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The Recorded Human Voice: Using Interviews in Radio, Text, and Drama

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The Recorded Human Voice: Using Interviews in Radio, Text, and Drama Lee Bloxom Full semester course plan based on HNRS 399: Recorded Human Voice, five-week module taught Spring 2011 The Recorded Human Voice: Using Interviews in Radio, Text, and Drama Course Description: In this course, we will explore a range of approaches to documentary work with a particular focus on work emerging from interviews and on innovative radio & web-based documentary programming. We’ll read about and listen to historically important audio producers like Edward R. Murrow and Studs Terkel, explore how interviews are used in verbatim theater, and survey interesting contemporary audio-based work. Required Texts: • Jessica Abel and Ira Glass. Radio: An Illustrated Guide. • John Biewen & Alexa Dilworth, eds. Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound. • Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. The Exonerated: A Play. • Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. Living Justice: Love, Freedom, and the Making of The Exonerated. • Anna Deavere Smith. Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities. • Studs Terkel. Hard Times: an Oral History of the Great Depression. • Other readings and listening assignments available on Blackboard course site. Students will need a VCU email account (your email ID and password give you access to Blackboard, the online component of this class). Students must be willing to participate in an online (private) class blog. Requirements & Evaluation: • * Class Participation, including response notebook & class blog entries: 40% • Small Group Documentary Project: 20% • Critical Response Papers (on Murrow / Terkel & documentary theater): 20% • Individual Documentary Presentation (creative option): 20% * A significant portion of your participation grade is dedicated to exemplary participation in class workshops and discussions, daily preparation for class, and attendance. Trajectory of Course: Week 1: Radio and the Imagination Reading Assignments: Reality Radio (RR): “Are We on the Air?” Chris Brookes (pgs 15-26) “Harnessing Luck as an Industrial Product” Ira Glass (pgs 54-66) Blackboard (BB): “The Ethereal World” from Listening In, Susan Douglas Weeks 2- 3: Interview Styles, Studs Terkel & Edward R. Murrow Reading Assignments: BB: “Conducting Interviews” from Doing Oral History, Donald Ritchie From Studs Terkel: A Life in Words, Tony Parker: “And What Happened Then? Interviewing an Interviewer” “A National Resource: J. Kenneth Galbraith” (Parker’s interview w/ Galbraith) “Voices in the Air” (transcripts from Studs Terkel radio interviews) Selections from Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism, Bob Edwards “Edward R. Murrow: The Menace of McCarthyism” from Tell Me No Lies “World War II and the Invention of Broadcast Journalism” from Listening In, Douglas Due Wk 4: Response Paper on Terkel & Murrow Weeks 4-5: Innovative Programming: The Kitchen Sisters, RadioLab & This American Life Reading Assignments: RR: “Talking to Strangers” the Kitchen Sisters (pgs 36-43) “No Holes Were Drilled in the Heads of Animals in the Making of this Radio Show” (pgs 44-53) (review “Harnessing Luck as an Industrial Product” Ira Glass, pgs 54-66) Week 6: Found Sound – Working with Archives Reading Assignments: RR: “Living History” Stephen Smith (pgs 135 – 146) BB: Selections from The Jazz Loft Project, Sam Stephenson Listening / Browsing Assignment: Browse Jazz Loft Project website, listen to radio segments at http://www.jazzloftproject.org/index.php Week 7: Small Group Documentary Project presentations Weeks 8-10: Documentary Theater: The Exonerated & other examples of Verbatim Theater Reading Assignments: The Exonerated: A Play – Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen Living Justice: Love, Freedom, and the Making of The Exonerated – Blank & Jensen Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities – Anna Deavere Smith BB: Alecky Blythe and Nicolas Kent interviews from Verbatim + browse, read, watch, listen at http://www.recordeddelivery.net/index.html (Blythe’s website) Due Wk 11: Response Paper on documentary theater Weeks 11 - 12: Oral History Reading Assignments: Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, Studs Terkel BB: “Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay” from A Shared Authority, Michael Frisch “What Makes Oral History Different” by Alessandro Portelli from The Oral History Reader “Form and Meaning of Historical Representation” from The Battle of Valle Guilia, Portelli Selections from Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides, Christian Appy Week 13-14: The Power in Stories – Storycorps, Radio Diaries & other storytelling projects Reading Assignments: RR: “Diaries and Detritus” Richman (pgs 128 – 134) “Afterward: Listen” Allison (pgs 183 – 195) BB: StoryCorps mission statement Radio Diaries mission statement Listening / Browsing Assignments: StoryCorps website: http://storycorps.org/ Radio Diaries: http://www.radiodiaries.org/ Week 15-16: Individual Documentary Project Presentations .
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