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Audio Drama Session 1
 Do please add your own thoughts and insights of the session. The more collaborative the blogs, the better. BBC Radio Project Session 1 – Monday 16th February 2009 I'd sit alone and watch your light My only friend through teenage nights And everything I had to know I heard it on my radio Radio Frederick Mercury On the subject of the Radio (It is not compulsory, but suggested that you listen to Frederick’s lecture in full before reading this blog…..) So, Monday night was Radio night at the Actor’s Centre, (in the process of being renamed the opera centre), where we were joined by Jeremy Mortimer and Abigail Le Fleming, to begin a new collaboration between the Factory and the BBC Radio Department. I arrived not really knowing what to expect; should I bring a whoopee-cushion? An assortment of recorded farmyard noises? Could I fulfill my childhood fantasy and discover that I am the next Michael Winslow? (the cop who did all the sounds in police academy – doh!) To put it simply, my main experience of the radio was the constant drone of Radio 4 coming from the kitchen at home, and the bizarre intrigue of the shipping forecast after a few herbal cigarettes. Putting it mildly, I was yet to be convinced… To start off with Jeremy posed the question What makes radio? There were a variety of answers to the question ranging from; Sound, it can be recorded anywhere, there is no such thing as an audience as it exists in the head of each individual listener, different voices, and sex, (this last one I hasten to add was Federays’ offering and seemed to be her consistent theme for the evening, she even offered up some sex beat-boxing which I am sure she will reprise on demand). Jeremy then played us a few examples from the BBC archives. The first extract was from a drama called Deja-Vu. As soon as it had finished we were asked what kind of images came to mind. Some people thought that it was occurring in a super-market, others in a station. What struck me most strongly was that there could be any number of interpretations, and we agreed that the beauty of the radio is this element of mystery and intrigue. We concluded that you could almost say that all radio is a whodunit. You feel like a detective trying to uncover what the hell is going on, and what you create out of what you hear is just as valid as the next person’s interpretation. It seems to be a democratic medium in this respect. The second extract was from a play called Donation by Sean Buckley. This piece was quite different from the first. Whereas in déjà-vu you had been allowed to interpret the situation and circumstances for yourself, in Donation you were led to view things through a character, your audio-vision was more controlled and specific. There was also underscoring highlighting certain visceral words in the monologue. There was a quite a lot of debate after this piece had finished, with some people enjoying the style of presentation and others feeling that they preferred the more abstract nature of the first piece, and that this piece had a tone that was less believable. In the final extract we heard The Incomplete Recorded works of a dead body. In this extract we listened to a man self operate, and from listening to this process you really felt the words, and from the reactions in the room this experience seemed to be shared around the group. What was interesting is that listening to this extract, in my view, is much more powerful than it would have been to see this scene unfold on TV. There is some alienation that occurs when I watch bodies on the television, I have become inured to their shock effect, whereas when I heard this happening, I was left to unconsciously fill in the visual aspect which became infinitely more powerful and affecting. I have to say that I was surprised to be enjoying this session as much as I was. By this point, my mind was filled with ideas about how to use sound in performance, how it could deepen a story’s power and thus the experience for an audience…. Jeremy gave us a few tips on radio acting. He told us that radio recording is a process with a very short turnaround, people are usually expected to come ready prepared and ready to go. He told us how his heart sinks when he sees an actor arrive with an unopened script. Take note! He also commented on the importance of keeping the performance fresh, and that after many takes this can be affected detrimentally. Which seems to tie in with a theme that is a mini-obsession at the Factory, the idea of “being in the moment”. We were then all instructed to go away and find some sound-effects in the room. We came up with; book pages turning, the sound of the metal pipe, scrunching paper, a zip and pouring water. We came up with a story about a happening in a library which segued into a sex tryst, (Federay), but it demonstrated that out of a few cursory sound effects you can create any story. This then set us up for the next task. We assembled in groups of three and had to come up with 1 minute dramas on the subject of the human body. All the pieces can now be heard online, so I am not going to bore you with the minutiae of each piece, it’s better that you listen to each one and make your own mind up. What I will say though is that all the pieces were really interesting in their own right, and what was most surprising to me was that sometimes when I heard things live I thought that they sounded a little trite or inaudible, but then in playback the same moments became really powerful and involving. Equally though moments that appeared strong on first hearing were lessened in playback. This seemed like something to investigate in the future and showed that there is a subtlety to this radio lark! John Hopkins made an interesting comment, that like anything that we do at the Factory, specificity of intention seems to be as important on radio as in live theatrical performance. The two are analogous. We also discussed the experimental possibilities of people being fed lines before they say them in performance, to try and increase the spontaneity and freshness of the lines between two performers, and thought that we could try something like this out in future sessions. It also seemed important that the listener is allowed space to be creative in the process, as we ourselves discovered in listening to deja-vu, at the beginning of the session. I left the session, got on my bike and was lost in the maelstrom of the cities’ cacophony, but with my ears a little more fluent in how to distinguish between the myriad sounds that surrounded me. All we hear is Radio ga ga Radio goo goo Radio ga ga All we hear is Radio ga ga Radio blah blah Radio what's new? Radio, someone still loves you! Loves you xx Charlie Cattrall |
A Rhythm - 1:41 |
TimEvans |
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| simonmuller | Great Blog and Great Session | 6 | Feb 25 2009, 7:26 AM EST by simonmuller | ||
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Thread started: Feb 23 2009, 9:55 AM EST
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Great blog Charlie - and I have listened to Mr. Mercury's lecture as you suggested. In terms of the session itself - I was interested to notice the number of pieces out of the 10 we created that had very LITTLE dialogue, relative to the length of the pieces (have a listen to the clips uploaded and you'll see what I mean) - which chimed with the first piece that we listened to with Jeremy. Interesting given that my initial response to "What makes a radio play?" was "Dialogue" - so is it possible to create a piece of radio/audio drama that is entirely without speech? A challenge perhaps.....
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| FayeThomas | Great fun... | 0 | Feb 17 2009, 8:47 PM EST by FayeThomas | ||
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Thread started: Feb 17 2009, 8:47 PM EST
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I really loved this session. Radio opens up so many infinite possibilities for imaginative writing, much more so, I think, than other mediums. Puts you in a place somewhere between writing fiction narrative whilst still being granted the same immediacy and living-ness that comes with stage writing - if not more so, because we lose the distance and gain intimacy. Fuck, we can even be inside people's heads... how cool is that.
How exciting... Hooray! |
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| Momo-peach | BBC Radio Session | 0 | Feb 17 2009, 7:00 PM EST by Momo-peach | ||
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Thread started: Feb 17 2009, 7:00 PM EST
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Thanks for putting these up Tim, it's great to be able to hear the mini-plays from comfy home.
I learnt so much this lesson, especially the idea that radio is a medium of sound creating unlimited imagination in the head of the listener - you can be taken into an intimate sex scene (Federay), onto someone's head (like Maddy's itchy scalp) and into a desert pulling out tape worms from John’s bum. Looking forward to next week's journeys. Susy x |
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