Newsday freelance writer and entrepreneur Julien Neaves, 42, has won the 2023 BBC World Service and British Council’s International Radio Playwriting competition in the English as a First Language category.
It’s not his first time entering: in 2018 he was the Caribbean’s regional winner, with Tanty Get Ah Android.
South Korea’s Hyukin Michaela Kwon was the winner in the English as a Second Language category, with Steady Eyes.
This year, Neaves emerged as the competition’s overall winner, telling the story of The Mighty Corbeau.
A press release said the winning entries were also commended for their specific sense of place, vivid characters and universal themes. The judges were particularly impressed by the way The Mighty Corbeau used the medium of audio drama to create an intriguing world and compelling story.
Neaves’ play takes its listeners on the journey of an ageing calypso singer who decides to come out of retirement to finally prove he is better than his award-winning rival of many years. But he is faced with a huge and unforeseen obstacle, a synopsis said.
The three-act play gives a lively and poignant exploration of ageing and mental health, it added.
The story was informed by Neaves's over two-decades-long career as a journalist.
Asked about the inspiration for the play, Neaves said he started working on it in the late 90s (when he began writing plays) and decided to “dust it off” when the call for submissions was made last year.
Initially, the subject of mental health was not addressed in the earlier draft, but he added it as he worked on the play for this year’s submission. This layer of the story was informed by an interview with a young woman years ago who cared for her parents, who had Alzheimer's.
“All the things she went through, the pain and struggle...it is something a lot of people go through in silence. Coming from that reporter side, I said, ‘Let me take some of this story, do some research and ground it in reality and add that layer to the story as well,’” Neaves said in a phone interview.
His journalistic career helped how he creates.
[caption id="attachment_1038759" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Newsday freelance writer and entrepreneur Julien Neaves has won the 2023 BBC World Service andBritish Council’s International Radio Playwriting competition in the English as a First Language category. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
“As journalists, we are storytellers. We are taking information and processing it and we are observers of people. We are always looking at people, learning their stories.
“Some of the most ordinary people have some of the most extraordinary stories.”
He believes taking time to revisit earlier work helps most writers. Neaves learnt early on as an aspiring writer that nothing was set in stone.
“You can always revisit it, make it better, expand it.”
Neaves added sometimes writers have fantastic ideas but possibly don't have the creative skill at the time to execute them well.
“I would advise anyone, if they have some script they wrote, some sto
