The Sleepys Go Ice Skating

Characters
Sonny Sleepy, Daddy Sloth Played by Patrick Rule Sonny is a very manly man well as manly as a sloth can get. Hes the best climber in the Costa Rican jungle and so obviously was in charge of teaching the children to climb when they were old enough. He loves his family and will do anything to protect his youngsters. Hes a Bradypus, which means he spends most of his day eating and resting, as well as climbing up to heights of 1000 meters. He looks like this: However, unlike most sloths hes incredibly adventurous and likes to take his family on family outings to various places in order to educate his youngsters on life outside the Costa Rican trees.

Susie Sleepy, Mummy Sloth Played by Saira Khan Susie is a very sophisticated sloth; she and Sonny met up at the top of a very high tree in the Costa Rican forest which impressed Sonny massively as no one was ever up there except him. She cares massively about her children and mothers them as much as possible and so offers to carry them everywhere and anywhere. Shes also a Bradypus and so loves climbing and eating. This is what she looked like with one of the Sam, the oldest of the two siblings:

Sam Sleepy, Eldest child Played by Sam Miles Sam is just as adventurous as his dad, Sonny. He is also a Bradypus and has the same love of climbing as his mum and dad; he started climbing from a very young age and now likes to climb the tallest trees alongside his dad. He gets on very well with his younger sister, Sally but is very protective over her and so doesnt like her going climbing by herself. This is him eating his favourite food:

Sally Sleepy, Youngest child Played by Georgia Harris Sally is an extreme daddys girl, wanting to make him proud by climbing as high as she can. Unlike the others shes a choloepus sloth, which means she only has two toes, and is very very cute! No one knows why shes a choloepus and where the genes came from, but they wouldnt want her any other way. As Susie loves to mother and hold her babies as close as possible, Sally takes this opportunity to have a rest and a beauty sleep. This is a picture of her when she was younger, although she is still quite small.

Plot/Blurb
The Sleepys are a family of sloths who used to live in the Costa Rican jungle; however theyve recently been taken on the adventure of a life time into the city of New York to live in the Central Park Zoo. Here we follow along with their travels and what the foursome get up to in the big city of dreams.

My Radio Drama
Ive decided have a linear storyline, this is because I think adding flashbacks into my drama would make everything far too complicated for my target audience as this will probably be one of the first radio dramas they listen to, therefor I will use chronological development to keep the story flowing. Ive also had to keep it quite short, around the 5/6 minute area, as younger children dont have a too strong attention span and so wont be able kee p listening for too long, Ive also chosen for it to be shown later in the evening so it could be used as a bedtime story so with any hope, they will be sleepy and half asleep by the time its finished. Itll be in the style of a traditional radio drama which consists of a strong storyline that involves a narrator and many a character. There is usually a problem or dilemma the characters are working towards solving. Due to my target audience being quite young Ive had to create the script in a way thats understandable for them and easy to follow along. Ive had to use aerial signposting in order it make it easy to understand where abouts they are and what theyre doing, Ive done this by adding in sounds of the surrounding wildlife in the zoo and surrounding crowds at the ice rink and around the park. Opening Sonny is speaking to Susie about their next trip to the city and what the children may like to do. Its snowed in NYC recently as its around Christmas time and so they decide the best thing to do would to go ice skating as its relatively close to the zoo and would be great fun for all of them. Susie agrees and says they should both go to sleep as theyll need t o get an early morning in order to organise it all and get the children organised. Sonny and Susie wake up Sam and Sally promptly in the morning, excited to tell them the big news. The two siblings jump up and down in excitement and start getting ready as quick as possible as the ice rink gets busy very quickly. Middle

