Our 2nd Radio Play! Hurray!Welcome to the second production by Little Wonder: A performance of The Boor written by Anton Chekhov. Click on the play button below to listen to the play (or download to listen later), then read beyond the link to learn more about the cast, the play and the production itself. Enjoy! And if you do enjoy, please like and share!
This is a guide to writing short radio plays. A major part of my work this year has been the setting up of “Little Wonder Productions”, a production company to produce and publish short radio plays on the internet. You can listen to our first effort here, and we will publish more plays soon. Later in the year we will have a whole run of brand new plays, and I wrote this guide to help my writers. If you’re looking for more information about writing radio shorts, I recommend A More Perfect Ten by Gary Garrison for your Kindle as a great guide on ten-minute plays in theatre (plus excellent examples of ten-minute plays), and if you’re interested in paper books I rather like Writing for Radio by Shaun MacLoughlin.
I love radio plays. My particular favourites are the Doctor Who plays by Big Finish[i] but the great joy of radio is freedom. Spaceships, talking donkey’s, amoeba who fall in love; you can write any sound that provokes the listener’s imagination. Rehearsal is light, you record it once, and once published it is available at the audience’s convenience. The perfect solution of an imprisoned stay-at-home parent looking to get work on its feet. Read on to hear a whole new play and learn what we’re doing next.
Are you too busy to be funny?
I’m stupendously busy. This is a good thing for a writer. Part of the reason why this true will come out in a blog post tomorrow (exciting!) Another is that I’m writing about five different plays at once and my head is exploding. That’s ok, I can do this, but I’ve run into a problem: at least two of the plays must be comedies, but for me everything starts with drama. So, what the hell to do? How do you make a funny character when you have exactly 30 minutes writing time before you have to switch projects? Fear not – this guide will show you one approach to understanding what makes a character funny. Read on.
So, I missed the November and very nearly the December blog posts. Once a month posting doesn’t seem that ambitious until you’re reaching desperately for your pen through a pile of shitty nappies and the phone starts ringing somewhere far away on the other start of the flat. But I’m still here. I’m doing shed loads of writing. And I promise this isn’t the last post. Let me tell you why. (more…)
