How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development- PDF

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80 Chapter Five: Character Development The writer’s first instinct should be against including a narrator except at the beginning and end of the drama. A narrator slows the action and breaks the sense of reality of the story. There are a few occasions, however, when a narrator—if skillfully employed—can be used in a serial drama. There are three approaches to narration. 1. The first-person narrator. The major character of the serial introduces his own story in narrative form and then slips into the role of a character to bring the tale to life. The first-person narrator is both the teller of the tale and a participant in it. In the serial drama, The Doctor’s Diary, an elderly doctor looks back over his life, recounts some of his adventures, and passes on valuable information and lessons to the listening audience. Each episode of the serial opens with the doctor’s narration, as illustrated here: EXAMPLE 4. DOCTOR: (as narrator) It was an extraordinary adventure really. I had never been away from my own home before, and I was still quite young...barely twenty five years old. And now the whole responsibility of the health care of this island was to be on my shoulders. (FADING OUT) I remember well the day I arrived... 5. MUSIC. DRAMA THEME MUSIC UP :05. CROSS FADE TO FX AND OUT. 6. FX. SOUNDS OF BUSY HARBOR. CAR HORNS. PEOPLE SHOUTING. ETC. FADE UNDER SPEECH. 7. ELDER: (OFF SLIGHTLY) Ah, doctor, we are so happy that you have arrived. (ON) We have been waiting for you. There are so many people ill on our island. 8. DOCTOR: I’m happy to be here, sir. My name is Doctor Lakut. Dr. Leos (as character) Lakut. After the doctor’s opening narration, the story shifts to dramatic form, and the doctor becomes a character in the serial. He will go back into the role of narrator as required, however, to explain the passage of time, the movement from one place to another, or the relationship of a past event to present time. After the listeners have heard—in dramatic form—the doctor’s experiences with a bad outbreak of cholera on the island, the doctor switches back to the role of narrator.
Chapter Five: Character Development 81 EXAMPLE 21. DOCTOR: I suppose it was about that time I began to realize that it is not (as narrator) enough for a doctor to try to cure diseases; he must also work at preventing them. I saw a whole new focus for my life, and I began to see that one of the major causes of the disease and misery on this island was the sheer number of its inhabitants—and they were increasing rapidly. I think that’s when I moved from being a doctor to being an advocate. (FADING OUT) I first spoke up about family planning at a church meeting... 22. FX. CHURCH BELLS. NOISE OF CONGREGATION SETTLING IN CHURCH. 23. DOCTOR: (FADING IN) And so, my friends, I want to speak to you today (as character) about a subject that is of great importance to all of us...family size... 5 The action then continues in dramatic from, as the doctor addresses the church meeting. When a serial includes a first-person narrator, like the doctor, he (or she) should be used in every episode so that listeners accept the idea that the narrator is both telling his (or her) own story and taking part in it. The dramatic interludes are essentially an extension of the narrated story. For this reason, the first-person narrator reveals a great deal about himself (or herself) during the personal narration segments. This type of narrator acts, not as a disembodied commentator, but as a person in his (or her) own right. 2. The third-person narrator. Like the first-person narrator, the thirdperson narrator introduces and closes the story and connects different places and times. The third-person narrator, however, usually fills the additional role of commentator, helping listeners to understand what is happening in the story and guiding their responses to it. In order not to compete with the personalities of the characters in the story, the thirdperson narrator usually reveals little personality. In the following excerpt, the narrator comments on the events taking place in a nation. The narrator never uses the first person pronoun, “I,” as the Doctor did in the previous example, and reveals nothing of his own personality.
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How To Write a Radio Serial Drama f
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Using This Book This book is a prac
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vi Contents Chapter Two 13 Writing
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viii Contents Chapter Seven 99 Writ
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x Contents Chapter Thirteen 181 The
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xii Prologue 1. Individual-level co
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xiv Prologue Source factors are the
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xvi Prologue perform a particular d
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xviii Prologue aware that it is pos
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Chapter One Introduction to the Use
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Chapter One: Introduction to the Us
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Chapter Two Writing Begins: The Wri
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Chapter Two: Writing Begins: The Wr
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Chapter Nine Interactivity and Ente
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148 Chapter Ten: Testing the Pilot
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Chapter Eleven Script Presentation
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Chapter Eleven: Script Presentation
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Chapter Thirteen The Value of Editi
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Chapter Thirteen: The Value of Edit
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Glossary This list defines the word
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Glossary 211 Four Ts of Teaching FX
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Glossary 213 scene script script he
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Index of Script Excerpts and Other
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Bibliography/references 217 Bibliog
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