A Radio Play? LO: to understand the components required to construct a radio play. "The diversity of plays that the BBC World Service puts out is a good pointer towards why one might think of radio as a good first port of call for an idea." Marcy Kahan Marcy Kahan Radio is an extraordinary medium. A radio play can travel through time and space, between centuries and continents.

How to Structure a radio play A radio play has scenes like a stage play, but these can be swift and fragmentary, as well as long and solid. Think of a scene as a sequence. One sequence, or scene, might consist of one line of dialogue, or it might just consist of a crucial sound effect. Vary the pace and length of scenes, as well as their background acoustics and 'location'. A radio play which has six ten-minute scenes, each set in a dining room, is likely to be less effective than a play which varies its scenes and settings. Drawing in the listener immediately is crucial. Construct the beginning of your play with care. "What you're aiming to do at the beginning of a play is hit the ground running. You don't want to spend time introducing, laying the ground work and saying this and that. You just want to get in there and grab the listener so that the drama is moving from the very second the play begins. Set up a number of sub-texts as well as the text. Put in place several running ideas or themes that will emerge later in the play." Mike Walker " One of the golden rules of playwriting is that you must always start the story as late as possible because that's where the conflict is. Begin with a crisis." Marcy Kahan Marcy Kahan

Sculpting the characters two Do not have more than 6 characters in a half hour play. There is a risk of confusion if you do. So, in 1000 words, you will probably have two at most. Remember also that the listener only knows the character exists if that character speaks, or if another character refers to him or her by name. Get under the skin of your characters. Get to know them really well. Each will have their own individual speech mannerisms. Don't have them all speaking in your tone of voice. Establish your characters clearly because you could say that most drama is about two characters in conflict across a table, even when it's about three or four characters, it's about characters in conflict with each other or with life or - as in Samuel Beckett's plays - in conflict with existence. And if there's no conflict, there's no movement. Also, you can play with the listener's expectations. If they think they're going to encounter the hero here and the villain there, swap them round, so you're slightly wrong-footing the listener - you're not upsetting them so they turn off the radio - but you're raising the listener's curiosity." Mike Walker Mike Walker

Developing Dialogue "Your dialogue shouldn't be - what's called - too much on the nose. Your characters shouldn't be saying exactly what they're thinking or you give the actors nothing to play." Marcy Kahan Marcy Kahan Try to remember that as far as possible, characters shouldn't actually answer each other's lines, they should jump off from each other's lines onto something else, or turn corners or surprise people. This will also create movement." Mike Walker Mike Walker

Good dialogue is not simply a matter of stringing together different conversations - every bit of speech must help the plot move in some direction, increasingly involving the listener as it does. If you have a problem with a scene, ask yourself what is happening at this point? If nothing is happening, that's the problem. In addition to speech, the writer needs to think about sound effects, music, and, something rarely appreciated by the inexperienced writer, silence. Silence can convey a variety of things: suspense, anxiety, tranquillity. Pauses also help listeners take in what they have heard and help prepare for what happens next. Remember that while the audience can't see the characters they don't want to be told what they are doing in clunky dialogue.

Thinking in sound A variety of sounds is essential for holding the listeners' attention and engaging their interest. This variety can be achieved by – altering the length of sequences, – the number of people speaking, – the pace of the dialogue and – location of action. The contrast between a noisy sequence with a number of voices and effects, and a quiet passage of interior monologue (the actor thinking aloud to himself or herself) is very effective. There is also a good contrast to be achieved between an indoor setting and an outside setting. “Music can give an atmosphere to a piece of work. Writers should ask themselves - how are people going to feel after this play stops? What are they going to take away with them?" Mike Walker Mike Walker Mike Walker Sound Effects These should be used sparingly and effectively. They can be used functionally, e.g. door opening, or to create a mood, e.g. dogs barking in the distance on waste-land. If used to excess they become tedious and pointless.

Setting your script A clear layout helps us read your script quickly and easily. Scripts should be typed. Names of characters should be clearly separated from speech and should be given in full throughout. Type all directions and sound effects in capital letters.

You will need to ask questions, such as What is the dialogue doing? (eg: moving plot along, portraying character, establishing time and space..) Has new dialogue been created? Why? How is one character differentiated from another in terms of speech? Does a character’s speech remain consistent throughout? How often do the speaker’s change? How often does the speech change pace? How are scene changes managed? Does the scene have its own structure- tension, climax and resolution? Does the order of events remain the same? How are sound effects and music used? What are they used for? Has the adapter used a narrator? How long have stretches of narrative in the source text been adapted for radio? What, if anything, has been omitted from (or added to) the original text? (eg: characters?) Why?

Listen to The Archers/Turing’s Test and analyse s#playepisode1 s#playepisode1 Turing’s Test