麻豆约拍

This spring, there was a flurry of activity on the 6th floor of the 麻豆约拍’s Broadcasting House. Large boxes marked “1st language”; “2nd language”; “Africa”; “Asia Pacific”; “The Americas”; “Middle East” etc. being carried up flights of stairs, in and out of lifts, to be stacked in neat piles across meeting room desks.

A short hiatus and then a group of animated people arrive. These are writers, directors, actors – even a stand-up comedian. Across the day they sit, deeply engrossed in reading through these piles – submissions to the .

Sometimes scripts would make us laugh out loud, sometimes reduce us to tears, but we were always transported to other worlds. Breaking every hour or so, we would share the stories we’d read and slowly, after several reading days, we whittled over a thousand scripts to a shortlist of just fourteen.    

This was a very special year. Starting in the eighties (and after a few fallow years) it has continued until now, the 25th competition. Unique in the world, the competition is only open to entrants outside the UK, with a brief to write a 53-minute radio play with six main characters. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never written a word before – every script is judged equally.

The competition is just what the 麻豆约拍 does best: encouraging talent and diversity, allowing us to read – and then hear – stories from other worlds. It brings audiences closer to each other and builds on what the news does so well – only with more time to delve deep into the heart of a story and engross us in characters’ lives. And we can only do it with our amazing partners – , the and . Together, we’ve an enviable reach.

The competition actively celebrates our audience by giving two first prizes – one for the best play with English as a first language and another for the best play with English as a second. Things have changed a little since I first had the privilege to be involved – no longer do we receive scripts wrapped in silk or written in pencil on the back of betting slips. Perhaps with increased globalisation, there’s more of a common vocabulary and shared experience beginning to evolve, but the scripts never fail to impress and move me. It feels like a chance to put your finger on the beating pulse of the world and its preoccupations.

This year’s judges – including award-winning playwright Charlotte Jones, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre Madani Younis and actress Pippa Bennett-Warner – met in August and from those 14 carefully selected scripts, we chose our three winners.  Péricles Silveira from Brazil won the English as a second language prize, with his magic surrealist play The Day Dad Stole a Bus. Joanne Gutknecht won the English as a first language prize with the first thing she has ever written, Playing with Fire.

Their prize includes a trip to London to see their plays recorded at the 麻豆约拍, as well as attending a prize-giving ceremony during the visit. Joanne and Péricles have been here at the 麻豆约拍 all week and we started by recording Péricles’ play on Monday with Stephen Tomkinson and Wunmi Mosaku in the leading roles.

Our third writer, Jude Erupu from Uganda, is the winner of the Georgi Markov prize. Honouring the writer and 麻豆约拍 World Service journalist, it celebrates the script with the most potential. His prize is to spend two weeks in London being mentored by 麻豆约拍 Radio Drama and 麻豆约拍 World Service. Jude’s play is the story of a young man whose family is killed and abused by the Lord's Resistance Army, trying to resist joining the Arrow Boys. Jude sees writing as the best alternative to violence.  Who could disagree with that?

Marion Nancarrow is Executive Producer, 麻豆约拍 World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition

• more about the International Radio Playwriting Competition here.
• 'Playing With Fire' by Joanne Gutknecht and 'The Day Dad Stole a Bus' by Pericles Silveira will broadcast on the 麻豆约拍 World Service early next year.