In radio ‘the pictures are better’ (small boy), ‘the colours are brighter’ (another small boy), ‘a man can sit on a circular saw in outer space’ (Arthur Askey), 26 men can fit inside a sardine tin, or the beach at Southend goes up down while the sea stays still (
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy).
You can have a cast of thousands, can travel as fast as the imagination through space and time and can explore the mind of a man, animal, flower or inanimate object.
Radio is different from the other dramatic media in that, paradoxically, it is more visual.
As writer, director, actor you have to master the precise and evocative use of language supported by music, sound effects, acoustic and silence to achieve feelings and pictures.
As a result of listening to these excerpts and following the exercises you should be well placed to write, direct and perform the beginning of your first radio play or to improve those you are already working on.
Actors: remember that the microphone is a lie detector. If you are not thinking or feeling the line before you speak it the listener will be alienated by your lack of truth and reality.
As director and performer:
- First have read-throughs and rehearsals of the excerpts – or better still of your own scripts.
- Perform and record the plays.
- Post produce using editing software.
- Burn your own plays onto a CD and / or upload onto your website
- And/Or if they are excellent enough we , if you like, add them to this website, and credit you.
