WRITING FOR THE IMAGINATION IN THE
DIGITAL AGE
FREE WORKSHOPS AND RADIO DRAMA WRITING
COURSE
SCRIPT COMPETITION: WINNING WRITERS
EACH RECEIVE �1,500
PLAYS BROADCAST IN LONDON ON LBC 1152AM,
AND DIGITAL RADIO
PLAYS ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE WORLD
WIDE WEB FOR ONE MONTH TO REACH A GLOBAL AUDIENCE.
The London Radio Playwrights� Festival
2000
6 winning plays will be professionally
produced for broadcast on LBC 1152 and the Internet. Winning Writing
Fees �1,500 for each script.
This award-winning scheme funded by
London Arts is designed
to encourage and develop playwriting skills in radio with a comprehensive
programme of free workshops and a script competition inviting 45-minute
radio plays.
For the Millennium writers in London
are being invited to create stories that will inspire the imagination
of London radio listeners and create a picture in the mind of London
culture for a global audience on the Internet. Create a world and
a story through sound and have it professionally produced and broadcast
in London and available on the World Wide Web for one month.
Since 1990 this community-based scheme
has celebrated and produced story telling by Londoners - some of whom
have gone on to pursue successful writing careers. The Festival patron
is London writer Olwen Wymark with Judges and supporters who include
Yvonne Brewster, David Yip, and Mark Ravenhill. Winning writers in
past years have been recognised at Prix Italia, UK Sony Awards, Prix
Futura, Writers� Guild of Great Britain Awards, and the International
Radio Festival of New York.
In 1999, the three plays selected
for production were: Charley From Outside
by Frank Johnson and John Park, A College Near You by Tony
Neville and The Glamour Gene by Anna McGrail.
One of the judges, David Yip said:
�The standard of writing last year was exceptionally high. Charley
from Outside was a powerful and moving play, which struck an immediate
emotional chord. I think it is important to encourage and develop
new writers at grassroots level and ensure diversity of access and
production.�
Nicholas Wheeler, Chief Editor, ITN
Radio, responsible for the programming of LBC 1152 AM said: �LBC has
been proud to be associated with this festival which has consistently
generated award-winning plays. The productions provide excellent listening
and consolidate this station�s success as an intelligent, informative
and entertaining source of news, talk and story telling.�
Winning scripts can be on any subject.
Anybody living, working or studying in Greater London is entitled
to enter scripts for this competition and to apply for places on the
workshops.
Deadline for entering scripts is
31st December 2000
Scripts must be sent with stamped
addressed envelope to London Radio Playwrights' Festival, PO Box 518,
Manningtree, Essex CO11 1XD
There will be an awards ceremony at
the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn High Road, North London early in 2001.
Professional actors will perform extracts live
from the winning scripts.
Some writing tips for radio plays:
1. Most successful plays require a
combination of dialogue and speech which actors can perform, interesting
characterisation and good story in terms of plot.
2. Remember that most successful plays
have characters who develop or change as a result of the story line
or their relationship with other characters in the play.
3. In radio you have to remember that
it is the sound of the characters� words and actions which engage
with the imagination of the listener.
4. There is no restriction on the
type of subject or theme. However, plays with a cast of not more than
four or five main characters tend to make more feasible productions.
5. In radio you can place your story
and dramatic action in any location because sound production can easily
create a rich variety of atmospheres and environments.
6. Try to avoid overwriting and be
aware of what your characters can convey through subtext.
Recommended reading:
One of the festival directors Tim
Crook has written a book Radio Drama - Theory and Practice
which has detailed sections on radio drama writing, history, use of
sound, theory of directing and trends in radio drama. The book also
has extracts from radio plays. It costs �15.99, and is published by
Routledge. ISBN 0 415 21603 6. It can be bought from www.amazon.co.uk
and www.routledge.com. For
more background on radio drama and to hear plays on the Internet:
www.irdp.co.uk
Two free radio-writing courses of
five consecutive workshops at Goldsmiths College, University of London
by Tim Crook will be held during July and September 2000. Techniques
are intertextual and are transferable to other dramatic story telling
media.
Course One:
Wednesday 5th July 2000 6 - 8 p.m.
Writing techniques special to Radio.
Wednesday 12th July 2000 6 - 8 p.m.
Plot and structure.
Wednesday 19th July 2000 6 - 8 p.m.
Characterisation.
Wednesday 26th July 2000 6 - 8 p.m.
Dialogue and Narration.
Wednesday 2nd August 2000 6 - 8 p.m.
Irony and Subtlety.
Goldsmiths College, University of
London is in Lewisham Way, New Cross SE14 6NW. Nearest overland and
underground services: New Cross and New Cross Gate.
Course Two:
Wednesday 6th September 2000 6 - 8
p.m. Writing techniques special to Radio.
Wednesday 13th September 2000 6 -
8 p.m. Plot and structure.
Wednesday 20th September 2000 6 -
8 p.m. Characterisation.
Wednesday 27th September 2000 6 -
8 p.m. Dialogue and Narration.
Wednesday 4th October 2000 6 - 8 p.m.
Irony and Subtlety.
Same location: Goldsmiths College,
University of London in Lewisham Way, New Cross SE14 6NW.
The Festival is holding workshops
throughout London with sessions at Talawa Theatre, Chelsea Centre,
Finborough Theatre, The Pan Project and other locations. Workshops
aimed at Black and Asian writers are also being organised. Details
of these workshops will be posted here on this page, when the dates
have been finalised. The workshops are all free and open to anyone
who is living in the London area. Please e-mail
to tell us you would like a place so that we have some idea of numbers
attending. Places are limited.
We now have a date for Richard Shannon's workshop at the Finborough
Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED: Tuesday 3rd
October 2000 - 2 until 4 pm.
If you have a writing group and would
like festival directors to visit and provide a workshop on the festival
you are welcome to enquire: [email protected].
Winning plays from the Festival will
be broadcast as LBC Drama Specials on LBC 1152 AM 2 to 3 p.m. and
www.lbc.co.uk and Digital Radio
in London on Channel 12C (227.360MHz) on the following days:
Summer Bank Holiday Monday 28th August
2000
Christmas Day 25th December 2000
Boxing Day 26th December 2000
New Year�s Day 1st January 2001
Good Friday 13th April 2001
Easter Monday 16th April 2001
May Day Holiday 7th May 2001
Spring Bank Holiday 28th May 2001
Competition Rules:
1. Entrants must be living, studying
or working in the Greater London Area.
2. Entrants must be UK nationals or
domiciled in the United Kingdom.
3. The script entered must be an original
work that does not breach any existing copyright or defame any party.
4. The script entered must not have
been produced professionally for radio broadcast.
5. The competition will accept joint
or group written scripts on the understanding that the winning fees
will be divided equally between the scriptwriters.
6. The winning writers agree to attend
the awards ceremony and support the promotion of the festival competition.
7. The decision of the judges will
be final and no correspondence will be entered into with unsuccessful
entrants.
8. Competition entries must be typed
or produced on a word-processor.
9. Employees or relatives of LBC 1152
AM and Independent Radio Drama Productions Ltd will not be eligible
for entry.
10. Entries will not be returned unless
accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope with the appropriate postage,
and the organisers will not be liable for the loss or damage to scripts
submitted for entry.
11. Writers can enter more than one
script for the festival competition.
GOOD LUCK!
