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

128 Chapter Eight: Scene Development
Listeners have no idea who has taken the baby or even if the mother’s
emotional outburst is justified. They will have to wait for the next scene in
this plot to find out what all the shouting is about.
Weaving the Elements of a Scene Together
The following scene, taken from the first episode of the Bangladeshi drama,
Goi Geramer Goppo (Tale of a Village), shows how the various elements of a
scene are woven together. The scene involves Shahar, his first wife, Jaigun,
and their 10-year-old daughter, Fuli. Shahar, a selfish, unpleasant man,
blames Jaigun for not giving him a son. Moreover, he is feeling threatened by
all the new ideas offered by the visiting health worker and overcome by the
increasing costliness of his life. He has arranged to take his middle daughter,
Fuli, to the city and put her into a job as a house maid—a decision of which
the audience is aware from an earlier scene, but which is unknown to Jaigun
and Fuli. Commentary in the right-hand column points out how well the
scene follows the guidelines discussed above. (This script, like the others in
this book, adheres to script presentation conventions that are described in
detail in Chapter 11.)