Complex Character for Audio Drama: Lt. Oura
Budget: $250 – $750 USD
Required: Must be native Japanese and read and speak English
Length: 48 English and 385 Japanese words
About Project: See https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/forbidden-diary-true-wwii-prison-survival-story/id1611551011
Character Profile: Lt. Oura is a 1940s Japanese male (40-50 years old) who is the commandant of a civilian prison camp. Complex character. His story arc takes place from 1944 to early 1945, so he’ll appear in two seasons.
Oura was a village headman from the back country of Honshu who was conscripted during WWII. By 1944, the Imperial Army had demoted him to a prison commandant because he was unable to command troops. He was disliked by nearly everyone in the prison: guards and officers said he was suffering from shell shock and not stable mentally.
The woman who wrote the diary from which the audio drama is based, penned the following:
"Oura, dark and anxious, sat in the arbor yesterday looking out toward the blue [mountain] range. Miss McKim [the Camp translator] says he knows none of the polite Japanese language at all, only [a] strange guttural peasant tongue.... [He is] such a lonely figure, misunderstood even by his own countrymen, in a position beyond his powers, trying not to fail by desperate effort, and watched by [his officers looking] for his failures. He feels hate and dislike around him."
If interested, please audition a few lines in Japanese and English where indicated from Scenes Six and Seven B below.
[SCENE SIX]
Set Up: High Command has ordered Lt. Oura to order his prisoners to farm their own food, so a stubborn Filipino water buffalo has been taken out of retirement to plow. While out on a walk, Lt. Oura sees the prisoners and guards up to their knees in mud trying to get the beast to stand up and pull a plow. They are so incompetent that Lt. Oura takes charge.
[SOUND OF STOMPING, MUDDY FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
Lt. Oura [JAPANESE AND ENGLISH] You! Help those men push! And put some muscle into it.
Mr. Suda [JAPANESE AND ENGLISH] Oura-san, the buffalo only moves when it wants to.
Lt. Oura [JAPANESE AND ENGLISH] I can make it move! Give me your belt, Mr Suda! [SOUND OF A BELT WHIP]
[SCENE SEVEN A]
Set Up: Lt. Oura is having a panic attack and becoming unhinged while speaking to the prisoners' Executive Committee. Because of Oura’s thick accent and excitement, Yamato is having problems understanding him. For this scene, please speak as if you were addressing a group of 10 in a room.
Lt. Oura [IN JAPANESE] Planes will be here at any hour now!
Mr. Yamato [ENGLISH, MIMICS OURA’S INTONATION] Planes will be here at any hour now!
Lt. Oura [IN JAPANESE; LOUD, FRANTIC, DISCONNECTED, SPUTTERING] You are too luxurious in your living! The Imperial Army has given you all the food it has. You must grow more food! Enough must be planted for the few rainy weeks we have left in the Season! If you want more food you must work to eat! [STOPS SPEAKING BECAUSE EVERYONE IS STARING AT HIM LIKE HE’S CRAZY. THEN ORDERS YAMATO TO TRANSLATE] Yamato translate!
THANK YOU FOR AUDITIONING.
Length: 48 English and 385 Japanese words
About Project: See https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/forbidden-diary-true-wwii-prison-survival-story/id1611551011
Character Profile: Lt. Oura is a 1940s Japanese male (40-50 years old) who is the commandant of a civilian prison camp. Complex character. His story arc takes place from 1944 to early 1945, so he’ll appear in two seasons.
Oura was a village headman from the back country of Honshu who was conscripted during WWII. By 1944, the Imperial Army had demoted him to a prison commandant because he was unable to command troops. He was disliked by nearly everyone in the prison: guards and officers said he was suffering from shell shock and not stable mentally.
The woman who wrote the diary from which the audio drama is based, penned the following:
"Oura, dark and anxious, sat in the arbor yesterday looking out toward the blue [mountain] range. Miss McKim [the Camp translator] says he knows none of the polite Japanese language at all, only [a] strange guttural peasant tongue.... [He is] such a lonely figure, misunderstood even by his own countrymen, in a position beyond his powers, trying not to fail by desperate effort, and watched by [his officers looking] for his failures. He feels hate and dislike around him."
If interested, please audition a few lines in Japanese and English where indicated from Scenes Six and Seven B below.
[SCENE SIX]
Set Up: High Command has ordered Lt. Oura to order his prisoners to farm their own food, so a stubborn Filipino water buffalo has been taken out of retirement to plow. While out on a walk, Lt. Oura sees the prisoners and guards up to their knees in mud trying to get the beast to stand up and pull a plow. They are so incompetent that Lt. Oura takes charge.
[SOUND OF STOMPING, MUDDY FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
Lt. Oura [JAPANESE AND ENGLISH] You! Help those men push! And put some muscle into it.
Mr. Suda [JAPANESE AND ENGLISH] Oura-san, the buffalo only moves when it wants to.
Lt. Oura [JAPANESE AND ENGLISH] I can make it move! Give me your belt, Mr Suda! [SOUND OF A BELT WHIP]
[SCENE SEVEN A]
Set Up: Lt. Oura is having a panic attack and becoming unhinged while speaking to the prisoners' Executive Committee. Because of Oura’s thick accent and excitement, Yamato is having problems understanding him. For this scene, please speak as if you were addressing a group of 10 in a room.
Lt. Oura [IN JAPANESE] Planes will be here at any hour now!
Mr. Yamato [ENGLISH, MIMICS OURA’S INTONATION] Planes will be here at any hour now!
Lt. Oura [IN JAPANESE; LOUD, FRANTIC, DISCONNECTED, SPUTTERING] You are too luxurious in your living! The Imperial Army has given you all the food it has. You must grow more food! Enough must be planted for the few rainy weeks we have left in the Season! If you want more food you must work to eat! [STOPS SPEAKING BECAUSE EVERYONE IS STARING AT HIM LIKE HE’S CRAZY. THEN ORDERS YAMATO TO TRANSLATE] Yamato translate!
THANK YOU FOR AUDITIONING.