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 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 ’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 ’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.

Diversity

We aim to reflect the diversity of the UK in our drama and welcome proposals that do this through the talent involved or the subject matter.

Literary Adaptations

We are only looking for a very small number of adaptations from books – so please do not concentrate your efforts here. Successful proposals should offer a clear sense of how the original would translate to a powerful single play and why they are a bold suggestion. Don’t just pass on proposals that were clearly shaped for Radio 4’s Classic Serial. We’re more interested in ambitious proposals with a difference – Mark Ravenhill’s transformation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial into his play The Process is a strong example of this.

However, we are interested in commissioning more full readings of long poems or epic verse. Please do discuss with the commissioning editor.

Partnerships

Radio 3 has worked in partnership with a number of companies, such as the RSC, and welcomes other ideas for collaborations with acclaimed companies; but please discuss the principle before making an approach.

Treatment and supporting material

Please summarise your pitch for the play before giving any detailed treatment. This treatment should include a clear indication of the sound of your production such as location recording and use of music. If the proposal is based on an existing script this must be submitted with the offer (please do not leave this for the commissioning team to chase up). Please make sure every piece of supporting material is clearly labelled with your company/department name and that you complete and enclose the attached inventory.

If the proposal is for new writing please include details of the writer’s previous work including any radio commissions, and it will strengthen your proposal if you submit an example of this work. If you want to work with a specific composer please give details.

Introductions to Play

We now regularly use informal two-minute introductions before Drama on 3, usually from the director or writer. If your proposal is conditionally commissioned we would expect you to discuss the introduction with the commissioning editor and if necessary factor it into the final budget and duration.

Digital

We’re looking to make the most of the significant part of the audience who now follow Drama on 3 as an online offering on iplayer radio – both live listening and as an on-demand programme after it has been broadcast. Please do tell us how your production and its promotion could increase this part of the audience.

Editorial Compliance

If the play involves the portrayal of real people, strong language or other major editorial issues, this must be made clear in the proposal. All proposals should include details of the proposed Exec. Producer who will be responsible for compliance.

Budgets

The guide price for Drama on 3 is between £15,000 and £18,000 per hour and we will be looking to commission programmes at different points along this scale. Please submit a price (entered into the “Notes” field) that is realistic for your proposal, with justification if necessary.

At the point of commission a formal price offer will be made which, if accepted, will result in a contract being issued immediately at that price, without the need to have budgets analysed and approved.

Credits

Closing announcements and cast details at the end of the play must be recorded and included within the duration of your drama.

Radio 3 prefers the station’s presenters in continuity to read any opening presentation details and credits live. Individual exceptions will be considered, such as when recorded credits are felt to be important in establishing the sound world of a drama but you must consult before recording if you want to record the opening announcement.

Durations

Please try and include a realistic estimate of duration in your offer. We will confirm the duration and slot with you when we agree the budget and confirm the commission. The total length of the recorded play and any live announcements will be one minute less than the overall slot i.e. a for a 90 minute slot we require a total of 89 minutes including announcements.

Radio 3’s schedule does give us more flexibility to accommodate changes to the original estimate if these are raised with us at least 8 weeks ahead of broadcast. We hope to offer listeners as full an experience of stage plays as possible. Although these may often be edited as part of the adaptation on editorial grounds we hope to avoid the editing of stage plays simply to fit a slot.

After commissioning any requests for a variation on the agreed duration must be raised with Matthew Dodd and David Ireland as early as possible and agreed in writing.