Adapted for the Stage

I have a theatre background, stretching across my first three decades—high school, college, and civic. This was acting and directing, but over the last year I’ve developed a fascination with the idea of writing for the stage.

In The Mind of the Maker, Dorothy Sayers gives the following bit of guidance to playwrights. “To hear an intelligent and sympathetic actor infusing one’s own lines with his created individuality is one of the most profound satisfactions that any imaginative writer can enjoy.”

What has my attention is that in a stage play there is no opportunity for narrative. All the novel offers in description, tone, and color, is translated into set, costumes, and lighting. The stage script is all dialogue.

To finish a script for the stage the playwright sits in rehearsals and adjusts the script based on the actors’ and director’s interpretations. I’m drawn to the collaborative nature of this work. I’ve gotten a taste of it over the last several years, during which I’ve written and directed reader’s theatre pieces for Easter and covering the biblical book of Esther. I’ve experienced a bit of what Sayers references.

Last summer at the Winona Christian Writers Conference, another faculty member suggested I adapt The Confessions of Adam for the stage. At the top of March I finished the first draft. It’s been a fascinating experience thus far. There’s no requirement to maintain the same emotional moments the novel offers. Instead, the stage play is a separate, albeit related, work. We watch Adam and Oren meet once more, and listen as they come to discover each other—and all they have in common. I’m in the happy throes of editing toward draft number two.

Please leave your thoughts on this project in the comments!