Glorious Wreckage: "My playwriting mentor Dennis Reardon once wrote that adaptors are like the Rosie Ruizes of playwriting. Rosie Ruiz, you may recall, was that marathon runner who entered the 1980 Boston Marathon from a crowd of spectators half a mile from the finish line and then claimed to have run the whole thing, setting all kinds of world records.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Inspector General Released
Glorious Wreckage: "My playwriting mentor Dennis Reardon once wrote that adaptors are like the Rosie Ruizes of playwriting. Rosie Ruiz, you may recall, was that marathon runner who entered the 1980 Boston Marathon from a crowd of spectators half a mile from the finish line and then claimed to have run the whole thing, setting all kinds of world records.
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6 comments:
I like the comparison between writers and long distance runners. I tend to find that especially with playwrights, it's a long journey. You have to defend your choices but be willing to scrap something that isn't working for the rest of the team. It takes a lot of stamina. Doing adaptations requires a lot of the same skills. Anyone who's read a bad adaptation can tell you that.
Great to see this from one of the few academic theater professors at this school. Though the School of Drama isn't really an academic program, sure we have dramaturgs and playwrights but we're probably best known as the oldest theater training school in the country and the place that graduated the new Spock. Though the academics and critical theory side of the theater isn't the predominant theory being taught inside Purnell it's great to see it alive and well. Congratulations to Doc and bravo to the designers and technicians whose set is on the cover.
In a colloquium discussion (not, actually, taught by Chemers) we recently discussed translators of literature and talked about very similar difficulties as what Doc talked about. How do you translate (or adapt or anything) someone else's work a) without influencing or making changes to it yourself or b) come to terms with putting so much work into something you hope no one will actually notice? I think those people are admirable and the work they do, no matter what discipline it's in, is perhaps more important than the work they translate or adapt.
to be honest Im commented out... this is my last comment of the year and although their is a lot i could comment on about this article i'm only doing this fifth and final comment to see if it will pass and because Jackson Gallagher is making me do it. no i am not in any way under the control of Mr. Gallagher and i do consider our relationship as equals but at the end of the day its just too much to try and actually do a real comment for this article. hope you liked the BS...
much Love - Jared
Having had the pleasure to see this show when visiting last year, I am very excited to see that it is being published. Doc Chemer's work should be shared with the rest of the nation and I for one think that CMU is very selfish for hoarding all his talent for themselves. Shame on you CMU. Don't bogart the genius.
Aw... you guys... sniffle. :)
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