T HE
D EPTFORD
P LAYERS

Devoted to the living art of theatre.
Dedicated to producing important works of world theatre
and encouraging new playwrights through readings and full productions.


About the Deptford Players

With the Off-Broadway world premiere of Castro's Beard in September, 2001, the Deptford Players finished our second year of full production. Looking back at the last two years, a pattern emerges that provides some insight into who the Deptford Players are and what we do.

We've produced five full-length plays, two of them Off-Broadway and three Off-Off. We've given readings to fourteen new plays and staged two of them. We received an OOBR Award from the Off-Off-Broadway Review, acknowledging our production of R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End. And, we were presented a Local Hero Award from the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (ART/NY) for service to the Off-Broadway community.

Each of our plays was presented uncut and set in the time and place the playwright set the action - for example, our production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar was set in Rome and our Journey's End in the trenches of World War I.

The Deptford Players are committed to producing high-quality classical theatre, trusting the texts enough to present them intact and feeling no need to "modernize" them or force an agenda on the script.

That presents a pretty clear idea of what the Deptford Players is all about; classical theatre and new plays with classical themes, ideas and influences.

The Deptford Players - Classical theatre, classically.


Our Name

Christopher Marlowe, one of the first of the great Elizabethan Playwrights, died under mysterious circumstances in 1593 in a private house in Deptford, near London. The stated cause was a dispute over the bill or "The Reckoning".

The Deptford Players take their name from that locale, and our Reckoning shows that we must pay our debt by providing high quality classical theatre and new works to our audience.


Some documents about our aesthetic and artistic ideals

The following documents (well, document, singular at the moment) provide some insight into the aesthetic and artistic considerations that guide the Deptford Players.


2001 ART/NY Local Hero Award

The Deptford Players received a 2001 "Local Hero Award" from A.R.T./New York. Here are some excerpts of the transcription of the award ceremony.
For the past six years, A.R.T./New York has presented Local Hero Awards to
some of the unheralded angels of the theatre community -  those individuals
and small businesses which give of their time, talent and resources to
support our members.  They are so selfless in their generosity that most of
them were genuinely shocked when we called to tell them they were receiving
this award.  The most common response was, "An award for what, I didn't do
anything." Well we are here tonight to say that through your support, you
have indeed done something, something very important -  you have allowed the
arts to flourish in your neighborhood, you have made it possible for dozens
of theatre companies to thrive, and you have helped make New York the
culture capital of the world.

[Text Removed]

What do you do if you have a show ready to be produced, you don't
have the budget to rent a theatre space, no one's offering you a free space,
and it's winter so an outdoors production is out of the question?  When
Attic Salt Theatre Company found itself in this predicament, they went
looking for a theatre company that might trade the use of their space on
dark afternoons for all of Attic Salt's box office.  Jeff Berry and Lorree
True, of The Deptford Players, responded to their need.  Not only
did they offer their dark Sunday afternoons, but they also donated rehearsal
time and storage space, put an ad in their own playbill to help drum up
ticket sales, and accepted only taking a portion of the box office.  Their
understanding generosity allowed a show to be produced that could not have
been otherwise.
The Deptford Players are honoured to have received this award. It is our belief that theatre companies can and should work together to help each other out. Our arrangement with Attic Salt benefited everyone: Attic Salt brought up a show, the Deptford Players made a little money and some new friends, and audiences got to see a good show they would not otherwise have been able to see.

Our Staff

The Deptford Players Board of Directors is: The Deptford Players, in keeping with the Tudor origins of its name, calls its officer corp the Star Chamber after the court of judges and privy councilors that achieved its greatest influence under Henry the VIII.

The Star Chamber is:


Last Updated: 24 July 2001