Our creative Ickle Drama students visited The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. They were close to finishing the terms project of producing radio plays for their own age group. All term they have been thinking up ideas for story lines, and the sky was their limit as they learnt that through the medium of radio anything is possible. Their ideas took them to the dizzy heights of the circus to a haunted school library. They soon came to realise that all their acting had to be in their voices and with the sound effects they wanted to include they could create anywhere they wanted! In all they wrote five different radio plays.

On arriving at RADA we were met by Phil Matejtschuk, was in his final year at RADA on the PgDip Sound Design Course and more importantly is an ex-Ickle Drama student from 2005. Well, Phil gave us all a wee tour of the Jerwood Vanburgh Theatre, one of the three theatres at RADA and then we settled down in the recording studio. Phil showed the children how certain sounds are created and that a handful of old recording tape can be crinkled by hand to make the effects of an open fire gently burning or stepped on for the sound of walking through leaves. The effects that could be applied at the touch of a button made your normal voice sound very ghostly! While each play was being recorded the children not involved were kept busy with drama games and improvisations in a rehearsal room. The day was completed by all the children recording crowd noises from general chatting to the ooooh’s and aaaaar’s needed for the circus. We have now our radio plays on cd please ask if you would like to buy a copy.