge thank you to the venue and the lovely audience at the Watermark. :)

The clearup at our rehearsal venue of Chestnut Community Centre began yesterday, after the boiler flood. Some of our team came together with Brixham United Spiritualist Church who also use the building, came together to repair. We found that the damage was worse than we thought - we had to strip the walls  right back to concrete, and bring the dehumidifier back in for a few days, as lots more water was trapped behind the paintwork.
Structurally, the building is fine, and the electrics are fine, but just about everything else is ruined, so, we are allowing the building to dry further, and then there will be a big call out to both the theatre company and the church-goers, to come together to re-plaster and repaint the building, and repair a few holes and other discovered damage.