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Tag Archives: Mr McGuffin’s Plot Device and Writer Unblocking Emporium

Tara’s play creates waves on air

IMAGINE a typical rural shopkeeper in the Ireland of yesteryear. “I picture him wearing a brown shop coat with ballpoint pens in his top pocket,” says actor and journalist, Jim O’Brien of Ogonnelloe. “He lives over the shop, and the shop is his life.” Now imagine that his merchandise is of a very specialised variety. This shopkeeper’s trade is not in groceries or other domestic essentials. His customers come from far and wide to purchase accoutrements of every kind, from small nuclear weapons to solar-powered chainsaws. All of them are tailored to the client’s exact needs. The only thing that links them is the fact they are all ‘plot unblocking devices’. This is the kind of shop – or rather ‘emporium’ – that is at the heart of an award-winning radio play recently produced and aired on Scariff Bay Community Radio. Its writer Tara Sparling devised the fantastical plot in a post on her popular blog (Tarasparling.com) and was encouraged …

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Drama on air at Scariff Bay Radio

SCARIFF Bay Community Radio will broadcast a co-production with the award-winning Sliabh Aughty Drama Group at 2pm on Sunday, with a repeat broadcast at 7pm. Entitled Mr McGuffin’s Plot Device and Writer Unblocking Emporium, the play is directed by Ruth O’Hagan, written by Tara Sparling and produced, engineered and edited by Eoin O’Hagan. The play is described as “innovative and hilarious play”. It is hoped that, with the cancellation of the annual drama circuit events, this could inspire other amateur groups to write and perform plays for radio. Ahead of the broadcast Ruth O’Hagan and Tara Sparling will be interviewed on Saturday Chronicle at 11.30am. The station, which covers East Clare is available on 88.3FM and 97.2FM; online at scariffbayradio.com; and on the TuneIn app.

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