BBC RADIO 3 COMMISSIONING BRIEF Programme Title: DRAMA
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BBC RADIO 3 COMMISSIONING BRIEF Programme Title: DRAMA ON 3 Day and time: Sunday at 2100 Estimated no. of programmes available: 21, primarily to be scheduled between April 2017 and March 2018 although we will commission a number of plays for later transmission. Duration: 75’-180’ although by far the most common duration is 90’ Guide Price: £15,000 - £18,000 per hour Commissioning Editor: Matthew Dodd RAP Commissioning Brief Reference No: 31242 EDITORIAL GUIDE Each week Drama on 3 should have the feeling of a real event. We want to take listeners on absorbing, moving journeys; to commission plays that will make them stop what they’re doing to listen more intently; offer them drama they’ll want to talk about. To feel they are experiencing superb artists at work. First and foremost, we’re looking for great plays: they will be distinctive new productions of classic and modern stage plays; substantial commissions for new writing from established writers; radio versions of acclaimed current stage productions and international drama in translation. Amongst the highlights of the last twelve months have been two epic productions of Arthur Miller plays, Death of a Salesman and A View from a Bridge, with high profile casts and sophisticated production values; a thrilling new play Vampyre Man from Joseph O’Connor with Anton Lesser as Victorian actor Henry Irving; an absorbing multi-voiced reading of Walt Whitman’s long poem Song of Myself; and a radio adaptation by Moira Buffini of her outrageous West End hit Dinner, starring Harriet Walter. Ian McDiarmid was King Lear in an acclaimed new production. Plays of this length and complexity make exceptional demands on listeners and we can’t take such engagement for granted. As we read your proposal we’ll be asking ourselves how many listeners will devote the bulk of a Sunday night to it and just what they’ll get out of it. We’ll be looking for ways to build anticipation for a play and to persuade the audience to make a date with it, and to make sure they seek it out on iPlayer Radio. For 2017/18, we’re looking for: Stage Plays Classic dramas from the UK and abroad are the centrepiece of Drama on 3. Successful proposals will make the case for a new production of the play, and must include the main features of your new interpretation. Key casting suggestions will influence our selection – of course, we don’t expect these to be confirmed – but we are looking for striking, imaginative or high-profile casting ideas. Strong examples in the last twelve months have included a compelling new production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun; a revised translation by Ranjit Bolt of Corneille’s El Cid and a double-bill of short Harold Pinter plays A Kind of Alaska and Ashes to Ashes. Drama on 3 is also an opportunity to introduce audiences to work by contemporary European and overseas writers who are not well-known in this country – and who can offer exciting and fresh productions. We’ve broadcast The Boy at the Back by Spanish writer Juan Mayorga and we’re interested in broadening this aspect of Drama on 3’s work. We’re also looking for innovative rediscovery of existing plays – but they need to be bold (even newsworthy) interventions, rather than interesting curiosities or neglected classics. This year, we revived Tom Stoppard’s Artist Descending a Staircase, his radio play of 1973 and we also broadcast the first ever radio production of John Osborne’s controversial play of 1965, A Patriot for Me. Please give an indication of the extent of adaptation proposed, any particular challenges it raises, and whether or not the adaptation will be done by the producer or by another writer (and if by another, your reasons). It is most unlikely we would commission a new production of a play that has been broadcast on Radio 3 in the last 10 years. Please see attached list of our past dramas. If you are proposing a play that you know is currently being staged (or has been recently) in the theatre please make it clear whether you are proposing a radio adaptation of this production or a new production for radio. Stage transfers Drama on 3 offers listeners radio adaptations of contemporary stage productions. We expect these to be outstanding productions around which there’s been a real buzz, media interest or critical acclaim. This is a chance to bring the best of current theatre to Radio 3 audiences. They can be West End productions or cutting edge studio plays that are making waves. They need to offer something that will work on radio. So for example, this year we broadcast an original cast version of Mike Bartlett’s ingenious West End hit, King Charles III about a future royal political crisis, and we also broadcast Florian Zeller’s The Father