Use the links to the left to navigate to the Cast, Crew, Reviews and Photos pages. You can also read more about the origins of "Monstrous Regiment" and download some of the exciting publicity material.
Special Thanks
The director, cast and crew of Monstrous Regiment would like to extend their thanks to:
Stephen Briggs - Naomi Tummins and Methuen Publishing - Helena College - David Simmonite and Midland T.A.F.E. - A.S.A.P. Printing - Sue Carter and The Sun Room - Jill Van Geest - Ian Lusted - Randy Edelman - Todd Eldredge - Andrew Shugg - Rebecca Bowra - Kelly Van Geest - Karen Schmidt - Casper Smoochkatt
and those in the Cast and Crew who stepped outside their usual duties to help with other aspects of the Production
Director's Notes
With the conclusion of the show, it was very gratifying to be able to look back on the whole production and be reminded on what a pleasant experience it was.
With Pratchett production number four under our belts, both we, and our audiences can look forward to more. Comments and support we have received only reinforces what we already think of our own work, that we are indeed among the best practitioners of Pratchett.
Like our other forays into presenting Discworld onstage, MONSTROUS REGIMENT was a BIG show. And not just in terms of the size of the Cast and Crew, although that contributed very much so to the production's magnitude.
It was huge in the Costume Department - not just using stuff from our own built-up stores, not only tracking down other clothes, but most importantly, finalising the decision to make the soldier's uniforms ourselves, and then having some wonderfully dedicated people to achieve this.
It was a big task to tackle the "soundtrack" for the show as well. ARENA shows (particulary our Pratchett productions) are big on the use of music and sound effects/ambience tracks to add to the mood and action of each scene. If a scene is set in a forest, well, you need forest background noises, and not the usual "amateur" broadcast of them where they play for the first few seconds of the scene then fade out. If it's a forest then the effects should play for the whole of the scene. That's the way we do it at least. Perhaps more of a filmic rather than 'traditional" theatrical use of the device, but one we've used to great effect over the years. And we're big on music, too. Linking scenes together, covering scene changes, during action sequences and sometimes even playing under a particular speech to enhance the tone of the words. As usual, we mainly sample from various film soundtracks, and in this instance, found music that was military in tone, but not recognisable tunes - stuff from the likes of "Glory", "Barry Lyndon", "Lord of the Rings" as well as marching music vaguely from the Napoleonic era. Most of the music and effects wash over the audience. They are not always aware of particular tracks. But they do feel the changing moods and are carried along with them.
The production was also large in the Props Department, with perhaps not as many things required for this show as has been required for previous shows, but certainly a more eclectic set of props was needed. Where does one find a Carrier Pigeon (stuffed, of course)? And little beer barrel kegs? Doesn't seem a difficult find, in theory. A monocle? A doddle! With a rallying around of the troops (if you pardon the pun) things were volunteered or found - which just goes to show what a great sense of teamwork existed on this production. Yeah, you need teamwork on every theatre production, but you don't always get it, or not to the extent it seemed to flourish on this show. So, I was very pleased with general feeling of helpfulness and goodwill that exhibited itself in bucket-loads during the course of creating this production.
And of course, it takes a massive effort to draw together all the various aspects of the production, from Lights and Sound, to Publicity, to Set Production, to the Cast and the Crew, all co-ordinating this large group of people to come together and hit their peak in time for the performance season. I was very fortunate to have two co-producers on this show, and they certainly relieved me of some of the burden of co-ordinating the whole thing myself. I am still amazed on many occassions at how some darn fine people can do their utmost to make everything come together at the right time. And have a jolly good time enjoying themselves in the process! Perhaps it is only me who seems to get greyer in the hair and shorter in the fingernails, as the production nears the time when it is ready for the audience.
Why choose to stage this play (particularly considering the playtext wouldn't be published until around November 2004)? Well, like many other theatre companies, ARENA has a lot of very talented females in the ranks, and we all know how many plays are out there have a lot of really good roles for female characters. MONSTROUS REGIMENT presented us with the opportunity to create many interesting, intriguing and challenging roles for women. There's a whole troop of them, after all! Can't let a chance like that go begging. So we didn't. Of course, this is on top of the wonderful story and very apt themic concerns of the play, and, well, hey, it's Pratchett! Do we really need any other reason?
Personally I would like to extend a very warm "thank you" in VERY BIG LETTERS (if I knew how to do it on this website) to all those people that were associated with the show. The proof of the amount of hard work you all put into the production is borne out in the very wonderful responses we received from audiences.
Roll on ARENA's next Pratchett production. Hmmm. Now just what will it be?
Simon James.
