Romeo and JulietThe Reduced Radio Play

PlanningPlanning You have been allocated the entire play to reduce

to a 10 minute timeframe:

Decide on 4 or 5 CRUCIAL moments in each act, in terms of plot, character development and overall dramatic significance.

Choose key quotations from each act and consider how you will use original speech in your play. You may have to be creative here, eg in your use of sound effects to indicate a change of setting…

The next stage:The next stage: Draft your script and allocate roles

PRACTISE! PRACTISE! PRACTISE!

What are the ingredients of a radio What are the ingredients of a radio

play?play?

An Introduction – play title, read by etc

Sound: Dialogue Sound effects

Diegetic (sounds caused by the performance of the play- voices, objects used in the play- sounds that are expected)

non-diegetic (Sounds added for dramatic purposes- mood music, sound effects, narrator voiceover)

Silence

What often goes What often goes wrong?wrong?

Poor/inadequate planning The chosen extracts/ quotations don’t make sense Poor reading from lack of practice Words mispronounced/no understanding of speeches Group members don’t know what to do when

Poor recording Background noise Microphone placement/inconsistent recording levels

Poor Mixing/editing Inappropriate music/sound effects Sound effects/music drown out dialogue Distorted levels

Tips for reading:Tips for reading: Make sure you know what your lines MEAN!

Make sure you have thought about the character’s state of mind/emotional state and the purpose of the speech

Deliver your lines with feeling NOT in a monotone

Read to the punctuation NOT the line endings

DON’T RUSH the lines unless it’s appropriate

Record in short chunks.

If you make a mess of it; do it again!