with Claire Skinner and Kenneth Cranham’s Olivier-winning central performance. Caryl Churchill adapted the Manchester International Festival production of her play The Skriker with Maxine Peake. Primarily, we are looking for new stage plays to bring to Radio 3 from the theatre – but we often also transfer classic plays if they offer unique casting or production styles that provide an unmissable opportunity for listeners. Transfers can be offered ahead of their run within the commissioning round, or they can be proposed throughout the year. New Writing Established Writers We aim for at least a third of our commissions to be new writing. New commissions are usually to writers of some experience and reputation. We’re looking for significant, signature pieces of work. In recent rounds Tanika Gupta, April De Angelis, Mark Ravenhill, Nick Dear, Linda Marshall Griffiths and David Rudkin, amongst others, have all written new plays for Drama on 3. New Voices We’re hoping to develop new formats in this slot so that Drama on 3 can host writers at start of their career for radio. Naomi Alderman has written her first play for us this year The Wolf in the Water, and Rex Obano wrote an innovative new prison drama. But we are also trying to develop shorter lengths than the full 90 minutes for newer voices. One approach has been to theme a series of shorter plays to fill the Drama on 3 slot. So, for example, Sonnets in the City, asked five writers to respond to a sonnet by Shakespeare in a 15 minute play; The Modern Morality Tales was a group of short pieces inspired by medieval Everyman plays. Sometimes these plays can have a first broadcast in what is usually the Essay slot Monday – Friday at 2245. Themes and plays in this slot need to have a clear and self-evident connection with the existing canon – whether it be reworking of a literary classic or an obvious historical topic. Free standing new writing does not work well in this Essay slot. We are very keen to hear of other imaginative proposals to use time and budget to spread the impact of drama across Radio 3. Innovative Drama We’re very interested in commissioning a small number of works that offer a radical and innovative challenge to received ideas about radio drama. These might be collaborations with leading artists, poets, musicians or sound designers – but they will bring together innovative ideas about format without abandoning a sense of the importance of the listeners’ experience. This might be a chance to create a radio work with the now-established creators of immersive or site-specific theatre – or to collaborate with digital partners. Radio 3 is currently involved in a European radio co- production with the American director Robert Wilson. Quality will be paramount as ever – but we will be looking for ideas that attempt to use Drama on 3 as a vehicle for something unexpected, exciting and fresh. Next Generation of Listeners Drama on 3 is always looking for ideas that are specifically tailored to bringing a new generation of listeners to radio drama. We’d like to hear from you how this might be achieved – whether it be genre-based plays, innovative subject matter, casting decisions or other proposals you might have. Short series and events We welcome ambitious proposals to link together a series of plays. These can range from the straightforward combination of one writer’s/actor’s work – last October we marked the centenary of Arthur Miller, and this April we commissioned new productions and new plays as part of our Sounds of Shakespeare season. In recent years we’ve invited guest performers to curate Drama on 3, Kwame Kwei- Armah, Mark Ravenhill and Harriet Walter have all done so. We’d urgently like more ideas on how Drama on 3 could collaborate with high profile actors, directors, writers and other practitioners working in the stage-world to showcase radio drama. Drama on 3 has a place at the heart of a season of other factual and music programmes. For example, this year drama played a key part of Radio 3’s Northern Lights season – with Finlandia, a new play about Sibelius, and a ground-breaking set of three newly commissioned short works from Scandinavian writers, which were then adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. We’re also keen on more ambitious ideas that use Drama on 3 to celebrate key cultural figures. In 2017 we’re planning new productions to mark the centenary of the birth of Anthony Burgess – and drama will play a key part in the anniversary of the Third Programme. Amongst the anniversaries we’re interested in exploring in Drama on 3: The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Wittenberg Theses and the start of the Reformation The 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality Please note: we already have enough proposals for the centenary of the Russian Revolution.