Audio Drama Writing Workshop

Audio drama is an exciting form that can be as sweeping and ambitious as it can be intimate and personal. And for writers looking to produce their own work, it's a remarkably DIY form: all you need is a story and a laptop.

This is a workshop that aims to familiarise participants with writing and producing audio drama, zooming in on the NTU campus as a source of inspiration. Over the course of three sessions, participants will learn about the storytelling techniques and potential of audio drama, generate ideas from their surroundings, write scenes, learn basic production, and finally record and lay out some of their writing into mini audio plays. 

This workshop is open to writers who are current students of a tertiary educational institution in Singapore, of all backgrounds and experience levels keen to explore writing for audio. It is facilitated by writer Joel Tan, sound producer Ng Sze Min and sound engineer Pan Zai’En from Artwave Studio. 

SESSION 1: Walking and Writing

A generative session geared at getting the participants to start thinking deeply and creatively about their sonic and built environment.

• Introductions and warm-up writing exercises
• Group discussion about a given curatorial prompt
• Walk-and-write exercise, includes visiting selected key sites around NTU and guided prompts to facilitate writing
• Wrap up and group sharing of story ideas and writing samples from the exercise

SESSION 2: Introduction to Audio Drama

This session introduces some examples of audio drama to learn some of the unique features, potentials, and techniques involved in writing audio plays.

• Writing exercises to try out key techniques introduced (e.g. using sound narratively, playing with different acoustic qualities, guiding the mind’s eye)
• Individual writing time - participants will be guided to write a few pages based on their jottings from the first session, and share them at the end of the session. These pages will then be used as the basis for the final Session 3: Audio Production 

SESSION 3: Audio Production

A foundational introduction to how music technology is used in modern day production of podcasts and audio dramas. Participants will also experience the process of professional recording and production. Participants are required to bring their own pair of headphones and laptop.

• Demonstration of recording process and the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
• Onboarding of participants to a browser-based DAW that houses all the sound editing tools to cut, mix and layer recorded sounds
• Individual recording & producing time: Participants will be guided to record 30 seconds of their writing snippet (from Session 2) with the recording engineer; and begin the post-production process of editing and mixing their 30-second voiceover to music and sound effects on the DAW.
• Wrap up and sharing: Participants will share the 30-second samples they have created with the class and discuss learning reflections on the workshop experience

• All three sessions of this workshop will take place in person on the NTU Campus premise
• Participants are required to attend ALL dates: 
  • Thu, 5 September 2024, 6PM - 8.30PM SGT 
  • Mon, 9 September 2024, 6PM - 8.30PM SGT 
  • Thu, 12 September 2024, 6.30PM - 9PM SGT 
• Fees: Free, registration required
• There are only 20 spots available

• DEADLINE EXTENDED! Application is now open to all students from tertiary educational institutions. 
• Simply complete this form by 3 September 2024, 12PM, to register.
• Successful applicants will be notified via email by 4 September 2024.