NOTLD Stage Adaptations

[slutdaddy]

Just a quick little questionnaire about NOTLD stage adaptations (please feel free to comment further and even if you have not seen one done as I want to get a broad response on the subject. I ask as I am currently working on an adaptation and would like a fan based reaction to the idea and/or past productions)


Has anyone here seen one of the several stage adaptations that have been done?

What are / were your thoughts on the production, script and direction of the play?

Do you think it is a good idea to adapt the movie for the stage?



Thanks -

[Yojimbo]

In Los Angeles there was a production that I saw last year out out by a local group called Gangbusters. The production was entertaining and whatever problems existed with the show were, in my mind, a matter of poor acting ability on the part of the actors (which, frankly, is often par for the course when you have a non-professional group) I thought it was directed well and was quite happy to have seen it, having always thought that NOLD would make a great stage play.

My only real issue with the play was the use of a television mounted on the wings of the stage, visible to the audience, which was supposed to show the exterior of the farmhouse. So whenever a cast member would go outside, these monitors would suddenly turn on and show what was happening outside in a kind of greenish-tinted night vision TV picture. I found it distracting, and thought that the outside action could have been better done either implied as off stage action, or if it was something that absolutely had to be seen then it could have been shown through a window. Anything but using the monitors as it was distracting and took me out of the scene. THe monitors were used, however, to show the TV emergency broadcasts at one point, so they were useful in that regard. But again, in some sequences it was like breaching the 4th wall, and in others it was an on-stage set accessory.

Not too long ago there was another individual here who, like you, was putting together a similar production of NOLD in Chicago, and I am certain that there have been others, since this concept is kind of a given considering the nature of the film. A quick search of the site should reveal this guy's handle as well as point you towards others, but PM me if you need more information.

Personally, I think adapting films for the stage is a great concept as long as it is done with respect and reverence to the originals who many might consider to be sacred ground.

[slutdaddy]

Thanks for the thoughts Yojimbo.

I should say that this is not a direct word-for-word, beat-for-beat translation. There are already two stage plays that are direct translations. This one will not be and here is why:

Unfortunately, the company that is going to be producing the show is a new and up-and-coming theater company with limited monetary resources coupled with the fact that they do not have their own theater space in which to do their shows. Typically, they find vacant store fronts or empty warehouse space to do a show in and then will have to move on to another space for the next show and so on. On the upside: they have been given the use of an out-door theater for this show just recently (which should lend itself very well in terms of atmosphere and offstage extras mingling with not only the characters but the audience.)

I also felt that a “direct” stage adaptation (for the budget available) would not come off as well as I would like. So since we cannot (I feel) meet or exceed an audience’s expectations of the film to stage, why would said audience pay $8 or $10 to see a word-for-word and beat-for-beat version of something you can just a easily rent on DVD for $3 that will meet your expectations.

Given the above along with a few other considerations, when starting the adaptation, I had to keep these things in mind and so a lot of external “action” was stripped from this stage version along with long scenes of the characters watching TV.

So once I started the adaptation, I had to look at what worked from the film as a play – (film is a show-me medium, theater is a tell-me medium – typically) and what I found was a great MAN versus MAN conflict inside the house with hints of MAN versus self and MAN versus NATURE. All three of the conflict types are there and rife for some strong drama. And since I knew the company couldn’t afford flying sets and huge set changes, I took the dramatic scenes of in-fighting and expanded upon them making them the center of story. Also, I guess for me: the film is about humanity’s inability to come together in the face of its own destruction. (But that’s just me)

BUT I should say it was very important to me to maintain the essence of Romero’s film. I haven’t added modern touches (cell phones or current slang) or tied to update the time period – if anything, the play should be timeless. I have used sections of dialogue directly from the movie (as I know I would want to see familiar moments) and then move into the expanded arguments and conflicts of the characters. I do not feel you can improve the film (in the eyes of die-hard fans) but I do feel you can show the film from another perspective and make it an enjoyable experience for fans and new-comers alike. This is not a re-make nor is it a re-envisioning per-se as much as it is an adaptation of the drama and conflict…

I hope this clears up any confusion about this thread. Please feel free to comment about the direction. If you feel that I am taking it in the wrong way or if it excites, let me know.

