Writing is rarely easy, even for people who love to do it. People aspiring to write often take on daunting projects that make it difficult to learn the fundamentals of crafting dialogue and narrative structure. The Labyrinth Theatre, a part of Red Bank’s Project Write Now (PWN), is helping writers young and old crack through their barriers and succeed by breaking the task down to a ‘fun’ size.
Radio plays, often referred to as audio dramas, use sound effects, music, and voice acting to convey stories purely through auditory means. Popular during the Golden Age of Radio, these dramatic performances were a primary form of entertainment before the widespread adoption of television. Today, they are experiencing a resurgence in the form of podcasts and audio streaming services, showcasing the timeless appeal of storytelling through sound. With no visuals to contend with, they may be the perfect short-form starter for a new writer or a catalyst for experienced writers.
Lizzie Finn is gathering a bunch of writers to find out. Finn is the program director of the Screenwriting Academy at PWN. She has won numerous screenwriting awards, and her essays have been featured in various print and online publications. We spoke to her about working with writers and the importance of getting them immediate, live-audience feedback on their work.
“When you are working on a long-term project, it’s very easy to get frustrated or overwhelmed,” said Finn. “So, we started giving these smaller exercises, hoping they would be more fun. You know, writing should be fun. When you are in a class with a group of writers, someone is going to take the prompt and write horror, someone a romance, someone else a thriller. It’s always fun to see what they do with the prompts. Last year, when we started doing this on a regular basis and we had a showcase at Basie Theatre, they got up there and performed it, and it was great. The audience loved it. The writers got this immediate feedback on their writing. Some of them had been writing these long scripts for year, and everyone was just glowing. It was so good to hear the work read aloud.
“So, I was watching them up there and for some reason, someone put an old-fashioned microphone on stage for people to stand around and it would pick up their voices. I realized what we were doing here were live radio plays, original radio play with spur of the moment creativity, based on a prompt. They are still building a story but creating tension and conflict, mostly through dialogue and sound. When you give a writer a challenge or limitations, it helps them be a little more creative thinking outside the box. We don’t want to listen to all the stage directions, we just want to get into the real emotional ‘meat’ of the scene.”
Finn agrees that it can be difficult to get people to even read screenplays, but it’s way more fun, and perhaps easier, to get people to come out to watch a staged reading in a nice space like the Basie Cinemas.
“That is our hope. We are so grateful to the Basie for giving us this space; it helps us get our name out there. We’re trying to find people who don’t necessarily want to take a year-long screenwriting class; they just want to drop in and meet other screen writers in the area, get up on stage and share something fun. Again, we’re trying to make writing fun. It’s not a critique, it’s not a competition – well, maybe a little. Writers were isolated from each other during the pandemic, just like everyone else. It’s tremendous for the writer to hear their script read by actors, get notes, and see an actual reaction from the audience.”
I asked Finn about some scenarios where the writer has really different ideas about how to realize something that doesn’t fit the prompt exactly.
“At Project Write Now we always say, ‘You are free to reject the prompt!’ Creativity knows no bounds. We are providing this ‘challenge’ and some ‘limitations’ in the prompt, but if you take it in an entirely different direction – go for it! It’s meant to be a self-contained, short piece to give them that immediate gratification. They get the satisfaction of getting something done. They get the ‘OOO-ing’ and laughing of a real, live audience. It’s the second step, feeing your writing actually make an impact, raising the writer’s energy and lowering their resistance. It’s getting them excited about the process and building community, maybe finding writing partners or actors to work with. It’s about building community.”
This writer’s workshop seeks to stimulate imaginative play and help writers learn to intuitively construct dynamic scenes and tell a compelling and complete story in a short, somewhat simplified format. If you’re interested in writing, or an experienced writer looking for a new challenge, join the writers at the first Labyrinth Theatre radio plays on September 19 at the Basie Cinemas in Red Bank (6:30pm). Visit the Project Write Now or Labyrinth Theatre webpage for full details.
