The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company News

A fantastic week working on Ben Hur, preparing for the theatre tour

3/3/2022

Tickets for all our live venues are now on sale, with Penzance, at the Penlee Open Air Theatre, being the latest added to the list.
With people already coming from all across the UK, including film & TV casting directors scouting our actors and crew, as well as avid theatre fans, it is well worth booking as early as you can to ensure that you get the seats you want at the venue you want.

All tickets can be found at www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html

Behind the scenes, rehearsals are running amazingly; the cast are doing amazingly, with performances that will simply blow you away. We have been quiet for a while, working on a lot of things behind the scenes, and are coming back on the publicity radar in the runup to our first performances of Ben Hur.

Promotional photoshoot for Ben Hur

17/2/2022

Few rehearsals have resulted in some fabulous photoshoots for as many of the Ben Hur actors as could attend the shoots at Brixham Theatre last Sunday after rehearsals. Photos by Laura Jury at the South Devon Players and Paul at Brixham Theatre

Tickets are on sale at https://www.southdevonplayers.com/box-office.html for Brixham Theatre and all other show venues.

Education pack addition - Ben Hur: British Sign Language

26/1/2022

Part of our show education packs for students traditionally, is a video showing ten words from the show in BSL (British Sign Language.)
Sarah Gregori has kindly created this video for our Ben Hur education pack, and also added in the full alphabet in BSL as well.
This video is subtitled as well.
Feel free to share to anyone who may find it useful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9URt2-OlrE

Thank you so much

21/1/2022

Two amazing local organisations supporting our work this week- we are so grateful to both.
Enormous thank you to Brixham Town Council for approving a grant to pay for our rehearsal space for the next 12 months covering the rest of our rehearsals for Ben Hur, and then for our following show Beowulf, creating loads of creative opportunities for local people. This is an enormous help- thank you so much to the Council
Also an equally huge thank you to Brixham Sea Rangers for providing the wooden oars for our lovely galley slaves in our theatre production of Ben Hur following our shoutout on Facebook.
#theatre #regionaltheatre #thankyou #britishtheatre #brixham #torbay #acting #actorslife #supportarts #supportheatre #benhur #gratitude

Photoshoots and stray doggies!

16/1/2022

Fabulous early call for photoshoot at Chestnut Community Centre with the two lead actors in our stage production of Ben Hur. By this time next week the posters will be ready.
A huge thank you to Jenny for doing the photos and to Carol for sorting Judah Ben Hur’s outfit.
Third photo is Spirit- a large and beautiful elderly stray dog who joined us for a little while (now reunited with his humans)
#theatre #benhur #brixham #actor #actorslife #regionaltheatre #britishtheatre #torbay #acting #photoshoot #modellife #stage #performingarts #creative #dog #doggie

Volunteer call

11/1/2022

We are looking for some lovely volunteers:

People to help Laura with fundraising:. The most important thing is help with writing grant bids. I'm autistic and tend to get in a muddle with what some of the more ambiguous questions mean - I am terrible for thinking they mean something else - or how to word things in a way funders like, in their form word counts. I can talk passionately about the group and our work for hours but not in a way that works for forms, it seems. I also have dyscalculia and get in a muddle when I am asked for a detailed spreadsheet instead of a simple budget written on word and checked on my calculator! Someone good at writing funder-speak and spreadsheets to help me would be a godsend.
Someone good at British Sign Language. We like to do an education pack alongside each show, free on our website for people to access, and one of those things, is a video of "ten words from the show, in BSL". I don't speak BSL, and the person who used to do them has moved away. This can be done from home (using plain wall and a phone camera) or we can do it in Brixham at the community centre where we rehearse. We aim do three or four of these short videos per year usually so there isn't loads of time commitment needed.
Please contact us on southdevonplayers@gmail.com if you can possibly help, to discuss further.
Thank you so much.
Laura

January 07th, 2022

7/1/2022

So good to be getting back to rehearsals for Ben Hur after Christmas with a fabulous cast and crew .

We are also delighted to announce that we have been able to cast the role of Quintus Arrius, who is now being played by the lovely Tim Herbert, a barrister who has recently moved from New Zealand to Torbay, and loves acting in his spare time.

#theatre #acting #actorslife #benhur #brixham #brixhamtheatre #britishtheatre #rehearsals #regionaltheatre #stage #devon #happynewyear2022 #awesome

Urgent casting call for Ben Hur - recasting Quintus Arrius

28/12/2021

We are looking for an actor to take on the role of Quintus Arrius, plus some additional one-scene roles for our theatre production of Ben Hur. This is a touring theatre show (touring the southwest of England), on our biggest tour ever, set in the 1st Century Roman Empire, based on the novel by Lew Wallace.

Covid Safety
Covid safety protocols are in place for the rehearsals and shows, in line with that provided by Equity. All actors and crew are asked to test themselves before attending. We keep a good airflow through the rehearsal space at all times, and the director & fight trainer together disinfect the space (a rented community centre room) thoroughly before the rest of cast and crew arrive, ahead of each session.

