So now you know. We made it to the final and we lost. Fair play to Crossmichael, who thoroughly deserved the prize and the experience at the West End and who are lovely folk, to boot.
However, there was something in the last episode that left a bad taste, something that amounts to, at best, sloppy journalism and, at worst, a lie knowingly told.
It may not seem much to you, but...
1. The King and I was a production by another local amateur company called Theatre 2000. Nothing to do with Regent Rep. RR member Tracey was a cast member in it, but that was all. It was in no way connected to Regent Rep. Yes, it was performed at the Regent Centre, but as per my last post, Regent Rep and the Regent Centre ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
2. I mention this because the fact that The King and I had gone to the expense of hiring a full orchestra, lavish costumes, and had (gasp) a musical director/conductor was used by the narration to perpetuate the myth that we are the "best resourced company in the contest" and to illustrate their argument that Regent Rep were the "haves" while Crossmichael were the "have nots". As such, and as the Nation's Best Am Dram crew knew fine well that The King and I was nothing to do with Regent Rep, this is a cynical misrepresentation (oh,okay, a lie): the type of thing which I feared might happen in the editing suite but up until now had pleasantly surprised me by its absence. Very disappointed.
3. On another note, Regent Rep did not already have an accordionist on their books, as was claimed ("Oh yeah, we're so well resourced that we have experts in every type of obscure musical instrument. We have scores of them, any instrument you can imagine - we've even got a Mongolian testicle-harpist on our books if you want one. No? Suit yourself. We keep them all frozen in Carbonite in our secret underground lair because we're richer than the Empire"). Ahem. I digress. Anyway, on behalf of the lady in question, it should be known that she had never played an accordion before and was handed a second-hand one and given four weeks to learn how to play it.
Author: Gareth Richards
However, there was something in the last episode that left a bad taste, something that amounts to, at best, sloppy journalism and, at worst, a lie knowingly told.
It may not seem much to you, but...
1. The King and I was a production by another local amateur company called Theatre 2000. Nothing to do with Regent Rep. RR member Tracey was a cast member in it, but that was all. It was in no way connected to Regent Rep. Yes, it was performed at the Regent Centre, but as per my last post, Regent Rep and the Regent Centre ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
2. I mention this because the fact that The King and I had gone to the expense of hiring a full orchestra, lavish costumes, and had (gasp) a musical director/conductor was used by the narration to perpetuate the myth that we are the "best resourced company in the contest" and to illustrate their argument that Regent Rep were the "haves" while Crossmichael were the "have nots". As such, and as the Nation's Best Am Dram crew knew fine well that The King and I was nothing to do with Regent Rep, this is a cynical misrepresentation (oh,okay, a lie): the type of thing which I feared might happen in the editing suite but up until now had pleasantly surprised me by its absence. Very disappointed.
3. On another note, Regent Rep did not already have an accordionist on their books, as was claimed ("Oh yeah, we're so well resourced that we have experts in every type of obscure musical instrument. We have scores of them, any instrument you can imagine - we've even got a Mongolian testicle-harpist on our books if you want one. No? Suit yourself. We keep them all frozen in Carbonite in our secret underground lair because we're richer than the Empire"). Ahem. I digress. Anyway, on behalf of the lady in question, it should be known that she had never played an accordion before and was handed a second-hand one and given four weeks to learn how to play it.
Author: Gareth Richards
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