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

32 Chapter Three: Characteristics of Radio Serial Drama
Dramatic conflict follows one of three patterns:
1. A person (or persons) against “fate” or the unseen forces of life. This
type of dramatic conflict is not suitable for Enter-Educate drama, which
must assure audience members that they can take control of and improve
their lives.
Example A: A famous athlete is planning to take part in the Olympic
Games and try for a gold medal. He practices hard and takes good care of
himself in preparation for the contest. A month before the Games begin,
he is riding home on the bus. A tire bursts, and the bus skids, crashes into
a light pole, and overturns. The athlete’s leg and hip are injured and he is
taken to the hospital. It is clear that he will not be able to compete in the
Olympics. He is depressed and angry at his bad luck but is determined to
run again, declaring that he will not be defeated by a problem that was
not of his own making.
2. One person (or group of people) against another.
Example B: A young woman has a burning ambition to become a
doctor. Her father can afford to send her to medical school, but he refuses
to pay for her education. He believes that women should not pursue a
profession but should devote their lives to the care of their husbands and
children. The young woman must either obey her father's orders, find a
way to persuade her father to change his mind, or run away from home
and find a way to support herself.
3. A person against himself or herself. Many of the most difficult decisions
that people make in life are those they must make alone on their own
behalf. Choosing between two equally valid options can create a difficult
dilemma—although it need not be tragic or world-shattering.
Example C: A young mother, Glenda, has to decide whether to name
her baby daughter Jessie, as she would like to do, or to name her Magda
after her paternal grandmother. Glenda realizes that it is important to
both her husband and her mother-in-law that the little girl be named for
her grandmother. At the same time, Glenda—who was herself named
after her mother’s sister—knows how much she would have preferred to
have a name that no one else in the family had. She would like her
daughter to have a name of her own.
The more emotionally charged the choice to be made by an
individual, the more likely it is to attract and hold an audience. The
dilemma described above, therefore, would not make good drama unless
the mother faces dire consequences if she makes the wrong decision about
naming her daughter.
Dramatic conflict can cause the audience to be horrified, amused, or
emotionally affected in some more moderate way. Indeed, the very same
conflict can give rise to different reactions in the audience, depending on
how it is handled in the drama. Consider the following story line, in which
people confront a situation over which they have no control (people against
fate).