Little Wonder Radio Plays are an anglophone full cast audio drama production company based in Paris. Little Wonder is an Artist’s Collective, a group of professionally trained writers, actors, director, musicians, editors and artists who, amongst other things, come together to produce twice-monthly radio plays. Further, Their plays are free to listen to and download from iTunes.

It is an opportunity to work with friends, to try out ideas different from what they usually write, and have fun making new art.

Last year’s competition had more than 300 entries, 70 authors who received detailed feedback, and a shortlist of 5 had their plays performed live at a staged reading in Paris.

Benefits

• Entry is free.
• All longlisted entries will receive written feedback from their writing team and a window for revision.
• The shortlist will be out on the 1st of August.
• The winner will be bragged about on our website and generally showered with praise.

Eligibilities

• Writers of Colour; OR
• Writers with a Disability (visible or invisible), or long-term serious illness.
• Aged 16 or over who IS NOT a judge (or judges family member), or a current member of the Little Wonder Writing team

Looking for

• Imagination. Make up for the limitations of the medium (no sight) by doing something unexpected. Tell us a story we’ve never heard before.
• Further, A full plot. Even a ten-minute play should have a beginning, middle and an end, and characters who have problems they must confront and change to overcome. If they just walk into the sound booth and start hitting each other with kippers you’ve written a sketch, not a radio play.
• Humour. You don’t need to write a comedy (in fact, it can be dark as hell), but we do look for a certain wit and intellect in what you write. That doesn’t even mean jokes. But show us some wit.
• Use of sound. Don’t just write us a stage play without the stage directions cut out (although we do record those from time to time!) Try to create a soundscape in your head. Plays that were obviously film/stage scripts and contain directions such as “walks silently across the stage” will be instantly disqualified.
• Make full use of your actors. Don’t have us bring in a fourth actor just so (s)he can say one line and go home. It’s disrespectful to the actor and isn’t making full use of the talent available. Keep thinking to yourself: is this a role that will be rewarding to the actor? Chances are if you manage that, you’ll make it rewarding for the audience as well.