The following is a little tutorial on the concept of "presentation" in radioplay by the "The Professor" on the Club 41 website. It never got finished unfortunately, due to the rest of the lecture series being picked up for publication, but we can at least enjoy the first part of this series
Before I render this series of written lectures regarding the artistic and technical nature of the creative endeavour that is the "online aural theater", I must first begin with a disclaimer: What follows is nothing less than genius. It might be bold for me to say such a thing "straight off" (as common folk may say) but you must understand - there exists in this world only a discrete number of geniuses, and to them the rest of humanity is an incalculably dull and mediocre bunch. To date, at every stage of my life, I have continuously found myself (through no fault of my own) surrounded by such an incalculably dull and mediocre bunch - and therefore, it is through such empirical evidence that I have secured my place as one of the hallowed geniuses of this world.
It is for this reason (amongst many others best left to superior minds to ponder) that I have been granted a well-deserved place amongst the members of Club 41, and it is from this precipitous height of intellectual and artistic maturity that I dispense my wisdom and advice. Though you will most likely not reach the heights of genius as I have (there can only be but a discrete number of us, after all) you may somehow, through the luck of the common plebeian, stumble upon something resembling "mild cleverness".
Now to the most primary of all things regarding the online aural theater: "Presentation". "Presentation" is an inherently important value in the creation of online aural theater productions - in fact, it could be said that without "Presentation", online aural theater productions would not exist. As you may not be aware (it is fine to be ignorant of such things, not everyone is a genius such as myself), "Presentation" is the first thing that will engulf a potential listener upon viewing a link for an online aural theater production. Before the act of experiencing aural delights may take place, the listener must be transformed from a "potentuate" to an "actuate". This is achieved through the proper application of "Presentation" - a psychic exchange between the potential listener and the "webpage" upon which the online aural theater production resides. If one is to have any hope of receiving the unabashed adulation of millions with one’s production, then one must master the tools of “Presentation” that will tip the scales in one’s balance.
Speaking of the tools of “Presentation” is simple enough, but no: this lecture will also show you, dear uninformed and naive reader, the practical application of “Presentation” - and how the deftness of written text, coupled with the use of small caricatures of facial expressions and bodily actions known as “smileys”, can bring a production to life. Such is the case with “The Best RP Ever”
“The Best RP Ever” – Certainly a gross exaggeration, but a careful study of the post devoted to this production reveals the carefully, masterfully constructed nature of this "Presentation "– deceptively increasing its appeal to a mass audience.
Notice first of all that this post does not, in fact, exist as a separate production thread of its own, but rather piggybacks itself off a currently existing post regarding the excessive strangeness one may be exposed to in the internet chat application known as IParty. In of itself this would not be too an unusual occurrence to the regular observer – but I am no regular observer. My keen genius has, in fact, deduced the true purpose for posting this production in this thread, where others would have failed to make mention of it. For not more than 3 hours ago and one whole post before this production post – a user by the name of Kima Kyasurin posted the entire script to this online aural theater production. Thusly, the creation of the production post immediately after the posting of that script is no coincidence indeed. The correlations are inescapable, nay, indisputable proof that the production post and the posted script are indeed, as they say: connected.
Second of all, let us look at the first word of this production post: OMFG. This is, in fact, an acronym for a common turn of phrase amongst heathen internet users with no fear of God and which I will not deign a full translation here. The blasphemous nature of the abbreviation aside, the use of this acronym as the first word for one’s production post is of clear importance. It challenges the unwary internet viewer with its clear and knowledgeable use of internet slang and reaches pass the carefully constructed psychic boundaries normally availed to proper grammar and sentence structures. It is into this space that “OMFG” is allowed free access, touching on fantastically basic and primal urge: fear. And longing. “What is that? What is that thing that lies before me? And what lies beyond that thing and where will I be lead?”
The internet viewer will be lead on by that primal curiosity and see the first use of a “smiley” – two of them in fact. Two smileys: both fearfully wide-eyed and genuflecting anxiously and without pause to some god. But since they face to the right and not to the left where this production post began, they worship not the “God” in “OMFG” but something that lies beyond that “G”. “But what could be greater than ‘G’?” the internet viewer may ask, furrowing their brows in the kind of hard, concentrated thought that I, as a genius, could pass easily in my sleep. There answer comes quickly with the next sentence: “It’s the best radioplay ever!”. We have our answer now – What could be greater than God indeed, but simply the best "radioplay" (or aural theater production, as I prefer to call them) ever?
This is almost certainly too detailed an analysis for one without my genius-level intellect, so I shall end this “Presentation” here (for those of you of slower wit, I should point out that that was a nice little pun or play on words). Be sure to look for future lectures on the ontology of the online aural theater, where I shall continue with the subject of “Presentation” and the dissection of the post that purports the existence of a singularly excellent production in the field online aural theater productions.
-The Professor