Thanks all…. And keep the thoughts coming

[Yojimbo]

I salute you in your efforts to bring your adaptation to the stage, or to alternative venues as the case may be.

Yours is a great idea. Certainly it will bring in the hardcore zombie heads, that is a given, but your expansion of the whole NOLD universe is intriguing and I would love to see it as I am certain many even "normal" folks would.


I wish you much luck and good fortune. Kick some zombie audience ass for us!

[slutdaddy]

The production is actually coming along nicely. I've been trying to stay away from it now that the script is done but every so often i poke my head in on a rehearsal...

the show will be going up in Virigina - i don't know how close you are or far you'd be willing to travel...

here is a link to the theatre company's website for more info:

www.amparts.org

i may also put the script up online somewhere (if there would be interest in reading it) - more on that later

thanks for all the feedback

[DruNewp]

There's a company out there performing Citizen Kane, only with zombies.

Wish I had more info. Sounds pretty lame actually.

[Yojimbo]

There's a company out there performing Citizen Kane, only with zombies.

Wish I had more info. Sounds pretty lame actually.

Zombies in Citizen Kane? There's got to be more to this than that.

That being said, it sounds so stupid that I am actually curious enough to check it out.

[DruNewp]

Here's the article...
-------------------------



Thunderbird Theatre's 'Aaah! Rosebud!' spoofs 'Citizen Kane'

Sam Hurwitt

Not every theater company gets a mayoral proclamation when it comes to town for a two-day run. For a small comedic troupe doing a "Citizen Kane" spoof involving zombies, Olympic curlers and an evil sled, it's probably safe to say it's unheard of. But to greet the Thunderbird Theatre Company when it moves its new play "Aaah! Rosebud!" from San Francisco to Berkeley, Mayor Tom Bates has declared Sept. 21 to be Thunderbird Theatre Day in his city.

It helps that the playwright, KFOG news director Peter Finch, knows people.

"I had met the chief of staff of the mayor of Berkeley, so I e-mailed him and said, 'We've got this theater company. It's the first time it's been in Berkeley. Do you want to do a mayoral proclamation?' " says Finch, who's making his playwriting debut.

Before it crosses the bay, however, the comedy premieres Aug. 23 at New Langton Arts, which has hosted the Thunderbird's past few fall shows: last year's Greek myth remix "Release the Kraken," 2005's Elvis superhero adventure "Las Vega-Nauts" and the 2004 pirate comedy "Lusty Booty."

The Thunderbird Theatre Company came together in 1998 when four friends from college and the Chico theater scene met at a Clement Street cafe, the Blue Danube, and decided to start a troupe dedicated to original comedic works.

"We moved to San Francisco, started running into each other on the street and said we've got to get together and do theater," says Bryce Allemann, who's married to fellow co-founder Kathy Hicks.

"Finally, Martin Chavira, one of the co-founders of the Thunderbird, said, 'That's it! We're not going to talk about it anymore. We're going to do it.' "

Their first show was the pulp-fiction parody "Collected Works of Frank Cullen," which ran at the now-defunct Jewel Theatre on Geary Street that August. They've been doing a show or two a year ever since, such as "Los 7 Magnificos," a "Magnificent Seven" takeoff pitting masked Mexican wrestlers against villainous Quakers, and "Rocket Girl," a musical melding "All About Eve" and "Flash Gordon."

Finch's first experience with the Thunderbird was as an actor in "Lusty Booty," written by core company member Jason Harding, who plays Kane in "Aaah! Rosebud!" It was when they were both in the next year's "Las Vega-Nauts" (co-written by Harding) that the idea came up for Finch, known for his "Fog Files" radio segments, to try his hand at playwriting.

"I'd give Jason a ride home after the show and we'd talk theater," Finch says. "One time he said, 'You should try writing a show,' and that planted the seed."

People tend to complain about spoilers, not just for the latest Harry Potter book or the episode of "Lost" they've got on TiVo but haven't watched yet, but even ancient Greek tragedies they've had millennia to catch up on. So if you've somehow managed to remain uninformed about who on earth Rosebud is in the 1941 Orson Welles classic, you might want to skip ahead a few paragraphs.