Actor's roles:
Recasting Quintus Arrius.
Quintus Arrius is a pivotal character in the story of Ben Hur. Arrius is the Roman naval commander who is rescued during a sea battle by Judah Ben Hur, and later frees, and adopts Judah.

The original character in the story is male although the original actor playing the role with us was female, so the casting is genderblind and based purely on "rightness for the part".
Age is unimportant, we are ideally looking for late thirties up to seventies, but happy to be flexible. It is not a role suitable for a child. As with the majority of actors in our show, the actor will also be asked to take on small additional roles in the show. The main scenes are below.

FULL speaking scene list for this actor
- (As Roman soldier): The arrest of Judah Ben Hur & family
- ( As Quintus Arrius): Arrival at the port in Misenum
- ( As Quintus Arrius): The Roman Galley
- ( As Quintus Arrius): The Sea Battle
-  ( As Quintus Arrius): meeting Emperor Tiberias in Rome
- (As gladiator): The Roman Games in Jerusalem
-  ( As Quintus Arrius): Final scene where Arrius reunites with the Hur family

This role involves fight action (Sea Battle and Roman Games). Fight scenes are choreographed with out fight choreographer and cannot be "improvised"

No scenes for this show involve nudity or sexual content.

The actor must be based in Devon, UK (Ideally in the Torbay area) because of attending rehearsals in person.

We are delighted to consider any actor who wishes to apply, regardless of ethnicity, religion, nationality, or accent.

Script, costumes, rehearsal refreshments all provided.

Rehearsal Dates & Location
Rehearsals are already underway, and take place on a Wednesday evening 6.30pm - 9/ 9.30pm, and Sundays, 12.30pm to 4/ 5pm. Rehearsals are in a large community centre room at Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham, Devon TQ5 0SA.

We expect 75% attendance for the rehearsals in which your character appears. For safety, we do require you to attend all mutually agreed fight calls for your gladiatorial scene. If you cannot attend rehearsals, you do need to let us know ahead of the session. Just as you rely on the other actors in your scene to be there to rehearse with, so they rely on you as well. (any absence due to Covid etc is treated as unavoidable and not treated as "missing rehearsals".) Ongoing no-showing may result in the role being recast

Show dates
Our confirmed show dates are as advertised on the left, with the note that we are in discussions about two additional performance dates. These would be either a Friday evening or a Saturday within/ close to the timeframe of the other shows. The potential locations are in Torquay and Exeter.

Payment (financial) and remuneration (in kind)
- Equal profitshare. This is the money we earn from ticket sales performing at the venues, split equally among the actors and crew in that performance. We do not deduct for costumes/ props/ rehearsals/ advertising costs as those are funded by selling second hand items on ebay etc. All actors and crew are given full access to the final box office sales reports from venues, for openness, in all profit-share situations.
- Portfolio photos and videos. We always do costumed/ character photoshoots for each actor, to promote the show, which the actors are also most welcome to use in their portfolios, and we may also be able to provide generic actor headshots. We also film the show for streaming and online screening, all cast and crew are also provided with the footage for their own portfolio/ showreel use.
- Refreshments We always supply simple refreshments at rehearsals and backstage. These are tea, coffee, squash and biscuits.
- Spotlight eligibility  Several actors have been able to get their Spotlight registrations at least in part based on credits working with our shows. A credit in a show with us, therefore, counts towards getting your Spotlight, if that is something you are working towards.

NOTE: We are currently waiting to hear from the Arts Council re funding for full payments but as it is therefore we can only promise what we can guarantee.

All actors and crew in our shows, join on a project by project basis, as self employed, freelance creatives, who must report their earnings to HMRC.

The show is fully insured.

About the director
The show is directed by our theatre company founder Laura Jury. Laura is a freelance actor, as well as working with the South Devon Players as an actor, director and producer. She has been an actor since 1996, a director since 2000, and founded the South Devon Players in 2005, to make opportunities for local freelance creatives and those wishing to embark on a career in theatre.
Laura is a member of the Equity trade union Directors & Designers committee.
Laura is also autistic, this is stated openly in case it affects communication or why she may appear "different", but doesn't affect the creating of awardwinning theatre projects, and it does not affect the care and respect for the rest of the team!

To apply
Please email Laura on southdevonplayers@gmail.com to arrange an audition. Laura will ask to meet you for a face to face audition in Brixham, alongside Rich, the fight director, and some of the stage crew, as soon as is possible. This will involve working with some excerpts of the show script.

Covid safety document updated

25/12/2021

We have updated our Covid-safety document in order to formalise and describe what we are doing to keep our actors, crew, and venue visitors/ staff safe.

This is of course a living document as regulations may change at any time

Venues will have specific safety policies in line with the venue needs and legislation in place at the time of the shows, which we will also share with our cast & crew, and on the box office page.

Our document updated for December can be downloaded here:

2022-covid_safety_august_onwards__2_.pdf
File Size:	82 kb
File Type:	pdf

Wishing everyone a very safe, and positive 2022

23/12/2021

We would like to wish everyone a very positive and safe festive season and the same for 2022 (and beyond of course!)
Its been a tough year again for the performing arts industry, and for everyone on a personal/ health/ mental level, but it cannot go on for ever. Keep the faith, look after one another, and we will all come through. <3