Stephen Todd

Writer of Proud Songster directed by Andrew Foster

'Working 1-1 with dramaturg Kaite O’Reilly has significantly accelerated my development as a writer. It wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for The Radio Play’s The Thing.'

2007 - Entering the Competition and the Two Channel 4 Workshops
It was eleven o’clock at night and I was in the baggage hall at Bristol airport when I picked up the voicemail message telling me that I’d been short-listed for “The Radio Play’s The Thing” and needed to be at Channel 4 later that week for the first workshop. I’d submitted two scripts for the competition: Exposure, a short radio play about a tabloid journalist, blindfolded and tied to a tree in the rain, and a sample episode from All Children Except One, a contemporary reworking of Peter Pan set in Zimbabwe and exploring the lives of a group of street children living in Harare.

The first workshop was stimulating but very intense. During the workshop we had to select a scene from our script that we wanted to get feedback on. I picked a scene from All Children Except One that involved a young girl, Tanya, who is mute and communicates using an mbira, a traditional Shona musical instrument. The workshop discussion with producer John Dryden, sound designer Nick Russel-Pavier, and the other writers, was very useful and highlighted important issues that I needed to work on.

Following the workshop, the eight short-listed writers were given ten days to revise and complete their scripts or to write a new piece that met the competition brief of using the power of radio to tell a compelling contemporary story in 15 minutes. I decided to write a new play, Proud Songster, inspired by the Thomas Hardy poem. It explores the impact of the Rwandan genocide on a young English woman working as a teacher in a Catholic mission school near Kivumu.

The second workshop at Channel 4 was more relaxed and included workshop readings of the final four plays with experienced radio actors led by writer Annie Caulfield. Hearing the plays read was incredibly useful and the subsequent discussions with the actors and the other writers were invaluable in identifying ways to improve the scripts. It was great to see how the scripts had changed since the first workshop and how the other writers had developed their ideas and used the feedback from the first workshop.

2008 – Recording the Radio Plays and the Impact of TRPTT
Working with John Dryden and the Goldhawk Productions team to record Proud Songster was an amazing experience. The director, Andrew Foster, and the cast really captured the emotional core of the play and brought the script alive.

Being involved in the “The Radio Play’s The Thing” project over the last year has had a major impact on my development as a writer. Based on my script for Proud Songster, I was selected last July as one of four writers for an eight-month Writer Development Programme with playwright and dramaturg Kaite O’Reilly organised by the Aberystwyth Arts Centre and funded by the Arts Council of Wales. Kaite is an internationally renowned playwright and experienced radio dramatist, whose most recent play, The Almond and the Seahorse, received a 5-Star review in the Guardian.

Working 1-1 with Kaite has significantly accelerated my development as a writer and wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for “The Radio Play’s The Thing”. The one act version of my play, The Remnants of Once Fine Girls, which explores similar emotional territory to Proud Songster, had a public rehearsed reading in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Studio in February and I’m currently working on the full length script.

But the most important part of being involved in “The Radio Play’s The Thing” has been the opportunity to meet and work with some wonderful people and to explore new ideas and collaborations. Since the workshops at Channel 4, I’ve worked with a leading independent producer to develop and pitch ideas for new radio plays to the BBC, one of my cast from Proud Songster has offered to appear in my new play for First Draft Theatre, which will run for a week at the Barons Court Theatre in late July. Another has asked me to help out with a film project.

What next? The last twelve months has opened up a lot of possibilities and I’m actively working on a number of stage, TV and film projects. But writing radio drama is central to what I want to do as a writer and I look forward to the opportunity to work with Channel 4 again in the future. 

Check out the other wining writers for The Radio Play's The Thing

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