PLAY-WRITING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 2, 2 July 1938, Page 11

PLAY-WRITING

RADIO COMPETITION

THE PRIZE-WINNERS

Prize winners in the radio playwriting competition of 1937-38, conducted by the National Broadcasting Service, are announced as follows: —

First prize (£4O), "Endeavour," Isobel Andrews, Wellington. Second prize (£2O), "The Tartan of Rangi Ngatai," Merrick W. JHorton, Feilding. Four prizes (£lO each), "Love Thy Neighbour," Henry McNeish, New Plymouth; "Southern Lights," Gordon Griffiths, Timaru; "The Honour is Theirs," Agnes L. Henderson, Dunedin; "The Trampled Herbage Springs," Ralph Hogg, Wellington. JUDGES' COMMENTS. The restriction of this year's competition to plays about New Zealand may be taken as the main or sole reason for the drop in the number of entries from 390 to 206, state the judges. This decrease has resulted in a rise in the average of quality. A \ feature of last year's competition was the number of poor plays about conditions in other countries, plays obviouely modelled on life not known personally to the writers, but taken from the novel, the stage, and. the screen. This time competitors were barred from writing about wealthy men who kept butlers, the glitter of high society, and the excitements of international "crookdom." They had to turn their eyes to their own country and make use of less showy material. There has been a valuable gain in sincerity of choice and treatment. A play about New Zealand life, however, is something more than a play merely laid in New Zealand. Some competitors did not realise this. There are situations that are much the same whether they occur in Auckland, Sydney, Ottawa, or London. A drama of shipwreck, for example, is not likely to be affected by the vfact that the ship strikes, say, Cape Palliser, and not Land's End. What was looked for in the competition were plays depicting conditions typical of New Zealand life —political, economic, or social. In this important respect, the competition has been 'somewhat disappointing. There are still rich territories of incident and character that await further development, and, indeed, exploration. LACK OF CREATIVE WORK. A number of competitors have chosen the chronicle history form of play. This is an easy road in that the material is ready to hand, and the writer is saved the trouble of creating incident and character, but special difficulties are encountered. The element of surprise is sacrificed; the audience, for the most part,. is familiar with the outline of the story. The material, in .the form of known facts, is less plastic than substance of the imagination. If the writer moulds it freely, he may be tampering with historical truth. Chronicles of history have their place in New Zealand drama, and they will have a special importance and appeal during the Dominion centennial, but Native drama will not develop if writers do not courageously grapple with the difficulties of creative work in the fullest sense of the term. Generally speaking, dialogue and construction are on a higher level than in last year's competition. There is less downright bad writing, and a smaller disposition to regard a play as little more than a tale told by conversation. However, there is still much to be learnt in the art of construction and dialogue. Few of ifce plays show much skill in obtaining tightness and compactness of form, and quick flow of interest from first to last. Some are slow in , starting; others end in a gradual dying fall, where there should be climax.

Radio drama has its own technique. It must be quicker in action than stage drama, and dialogue must be spare and supple. Few of the competitors have a really good idea of what is needed for radio dialogue. There is still a tendency to write lengthy speeches and to put into the mouths of characters a formal diction such as they would never use in real life.