Radio Ensemble Piece

Different Genres and the reason why we chose comedy:

Before the class got into our groups and decided which Radio piece to perform we looked at different Radio genres, for example, Radio Dramas, Comedy Sketches, Interviews and Documentaries. One of the Radio Dramas we listened to was The Abbey Grange (Sherlock Holmes) it created the right atmosphere and was very believable as a radio drama. I think a big part of this is the narrator as the way he tells the story describes everything you need to know, for example, "Her blue eyes were full of terror." He described what the eyes looked like and than he goes on to explain why they were filled with terror, making us picture the woman's eyes in our minds. One comedy sketch we listened to was Party, the way the same actors used their voices to create different characters and make them believable was excellent, as changing characters is always difficult, especially if they're the complete opposite to each other. Comedy sketches are allowed to push the limits more than Dramas are and the audience can hear that by the different music of the piece, the language they use and how outrageous the characters can be. That is what attracted me to comedy the most, being able to push the limit and show my versatility in creating different characters.

Me and my group decided that we want to do comedy sketches, because the piece itself would be lively and fast pace, making us enjoy performing it. We also have a range of versatility to perform from. We didn't have time to make up our own script, so we looked at different radio shows and found That Mitchell and Webb Sound. We picked this show as we knew it would give us a range of characters to choose from. My characters are: a game show contestant, a slug and a woman on her first date.

Research:



That Mitchell and Webb Sound is a comedy sketch show on BBC Radio 4 which started on 28 August 2003. The series became adapted for television as That Mitchell and Webb Look in 2006. The series stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb also write a fair amount of the material. Mitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, composed of David Mitchell (born 14 July 1974) and Robert Webb (born 29 September 1972). They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show and their award-winning sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look.

The 21st Century is the time that Radio Comedy Shows and Sketches were more risky with their content. For example they talk about sex more freely, occasionally swear and are not afraid to talk about political or social problems. This definitely made me more freer with some of my characters for example my first date character talks about sex as if she's talking about dinner, it was all a breeze and this changed my way of performing it

Character Study - The Game Show Contestant - Claire

Things I know about my character:

The scene starts with the Game Show Host introducing me, "Tonight's contestant is Claire. She's a twenty-nine year old working mum and she's still got a great body!" She has no pets and usually gives short sentences.

Voice I used for my character:

I made Claire very short, direct and forceful. I based my character on Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show. I made my voice a little deeper than hers but kept the attitude and the way she draws the words out, giving off a very comic effect. Because I made her sound common my diction was sometimes off on some places, but those were deliberate choices that I made, for example one of the lines is, "Think so." Instead of saying "Th" I instead pronounce it "F" to make it, "Fink so."



Character Study - Slug

My character is a slug child who is listening to her father telling her a story. My voice is very high to give the effect of childlike innocence and because of the slugs height, seeing as slug's are very small. The slug I found out was the easiest to do consistently but when we spoke together the audience couldn't make out what we were saying, for example on of the things we say as an ensemble is, "Please" before we used to do it really drawn out and stopping at different times but it sounded messy so to solve that problem we thought of putting in beats for how long we say it, so we could all stop saying it at the same time, which made it sound better and the audience could understand what we were saying.



Character Study - Woman on her first date

My character is a woman who is out on a first date with a man, so it has the right touch of awkwardness to make it relatable. I did the most voice work with this character as this was my biggest speaking part. I tried out many different vocal tones and accents. I first tried it very nasal, I think it worked as it brought more comedy to the scene but something was missing, so I tried the scene again but this time with a southern accent. It made the scene sound more sexual and smooth but I don't think it was bringing the humour into it like the first voice I did was. I finally went with a very posh accent which made the scene go smoothly, the audience could understand what I was saying and it brought the humour as there's something funny about a very posh woman talking about sex so freely. "Oh god yeah, I'm an absolute sex-nut!" I go very breathy here to show my character losing her cool and I use many pauses to heighten the tension for example, [GASP, Pause] "I LOVE SEX!" This pause made the sentence following even more funny, as the audience think I gasped because he's offended me, while really it's the opposite.

Overall my characters had great versatility between them, showing my range in voice and character work. My first character, Claire, was very low and harsh sounding, with poor diction, while my slug child was sweet and high, conveying the emotions perfectly, and my last character had a posh accent, giving me a soft tone and brilliant diction.