Radio - Research & Rehearsal Blog

The Infinite Monkey Cage

The Infinite Monkey Cage is an Award winning science/comedy chat with Brian Cox, Robin Ince and guests. The guests in each episode vary 

from comedians and fellow scientists. Every episode has a different topic in the world of 

science. Using different guests each week for each episode, it keeps the show fresh and 

exciting and individual from the previous or next episode. I feel that guest appearances from 

comedians is a great touch to the show as fans of a certain comedian may tune into to listen 

to them; if they like what they hear from the show they may become a regular listener creating

 a wider popularity of the show. This show is a great way to explore the science world more. 

This show is a great way for science lovers to listen as shows like this are quite unknown of. 

However, involving the comedian guests can be a negative also, as the show may not be factual

 enough for those who listen just for its scientific purposes.

The Unbelievable Truth

The Unbelievable Truth is a BBC radio 4 comedy panel game. The game is hosted by David Mitchell and is described in the programme's introduction as "the panel game built on truth and lies." The object of the game is to lie on a subject, whilst also trying to include the truth without being detected; for example, two lies and a truth. The panellists are given the opportunity to guess the truth, if correct they earn points. The whole premises of this game show are to detect the truths in each round within the lies. This show also features new guests each week; this keeps the format of the show fresh and unexplored to listeners. It will encourage them to listen each week to find out who will be making an appearance on this fun comedic game show this week. This show is something that anyone can enjoy listening to if you are at the age of understanding the topics they explore.

Our Performance

My radio group consists of five of us, Ellie, Jess, Jordan, Leah and myself. We chose to perform a radio adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was originally aired in 1945. It is a piece of work that everyone would enjoy listening to as it is Disney and reminds every one of their childhood. We chose the radio play because it is fun, light and the genre of radio we wanted to focus on. Fantasy based radio play, especially snow white and the seven dwarfs, allowed us to explore our vocal ranges as all the characters in this piece are extremely diverse. For example, the seven dwarfs all have their own characteristics and tones of vices and ways of being. The original structure of this piece consists of approximately 11-12 characters so we equally divided the characters between us. I played the role of Snow White. For our adaptation we wanted many sounds effects and musical sections as that is what was involved in the original working of it. However, we removed the singing of snow white and the prince charming as we felt it was not needed and it took up extra time in our limited timing we had for this project.

We started our rehearsing by reading through the script four or five times, alternating characters between us so that we could each experiment with the characters and see how we work with each of them. I wanted to experiment with Snow-white, The Wicked Queen and the Narrator. After trying each of my preferred characters out, I soon realised that I had never played the girly simple character before and wanted to see how I could adapt to such a simple character. After we completed the casting, I only had snow-white. I wish I was given a dwarf as well but after discussions, others felt it was only fair to divide the dwarfs between them. This I feel gave me a little less chance and booting my performance as I didn’t have the chance to show my development for more than one character. However, we also chose to our strengths, such as Leah has a powerful Old Hag voice which suits perfectly for The Wicked Queen. After a few weeks of rehearsing with our assigned characters, we felt it was time to make sure we knew which sound effects would be needed and which lines we could cut from the script so that our show did not run into overtime. We were lucky enough to have found the original script with all the original sounds effects in which we were so grateful to have! We then recorded our piece into professional equipment and had to wait for the outcome a few weeks later. Unfortunately, I had little rehearsal due to being absent therefore I feel my performance wasn’t its best but I gave it my best shot!

After listening to our radio play back, I feel that it sounded great and really enjoyed listening to it! If I were to change anything about it, I would. During the first few days of rehearsals I would have considered characters more; I would have made it clear that I wanted to participate as one of the minor dwarfs so that I could have more of an experiment with my vocal delivery. I also would have worked more on the meaning behind the lines as Snow-whit; I would’ve liked more rehearsal time to perfect the piece a lot more!

In conclusion, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to explore a different method of acting and having more of an understanding to radio acting.