Radio Drama Company

The Radio Drama Company is a company of actors formed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. It is sometimes referred to as RDC, or the Rep, a survival from its original name, the Drama Repertory Company.^[1]

The cast of the company changes every six months, and auditions are held for the Carleton Hobbs Bursary, primarily for students graduating from drama courses, to recruit between four and six new members every year. There is also a Norman Beaton Fellowship to bring in actors from non-traditional backgrounds.

The company has its origins in a short-lived BBC Repertory Drama Company formed in January 1930, but paid off after a few months. For some years BBC Radio and BBC Television simply hired all the actors they needed by the day. However, with the approach of the Second World War, the key executive, Val Gielgud, head of productions at BBC Radio, proposed that an in-house company of actors would be a useful thing to have in time of war. BBC Television was taken off the air on 1 September 1939 and did not return until some years later.^[2] According to one source, in September 1939, with the war now declared, actors were hired for a new radio company and sent to live and work at the Wood Norton Broadcasting Centre. Some actors took their families with them and even their pets, Gielgud himself bringing his cats with him.^[3] Another source states that this happened in 1940.^[4]

In 2015, Rebecca Wilmshurst, BBC production executive for Radio Drama, wrote an article to celebrate the seventy-five years' existence of the company. In the course of this, she boasted that "If your radio script requires actors to be mice, ants, naiads or dryads, men morphing into hares, maggots in a fisherman’s sack, or even a tray of fancy cakes – look no further than to the Radio Drama Company."^[3]

El elenco de la compañía cambia cada seis meses. Se realizan audiciones para la Beca Carleton Hobbs, en memoria del veterano actor Carleton Hobbs (1898-1978), principalmente para estudiantes que se gradúan de cursos de teatro, con el objetivo de reclutar entre cuatro y seis nuevos miembros para la Compañía de Teatro Radiofónico cada año. Los elegidos reciben un contrato de trabajo por seis meses, y a algunos finalistas también se les ofrece trabajo en producciones específicas. ^{[ 4 ]}

La compañía tiene como objetivo establecer vínculos con compañías teatrales de todo el Reino Unido, desarrollar nuevos talentos para la radio y también fomentar la solicitud de su Beca Norman Beaton, cuyo objetivo es incorporar actores con formación no tradicional y pertenecientes a minorías étnicas. Se anima a los actores que deseen audicionar a que presenten su solicitud por escrito. ^{[ 5 ]}

Hasta 1997 se otorgaban dos becas al año, en 1998 el número aumentó a seis, luego en 2003 volvió a bajar a cinco y en 2004 a cuatro. ^{[ 6 ]}

Citas

Obras citadas

• Val Gielgud , Drama radiofónico británico, 1922-1956 (Londres, George G. Actually & Co. Ltd, 1957)

• Ganadores de la beca Carleton Hobbs en BBC.co.uk
• Guía para actores sobre cómo conseguir trabajo en la radio en spotlight.com