So, the last few days have been spent at Brixham theatre, setting up for, and performing, our production about the 1866 Great Gale of Brixham with an amazing cast. We now break for Christmas, although we are back in January for another performance at Ivybridge! (Box office details here) Our retiring collection raised approximately £95 for Brixham Fishermans Mission. Show photos by Laura Jury and Gemma Burford.
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Some of our team have been working with a multi-agency team led by Childrens Services at Torbay Council, at St Cuthbert Mayne School in Torquay, as part of the 16 Days of Action, raising awareness of coercive and abusive behavior, and how to seek help.
Our contribution at the school was for two of our team, to work with the students, through drama workshops, to create a play based on students experiences. This will be performed back to the school during 2020. Well we have had a fabulous day of productivity. A great rehearsal for the Great Gale of Brixham 1866, and our youngsters in the team got to do some product modelling of children's books for a local author. (check out her books at cazgreenham.com)
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The South Devon Players Theatre & Film Company, in conjunction with the South Devon Players Supporters Trust are launching the next part of our fundraising drive, with the corporate sponsorship pack. This is to raise funds for ongoing productions; expenditure includes rehearsal hall hire, costumes, props, printing of scripts & publicity materials, insurances, wages to cast & crew, provision of educational workshops & training. This supports the cultural work of our company, leading to the creation of educational experiences in theatre, literature and history, for our audiences & cast, as well as the development of both theatre-industry specific skills, and wider transferable skills for general employment and day-to-day life, for those working with us. For more information; or to chat about this project, please contact [email protected], or call Laura on 07855 090589
Our wonderful Supporters Trust, formed of long-standing friends and fans of our work, are busy creating ways for members of the public to help support the work of our company. As a result, we are launching public memberships, where for a small annual fee, every penny of which is used to directly fund production costs (rehearsal space, costumes, props, show posters, etc). members of the public can gain exclusive benefits. We should be be very clear here. Buying a "Friends of" membership does not confer any preferential treatment should the member wish to apply to join our cast or crew (we are strictly against pay-to-play) and make this statement to avoid any misunderstandings. Friends of the South Devon Players memberships are available at £10 for 1 year & can be purchased, or gifted.
Memberships purchased in November and December 2019 will arrive presented in a South Devon Players Christmas Card. Benefits include: - Concession rate on a ticket for each show (please contact for online code for each show) - Tickets available to members one week before they go on general sale. - Show posters signed by the cast. - Membership card. - Text thank you in programme. - Access to social events at least twice a year. To purchase, contact us on [email protected] with "Friends of South Devon Players" in the title line. These wonderful cast appear as the team on stage in our production of The Great Gale of Brixham 1866.
![]() 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 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. 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 [email protected] 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/ |
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