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A full-cast, audio mini-series from Big Finish, starring Terry Molloy, from the world of BBC TV’s Doctor Who. This story is dramatised in four-parts over four CDs and reveals the previously untold story of how a gifted youth became the evil creator of the Daleks. All photos and details are property of Big Finish.

This exceptional audio series, which is garnering rave reviews from fans and critics alike, is being slowly released over the last few months of 2006. When The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group arrived in Stockton-on-Tees to perform a play for the ‘Dimensions’ convention, they didn’t realise that they would be a small but integral part of this fantastic audio series from Big Finish. It was on Saturday 11th November 2006, that Gary Russell – director of the series – asked if he could ‘borrow’ some of the OFFSTAGE actors at short notice. One of the actors, Ian Kubiak, had already been involved in two previous Big Finish productions and, although wasn’t picked, decided to take the place of one person who didn’t realise he was supposed to follow Gary Russell immediately. Naughty Ian. So, into the lift with Gary Russell stepped John Lomas, Kim Jones, Liz Hosler, Barnaby Eaton-Jones and Ian Kubiak.

Upstairs, in the hotel that this particular Doctor Who convention was based, a normal bedroom had been turned into a basic makeshift recording studio. Sat on the bed, crowded around a microphone, The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group became The Council Of Twelve (sort of like a House Of Lords for Skaro, home planet of the dreaded Daleks). At this point in the story, Davros is lecturing these politicians and insulting their Supremo, with relevant reactions from all concerned. He shows them slides of mutated human beings and genetic experiments, and finally threatens them with death. Of course, being Davros, he doesn’t just threaten death and then not follow through with it. Much hilarity was had during the resultant death scenes, where sometimes the end result was either way too over-the-top or sounding like the last gasp of a particularly pleasurable orgasm. Oops. The assorted mumblings, grumblings, oohing, ahhing, ranting, raging, and general shocked, stunned and horrified grunts, groans and gasps can all be heard in the ‘I, Davros’ series from Big Finish

The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group would like to thank Gary Russell for his humorous and generous direction, as well as for asking us to be a small footnote in this audio series. Big thanks also to Producer John Ainsworth, who joined in on the hubbub, as well as sound recordist David Darlington.

Writers:
Gary Hopkins (# 1), James Parsons & Andrew Stirling-Brown (# 2),
Lance Parkin (# 3), Scott Alan Woodard (# 4)
Director: Gary Russell
Producer: John Ainsworth
Artwork: Stuart Manning
Recording: David Darlington
Sound Design & Music: Steve Foxon

Davros: Terry Molloy
Lady Calcula: Carolyn Jones
Colonel Nasgard: Richard Franklin
Yarvell: Lizzie Hopley
Young Davros: Rory Jennings
The Supremo: John Stahl
Lieutenant Nyder: Peter Miles
Scientist Shan: Katarina Olsson
Scientist Ral: David Bickerstaff
Tutor Magrantine: Peter Sowerbutts
Councillor Quested: Sean Connolly
Councillor Valron: Sean Carlsen
Section Leader Fenn: Daniel Hogarth
Major Brogan: Richard Grieve
Major Brint: James Parsons
Colonel Marsh: Lisa Bowerman
Tashek: Rita Davis
Baran: Nicholas Briggs
Renna: Lucy Beresford
Saboteur: Scott Handcock
Tech-Ops Reston: Andrew Wisher
Tech-Ops Ludella: Jennifer Croxton

The Council Of Twelve:
John Ainsworth
Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Liz Hosler
Kim Jones
Ian Kubiak
John Lomas

