SUBMISSIONS FOR SCRIPTS OPEN SOON!!
Sending theatre further and offering creative opportunity to wider communities using digital reach.
With the closure of the theatres during the pandemic, we at Get Over It Productions needed something to channel our energies in to. We looked back through our archives and started turning short playscripts from our regular New Writing events – The Scene – into little audio dramas.
The Scene Podcast was born.
Not really knowing what we were doing, but sure we’d figure it out, we approached the writers and original casts of each play and after a refresh, recap, rehearsal over (those first awkward days of) Zoom, requested the actors to use whatever device they had available to them to record their roles separately, safely in the isolation of their own homes. Phones, karaoke mics, laptop microphones and iPads were duly utilised and the raw files came rolling in to GOI HQ. The joy of putting those first few PodPlays together was a welcome distraction from the unfolding chaos in the world. We learnt how to use Adobe audio editing software, (God bless YouTube) as well as which websites offered the best quality free sound effects. The first 10 episodes were released weekly from 10th June 2020.
When friend of the company Matt Wallace of Janno Media heard them, he offered to help. Not only would he offer his industry standard equipment for recording the actors, but also his expertise in giving the production quality a boost.
The Scene Podcast Season 2 was born.
This time, (after slightly less awkward Zoom rehearsals) individual recording sessions were facilitated in the actors houses. Wearing appropriate PPE and observing ‘best practices for working in peoples homes’ (Gov.uk website), we set up our mobile sound booth in bedrooms and lounges and captured the raw files for the next 10 episodes.
Oh what a difference the proper equipment makes!
The quality of the product shot up and as we learnt all the tricks; how to make something sound far away, on a train, near water, coming from behind you, in the South of France – whatever you could think of!– we began discussions with Janno Media about where The Scene Podcast could go next. We started to realise the potential for what we had started. These short scripts in digital form, now had the potential to reach broad audiences of podcast listeners, rather than merely those who consider themselves ‘theatre goers’.
The Scene theatre events, always begin with a UK wide call out for scripts. The Scene Podcast seasons, will begin in the same way.
Our aim is to help keep fringe theatre and new writing alive, by embracing the digital audience. We want to build a community of writers and creatives around The Scene Podcast; a network which offers anybody the chance to have their story made in to a ‘PodPlay’. We will be staging LIVE events of those plays at the end of each season at small theatres across the UK.
We are particularly interested in engaging folk from underrepresented groups and communities.
We’d appreciate your help in spreading the word that submissions for The Scene Podcast Season 3 WILL BE OPEN SOON!!
@thescene_pod
