GROUP RADIO ASSESSMENT

SEEING BEYOND WITH MAYA FANTASMA

Group Radio Assessment: SEEING BEYOND WITH MAYA FANTASMA

CAST & CHARACTERS:

MAYA: ABBI MARLOW

FELICITY: ALICIA PERKINS

TOM: CONNOR CLIFFORD

BECKY: CHARLIE-ROSE LANE

It took us a couple of weeks to find a play/radio script that we all liked and could work with. We finally came across a short scripted stage play, written by D.M Larson around 2005. D.M. Larson, who started writing plays when he was in high school won Emmy's for his work and has quite a lot of experience with the theatre background.  

The first couple of weeks we looked at different genres of radio plays and analysed them with different questions which would help is when we came to perform.

We decided to adapt this stage play to radio after researching and looking at many different radio drama’s and stage scripts. We looked at different stage plays as we decided we could adapt these to radio if we found the right piece. We looked at radio scripts such as, Like A Virgin by Gordon Steel, Ouji Board, No time for Crime which is a segmant of a radio play we looked at from Crime Club. Crime Club stared Barry Thompson and Raymond E. Johnson. 

What the piece is about?

The piece follows a physic called Maya Fantasma, who fakes connection with spirits who are trying to contact their friends/ relatives who are in her live audience. It’s all a show until an actual spirit, Felicity, comes to Maya to connect with her living brother Tom. Felicity is trying to warn Tom of his wife Becky who is watching the show with him. Becky also happens to be a nemesis of Felicity.

Why we chose the piece?

Out of all the radio scripts and and stage plays we read I think we all clicked with this play the most, as it was funny but also had an interesting plot, which we could really dwell with. I think we cast the play perfectly on our strengths too. For example I think I work well playing Becky because I had one of the more mature  voices, which i could sculpture around the sort of patronizing character that i have to portray. I think Alicia works well as Felicity because I think she has the right charisma and tone of voice for the cheeky, mischievous character she has to play. Obviously we worked with how we were going to act and so this would effect how we spoke, and how we positioned our pallets to get the right tone, volume, clarity and accent if we had one.

I don't know why the piece was written as such, however the piece obviously has a hidden theme about somewhere. I think perhaps it makes the viewers, or in this case, the listeners think about a number of different sub topics. I first thought about psychic and how no one really knows if they are putting on a show or if what they are saying is real. This comes into religious views, as some people will create an argument against this, or maybe they would be for the mystery. I had a look around on the web and even asked my friends about it in class. The question I used was "Do you believe in Psychics?" The question branched out to many different topics. For example some people who said they don't believe in them, would use examples like big tragedies that have happened. The impression was that if they were real they'd be able to predict terrorist attacks and stop so much heartache. The opposing impression was that even if they could see this, who is actually going to believe them? Many opinion can be drawn from this. It was written in 2005 when the radio drama Red Panda Adventures was also first aired. This is a light hearted radio drama which has similar traits to our play in the sense of the comical aspect but also has mystery story lines. It has recurring episodes. Other plays around the same time were Mercury Fur, Playing With Fire and Romance. All different genres. This light hearted radio drama would contrast to a full on comedy sketch as it has a set in story for the audience to follow but doesn't have the full on comical sketches and over the top voices it might include. Ours is like a toned down piece. 

This Radio drama, has a comical undertone, but had a mystery feel running high over the top of this. It’s a drama that has funny aspects in the play but leaves the audience questioning why Becky and Felicity hate each other.

Real life versions of Maya are actually out there in the world. It's up to the opinion of yourself whether you believe in it or not. The subject of belief comes under religious studies and citizenship. It's a very personal topic, and often this will effect the way you see this. Examples of mediums and spiritualists that go public with shows are Colin Fry and Psychic Sally. There are debates all over the internet discussing peoples opinions on whether these people are real or if its all for show. 

Character:

Becky, patronizing, manipulating, not very happy, demanding, high maintenance, I think she loves tom, but gives him a hard time possibly because she is feeling guilty? Maybe because she’s guilty about something that has happened between her and Felicity, something that Tom doesn't know? I think this might trigger her frustration and angry side to her. I think when I first read the script I imagined the characters to be older than how we are playing them, however I am glad that we made the characters younger because I think then we could play it to a younger target audience. I think Becky was initially late 30’s/40’s and we've brought it down to late 20’s. I think I make this work because of the way I put a more mature tone on my voice by articulating and putting a slightly upper class touch to my vocal tone.

In my head I’m imagining the fact that Felicity hates Becky is because Becky may have cheated on Tom and Felicity maybe caught her or found out, and Becky maybe murdered her? I think our group decided that Becky had been caught cheating on Tom, by Felicity and Becky and Felicity got into a dispute over this. This resulted in Becky pushing Felicity down the stairs and killing her. 

I think Becky is the type of wife who would make Tom carry her shopping bags for her and pay for the shopping. I think she obviously has a reason why she wants to be with Tom. Perhaps he is rich. I see Becky as a bit of a gold digger who obviously wears the trousers in the relationship. I start of whispering with Connor (Tom) in the audience and this straight away adds some sort of connection with them. We have to make the audience understand that they are husband and wife and so we have the witty banter/bossy relationship at the beginning. It's like the typical old married couple where the woman is bossing and moaning this time. 

I based my character on Jean Ainslee from the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. 

She's quite bossy and definitely wears the trousers in her and her husbands relationship. 

We are planning on having Alicia slightly behind and Tom and Becky together in order to get the effect that Alicia is in some other world and Tom and Becky go through Maya to talk to her so we will probably have her placed in the middle. 

The play was never actually resolved online as on the website where I found the script it had this message from the web master;

“

Hey students!

Write your own scene 2 for this play and send it to www.freedrama.com at pocolocoplayers@yahoo.com

The best scene will be published on the website and the student will be given co-author credits on the play.”

So no one knows exactly what happens next.