Charles Schulz blew the big surprise for a lot of kids in a 1973 Peanuts comic strip in which Linus is watching "Citizen Kane" and Lucy says, "Rosebud was his sled." Any reader who hadn't seen the movie yet yelled along with Linus, "AAUGH!" Others may have been tipped off by a line in the Julie Brown song "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun."

As indicated by the tagline for "Aaah! Rosebud!" - "Behind every great man there is an evil sled" - the Thunderbird isn't too worried about spoiling the surprise at this point.

"The premise of the movie is that this reporter spends the whole movie on this quest to find out what this mogul's dying words meant," Finch says. "I thought, wouldn't it be funny if the first guy he went to said, 'Oh, it was his sled! Everybody knew that. He wouldn't shut up about it; he'd go on and on.' Then I just kind of took it from there, worked in zombies and the great sport of curling."

By then, Finch had a pretty good sense of the group's whimsical sense of humor, and he'd written the piece with the Thunderbird style and frequent cast members firmly in mind.

"I think one of the best things about it was that it had a lot of the elements that just keep coming up in Thunderbird shows," Allemann says. "There's the breakout musical number for no apparent reason in the middle of the show."

"And the bad disguises that manage to convince the other characters," Harding adds. "We've had apes dress up as nurses."

Finch also appears in the show in a number of roles, though the group points out that he had to audition like everyone else. Every now and then, the actor a part was written for will wind up losing it to someone who just nails it in auditions.

Director Dylan Russell is a newcomer to the Thunderbird, though she's directed for a number of other local companies, so she pored over DVDs of past performances to get a sense of the Thunderbird style and how the company members work in the small, black-box space at New Langton.

"The plays work on so many different levels, within whatever genre they're spoofing," Russell says. "They have so many deeper jokes operating on so many levels of cultural literacy. 'Release the Kraken' had all these in-jokes to 'Clash of the Titans' and 'Star Wars' and 'Clerks.' I met with the sound designer this weekend to talk about music for certain scenes, and she put in this joke that only musicians will get. It has to do with how she's writing the end of the song."

"It's like loading a comedy shotgun," says Harding, who's been with the company since its third show. "Some people get the jokes and others don't, but it's OK because you're reloading and you're going to shoot them again. My favorite laugh is the one person out of a 13-show run who laughs at one joke, and that's the only person to ever laugh at it because you wrote that joke specifically for that one guy."

Of course, the hope is that the majority of jokes will hit home in what promises to be the "Citizen Kane" of evil-sled-zombie plays.

"If the audience laughs half as hard as we're laughing," Finch says, "we're going to be in good shape." {sbox}

Aaah! Rosebud! Runs Aug. 23-Sept. 8 at New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom St., San Francisco. It then plays Sept. 21-22 at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. $20-$25. (415) 289-6766, www.thunderbirdtheatre.com .

[slutdaddy]

The Adapation I've been talking about is going up two weeks from today at the Oak Grove Theater in Verona VA. 10/18 - 10/21; 10/25 - 10/28. 8pm $8.

for more info:

www.amparts.org

Hope to see some of you there and maybe discuss what you think of the adaptation.

thanks

chris

[slutdaddy]

The Stage Adapation in question that I've been working on is going up two weeks from today. It runs 10/18 - 10/21; 10/25 - 10/28 at the Oak Grove Theater in Verona VA.
8pm. $8.

for more info:

www.amparts.org

I hope to see some of you there and discuss what you think of the adapation.

Thanks all
-Chris

[slutdaddy]

The Apaptation in question on this thread is going up two weeks from today. It runs 10/18 - 10/21; 10/25 - 10/28. $8 - 8pm at the Oak Grove Theater in Verona VA.

for more info:

www.amparts.org

Hope to see some of you there so we can discuss what you thought of the adapatation.

Thanks
-Chris

[slutdaddy]

sorry about the multiple responses - they were not showing up as posted...

apologies

[Yojimbo]

Sounds cool. Wish I could attend, but I am stuck at my job in Los Angeles.

Let me know how it went. Certainly, if you do bring it to Los Angeles, I will be one of the first in line to get seats.

Later, brother!