At the start of March, The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group were asked to provide all the ‘live’ footage for an independent television company’s documentary on the legendary English outlaw - Robin Hood. So, never adverse to jumping into tights and prancing around in forests, they set about filming little vignettes for ‘Robin Hood: The Outlawed Hero’. Even though it was freezing cold conditions for the location shoot, the cast kept warm by constantly moaning about how freezing cold it was and wondering how to make latex Quarterstaffs. The outtakes for the location footage alone were particularly amusing, featuring Robin Hood accidentally shooting Little John with an arrow, far too much corpsing (especially between Alan and Barnaby), an irate Will Scarlett throwing off his Lulu-style ginger wig (back-combed into a 1960’s beehive hairstyle), the noisy devouring and throwing of pieces of hot chicken, and Francis turning blue and then – surprisingly – yellow with cold. Nobody knew why Ian had come dressed as a 1970s Al Pacino look-a-like. Unfortunately, the night before filming, in a freak accident involving Kim, David’s nose was broken and he spent the whole shoot fending off people wanting to flick it to see how much it hurt! Alan (a professional archer) taught Barnaby how to fire a bow and arrow without killing the camera crew, the sound unit, or his fellow actors. Kim spent an inordinate amount of time sleeping in the warmth of the location shoot’s transportation – gracefully gliding out and back across the mud only when she was required! All in all, these were the merriest of men, with much laughter and good humour brought to a very chilly location shoot.

The warmth of the studio was required for a few supposedly simple scenes for the documentary. One was of the Sheriff and Sir Guy playing competitive chess against each other (using an actual Robin Hood chess set, with soldiers and sheriffs and outlaws and maids for pieces) – this took longer than expected when Francis and Ian decided to get into the match for real and desperately tried to beat one another. Another scene required Robin Hood to write his two ‘alias’ names (according to two different version of the legend, which tell of who Robin Hood actually was) with a feather quill on a piece of parchment paper. Relatively easy, you might think. Robin of Loxley and Robert, Earl of Huntingdon – those were the two signatures required. What they ended up with was Robert of Loxley and Robin of Huntingdon, and many other variations. Barnaby claims the lights were very hot and his brain was very small. The last scene shot was Robin’s death, where he is dying in bed at an Abbey. He asks Little John to give him his bow, so that he can shoot an arrow out of the window of the Abbey and then be buried wherever it lands. Aaron’s acting was exemplary as Little John, with real emotion bringing tears to people’s eyes. Barnaby, on the other hand, attempted to shoot a cooked chicken with his final arrow and couldn’t say any lines without adding a joke. Amateur!!

But, the scenes were shot on time (on location and in studio), the costumes were kept clean and tidy, none of the actors lost any toes due to frostbite, and no cooked chickens were harmed in the making of this documentary.

Robin Hood: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Maid Marian: Kim Jones
Little John: Aaron Jones
Friar Tuck: David Ratty
Will Scarlett: Steve Browning
Much The Miller’s Son: Alan Terrell
The Sheriff of Nottingham: Ian Kubiak
Sir Guy of Gisbourne: Francis Moloney

Thanks to Lucy James for her organisational skills, storyboarding & directing

Eight Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm.
(Adapted by Barnaby Eaton-Jones for an independent television company)

Over two weeks bridging September and October, The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group filmed eight separate classic Fairy Tales (originally written by The Brothers Grimm) on location and in the studio. Huge fun was had by all, with much laughter and much eating of sweets and biscuits. The long days didn’t seem long at all and the hours seemed to fly by. On set and on location, nobody moaned, nobody flounced off, nobody acted like a diva, and nobody giggled at each other’s costumes (well, not much). Much as is it doesn’t sound like it, the filming was actually quite tiring and hard work but ultimately extremely rewarding. Given the chance, OFFSTAGE would leap through flaming hoops to do it all again... quite literally. Big thanks to Liam, Sue, Aaron, Tom & Lou for making it such an easy and enjoyable experience.

The King: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Rumpelstiltskin: Sophie Jones
The Woodcutter’s Daughter: Kim Jones
The Woodcutter: James Barrasford-Lane

The Queen: Alison Pyne
The King: Keith Patrick
The Prince: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Sleeping Beauty: Liz Hosler

Cinderella: Sophie Jones
The Prince: Keith Patrick
The Stepmother: Kate Steventon
The Father: James Barrasford-Lane
The Stepsisters: Kim Jones & Alison Pyne

The Father: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
The Mother: Kate Steventon
The Big Bad Wolf: David Ratty
Little Red Riding Hood: Kim Jones
The Woodcutter: James Barrasford-Lane

Gretel: Liz Hosler
Hansel: Ian Kubiak
The Mother: Lucy James
The Father: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
The Wicked Witch: Kim Jones

Snow White: Liz Hosler
Prince Charming: Steve Browning
The Seven Dwarves: Ian Kubiak
The Evil Stepmother: Kim Jones
The Captain Of The Guards: Barnaby Eaton-Jones

