Adapting Scripts From Stories
Thousands of stories exist that could become material for a script.
Many stories are interesting and provide depth of character. However, some are simply not written to where they could be easily, or practically, put into another medium.
Stage plays, for instance, are not inviting venues for stories that require a lot of special effects. And while Peter Pan and Miss Saigon had the budgets to make people and helicopters fly onstage, they are musicals, which places them in a different category of stage production than a straight play; they are meant to be large cast, extravagant productions, as opposed to a play, which typically has a dozen or fewer characters and smaller and simpler set requirements.
Star Wars, The Ten Commandments, and The Matrix are examples of movies that would be ridiculously difficult to stage.
On the other hand, a stage play, such as Neil Simon's The Odd Couple is really better suited for the stage, rather than as a movie. Several Woody Allen stage plays were made into movies also, but I prefer the stage scripts for those, too. On the stage, there is immediacy and intimacy; you're right there with the characters. A screen, no matter how large or hi-def, places a physical window between you and the action.
Some of the best films and plays are those that most directly display humanity at its best and worst; where characters are the stars rather than the technology available; and where simple story lines of good vs. evil, self-discovery, and compassion leave audiences with a good feeling of having watched an interesting and enjoyable show.
A friend of mine writes short stories, and came to a playwriting workshop I held recently. She has a story she'd like to turn into a one-act play.
It's a good short story. However, it reads from an omnipotent point of view, watching a young girl grow up. Throughout the story it narrates about conversations that were had among the characters, and specific scenes that occurred over the years, but contains no dialogue scenes.
So, for it to become a play, one question is what scene (or perhaps two or three scenes) could be presented on stage that would provide the opportunity for the theme of the story to be adequately presented? How can you encapsulate a lifetime into a couple of events?
This is the challenge for a successful one-act play: Create one or two key scenes that display the character's motivations, somehow provide the necessary background (without trivial spoon-feeding of dialogue to the audience), and create a dramatic atmosphere.
