Volunteering to support world-class theatre opportunities

The South Devon Players is a not-for-profit organisation, limited by guarantee, run by three volunteer company directors, to create opportunities for local Devon people of all backgrounds and levels of experience in theatre, to get involved in performance, build portfolios, and begin, or further a professional career in theatre, alongside creating world class performance based on historical events and classical literature, to delight people of all ages & backgrounds. 
We are always working on fundraising, publicity, and outreach, and are always looking for lovely volunteers to help with this. 
If you are interested in getting involved with us, please do get in touch - we can promise a friendly & fun experience,  lots of coffee/tea and biscuits, references for future work/ volunteering/ studies, the opportunity to make lovely likeminded friends, and helping with a really rewarding project!  Some of the tasks can be done from home, and some are more out & about. 
None of the projects out and about involve "lone working" - there is always someone else available to help as well (usually Laura)! 
We do ask that volunteers are friendly, reliable and only take on what they feel able to do.  We would love to be able to find a small friendly volunteer team to help out. 
Ultimately our aim will be to not need volunteers at all, and to be able to pay everyone properly, but that relies on being able to grow and fundraise...
​In the first instance, please email Laura on [email protected] to arrange a friendly informal chat

Current volunteer roles we are looking to fill

Publicity
We are looking for outgoing, friendly, well-presented people to help with publicity for our shows, classes and auditions. 
Tasks that would be hugely helpful, that we would be very grateful for help with include: 

- Postering (taking posters to notice boards, shop windows and community notice boards in your area). Please note that we do ask for permission from each place where posters are distributed, and that we do not permit flyposting of our posters - flyposting is illegal. 

- Costumed walkabouts (raising awareness of our next show, by doing costumed, in-character walkabouts in town centres, with flyers for the shows. Please note that we supply the relevant costumes, and that you may be asked for photo opportunities with members of the public.  You will also receive character and publicity photos of yourself in costume, for your portfolio. We stop a few times for teas and coffees. This is done in a group of two or more at any one time. 

- Helping on an information stall at our theatre shows and events, to promote our work, classes and wider projects, to people coming to see our theatre sows

- Leafletting (door to door leafletting for shows and events,  this is usually done in twos and threes, and we have a coffee and cake in town afterwards! A great way to get fit) 

- Making links with press, radio and local TV to spread our news. 
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- Identifying contacts at schools, colleges, community centres etc, who may be interested in our shows or educational offerings)

Fundraisers & sourcing
As a small group funded from selling second hand bits on ebay, the occasional stall when there is a local fete, and if we are extremely lucky, a small grant here or there, and being run on a day-to-day basis by an autistic person who finds a lot of grant forms inaccessible due to ambiguous questions etc, we are urgently looking for help with our fundraising. 

Areas of fundraising that we would be hugely grateful for help with, include: 

​- Helping with grant forms; especially seeking people with experience of applying for grants, or of administering theatre projects, to help interpret and fill out forms, and write the pitches in "funder-ese".  We are happy to find grant programs that seem to be suitable, the help needed is really primarily in writing the pitches!

- Running fundraising stalls at local fetes etc (selling second hand or donated items, or plants), or fundraising activities at fetes. 

- Researching new ideas and ways for raising funds and potentially coordinating fundraising projects. 

- Sourcing donations of things in-kind, eg materials for making sets & costumes, used stamps or DVDs for our ebay account,  old but functional equipment, etc.