Fences

Fences

Understanding and mastering the adaptation process is essential for any storytelling artist today. Many contemporary narratives are rooted in classic texts or myths, so navigating through those works and discerning how to translate or update them for today’s audiences is vital towards understanding how society today has been shaped by its past. For this research essay, students will either choose a play and analyze how a corresponding film exhibits similar dramatic storytelling tools (theme, character, tone, genre, dialogue, etc.) Here is a link to the play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1gl-4dilU FOR PLAY TO FILM: • Pick any play that moves you or resonates with you in some way. Then pick a corresponding film that exhibits similarities in dramaturgical execution of theme, plot, character, setting, dialogue, tone, genre, performance, design, etc. • Explore how the film adapts at least three (3) of the storytelling similarities – for example, The Goat; Or, Who is Sylvia? is a play by Albee that deals with the destruction of the ideal American family (plot) and explores the boundaries of taboo (theme). A corresponding film might be In the Bedroom which deals with the disintegration of a typical American family due to a taboo (plot), but while both stories are rooted in elements of Ancient Greek drama, the play is absurdist (genre/tone) and located in one living room (design/plot), while the film is more dramatic and sentimental (genre/tone) and utilizes a vast American landscape in its thematic explorations (plot/design/theme). The student’s job would be to explore how these differences – as well as the similarities – might expand upon the play’s thematic resonance or dramatic impact, or how they might limit it, etc. Compare and contrast how the dramatic storytelling tools alter from play to film and discuss why you think the screenwriter and filmmaker altered the play/genre/story the way they did for cinema.