The Shoemaker: David Ratty
Fancy Gentleman: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Fancy Gentlemen’s Daughters: Kim Jones & Sophie Jones
The Elves: Liz Hosler & Sophie Jones

After filming ‘Christmas Tales’, OFFSTAGE were then asked to contribute to the accompanying film of ‘The Christmas Nativity’. Gathering up a nice little crowd, they turned up on location in a familiar place. On the look-out for a suitable venue for shooting, OFFSTAGE had suggested Dean Farm – a working farm, conference and wedding centre that is run by Mr & Mrs Hopkins, parents of OFFSTAGE regular Kathryn Hopkins – and this turned out to be a perfect location.

Dean Farm Stables were utilised for the filming, as were the nearby fields and hills for the Shepherds, the Kings and the Angel Gabriel.

This early evening shoot started in warm sunlight and ended in the cool glow of the moon. The Angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Shepherds around a campfire was achieved quite spectacularly with some powerful backlighting and the effect was truly magical. Of course, inside Dean Farm stables, the little baby Jesus was as good as gold… Frankincense and Myrrh. Ahem. And Joseph forgot that his Hay Fever might actually be triggered by the fact that Stables are covered in Hay. He may have been a decent Carpenter but that doesn’t mean he had any common sense!!

The Three Kings: Iain Barton, Francis Moloney & David Ratty
The Shepherds & Innkeepers: James Hamblett, Chris Hosler & Andrew Rabbetts

A Documentary (for an independent television company)

The filming of three Christmas Tales in hot August weather was quite a bizarre experience for members of The OFFSTAGE Theatre Group.

The tales to be acted and filmed, all with narration over the top, were an adaptation of the Grimm Brothers fairy tale ‘The Elves And The Shoemaker’, a shortened version of the classic Charles Dickens story ‘A Christmas Carol’, and an original piece called ‘The Day Santa Was Kidnapped’.

All of these tales were filmed in studio. OFFSTAGE were working, for the first time, with green-screen techniques too (in the sequences for ‘A Christmas Carol’ where Scrooge is transported forward and backwards in time – this time through the air, with clouds whizzing by, and down a ‘time tunnel’, with swirling effects all around) and it was enlightening to see the finished product. A huge amount of laughter was had on set, of a totally unprofessional kind, with the Scrooge and Bob Crachitt being the worst culprits when it came to ‘corpsing’.

The Shoemaker: David Ratty
Fancy Gentleman: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Fancy Gentlemen’s Daughters: Kim Jones & Sophie Jones
The Elves: Liz Hosler & Sophie Jones

Scrooge: David Ratty
Bob Crachitt: Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Mrs Crachitt: Sophie Jones
Tiny Tim: Liz Hosler
Father Christmas: James Hamblett
The Ghost Of Christmas Past: Liz Hosler
The Ghost Of Christmas Present: Kim Jones
The Ghost Of Christmas Future: James Hamblett

It was a hot, sunny day in August and four OFFSTAGE actors were scanning about in dresses and hugging each other. The worrying thing was, three of them were male!

An independent television company’s production of ‘Alexander The Great – A Documentary’ employed OFFSTAGE to enliven the documentary with a few choice re-enactments. Alexander himself trotted about on a horse, pulling ‘wheelies’ and brandishing his sword with aplomb. There were scenes of feasting (with chicken carcasses strewn across the landscape afterwards), scenes of relaxation (with grapes, women, and the occasional bout of snoring), scenes of beauty (with Olympias – Alexander’s mother – being groomed by a servant girl) and scenes of good-natured combat training (with wrestling, sword-fighting and suggestions of Alexander’s alleged homosexual relationship with his cavalry commander, Hephaestion).

The location shoot had the spartan look of Ancient Greece, with the sun-bleached stone of a quarry surrounded by woodland greenery, and a turquoise-blue, man-made deep-sea diving lake close by.

In conjunction with Hartwell Productions, for a special Israel video commission.

David Clarke as ‘M’

Emma Hartwell as ‘Miss Moneyshekel’

Claire Nicklin as ‘Doctor Chew’

With A Special Guest Appearance By…

Rob Loxley as ‘Fighting Man’

Filmed by Hartwell Productions, in association with OFFSTAGE, in Hurcombe Way and Abbotswood Road.