The sleepy foursomes make their way out of the zoo with their fur combed perfectly and nails filed immaculately. Sam and Sally start to play in the snow and throwing snowballs at each other, soon the whole family get involved and it gets very competitive between the two boys with Sally hiding behind a rock and Susie collecting up balls for Sonny. The family get extremely distracted and suddenly realise the time. They need to get to the ice rink ASAP otherwise its going to be far too busy for them. They finally arrive at the ice rink to find swarms of crowds and queues waiting for their turn to go and dance around the rink. The Sleepys weave through the crowds trying to get as close to the front as possible they may as well use their small height for something!! Eventually it came to their turn. The family of four try to find their feet on the ice, slipping and sliding everywhere. Naturally, Sonny and Sam make it a competition and were soon enough racing around the rink weaving in and out of peoples legs. Sally, on the other hand, was finding it incredibly difficult to find her balance and skate around as fluently as the rest of her clever family, and soon enough found her in a maze of legs and spinning blades. Susie, who was in the middle of an intense dance solo, suddenly wondered about the whereabouts of her youngest and quickly gathered up the boys for a quick skate search. End The trio sped around the ice in search for the lost sleepy and after a couple of minutes started to get extremely worried, the bell rang to tell the skaters they only had a couple of minutes left on the ice, Sam told his parents that his sister, being the sensible one had probably got off the ice when she lost everyone and was waiting for them outside, they all agreed and started to make their way off the ice still scanning every centimetre of the ice just in case the worst had come to worst. The ice rink had nearly cleared completely and the trio were just about to get off the ice WHEN suddenly a body started to spin and twirl around them in multiple directions, it was Sally!!!! Sally, who had finally found her feet, had been spinning and twirling non-stop weaving in and out of everyone on the rink, which explains why no one could find her, they were all going in circle behind each other!! After an eventful outing, the Sleepys made their way back through the park to get a good nights rest.

Target Audience
Children ages 2-6

Children who dont go to school for a full day yet, and so have time in their day to listen. Theyll need a wide imagination in order to follow along in the story; however the episodes wont follow on from each other at all, so if they missed a day it wont confuse the story. For both genders Children at nursery, - could listen along with the rest of their class at circle time. For a British audience Due to being quite young they wont have much experience with other radio dramas, which is why Ive made it quite simple and not a follow on drama, just episode after episode of completely different stories, but following the same family of sloths The Sleepys, however they will have experience with TV programmes and so will expect slightly high pitches voices and sounds, a slightly cartoonist feel to it. They would be an E in the Socio-Economic groups as theyre un-employed, however theyre parents would be between a B and a C2.

Budget
Estimate of prices have come from websites like http://www.radiofacilities.com/voicestudio/4530030542 and http://www.audiomicro.com/sound-effects/fantasy

1330 Studio = 80 Actors = 200 Sound Effects = 2 per sound effect X 50 = 100 Sound engineer = 20 per hour Crew Hire = 15 per hour Writers =250 per page X 3 = 750 = 1165

Actors and Actresses

Georgia Harris Sally Sleepy Saira Khan Sally Sleepy Patrick Rule Sonny Sleepy Sam Miles Sam Sleepy These characters are representing a modern day adventurous family, this is to make the story more interesting and add a bit more fun to the characters. Theyre what are known to be a typical family, with a mum, dad, one son and one daughter, Ive done this to keep the stories easy to follow on from with less characters being the main protagonists, however other characters could be added on in new episodes but theyd just be brief characters.

Aerial Signposting And Music

The music Ill put into my radio drama will correspond to what theyre doing in the story. Itll make it easier for the children to know whats going on where abouts the family is. Its be extremely up beat and happy when the moment is right. This will also link on to aerial signposting, youll be able to tell where they are from the background sound surrounding them such as children playing, animal noises in the zoo etc. Throughout the radio drama there may be points where a family member may mention where they are or where theyre going but the background noise will be constant and so will make it much easier to tell which we want to do as its being made for children and we want to make it as easy for them to understand as possible. Theyre accidents will also help to make it all much easier, itll help the audience to distinguish who each of the family characters are and where they are in the world (New York).

Style
The style of my radio drama is an up-beat childrens radio drama. This is because it is about following a families everyday life, however to add excitement and a sense of fear into the mix, therell normally be a slight problem which the family will have to work together to fix it. This will also help with teaching the children morals and lessons with each story.