Page to Stage - The Beginning

This blog will document the process of turning Lost Cain, the novel, into Lost Cain, the play.

It will be messy.

The writing here will most likely be ugly, unedited and rambling. (I’m already having trouble not going back to edit those three sentences.)  However, the point is not to write a good blog, but to write a good play.

If the blog disappears one day, it will be because it ceases to serve that purpose.

I’ll be sharing this experience with you as if you’ve read the book. If you haven’t read the book – WTF?!  Go buy it.  Here's a link.  Lost Cain on Amazon

I chose ‘buttuglyarkansas’ as the title for this blog because a) it’s easy to remember b) it was the original title of the book - back when it was just an idea that came to me when I saw a picture in my hometown newspaper of a local mayor with some dead beavers. (It started out much more lighthearted than the novel turned out to be. Though certainly not from the perspective of the initial beavers.) And c) writing isn't pretty.

I have a sabbatical from January 11^th thru May 15^th to work on the play. For now I’m still in the planning phases.  I’m thinking and researching. Spending a lot of time absorbing some books, reading some plays, etc. If you’re curious – Sol Stein’s “Stein on Writing,” Lisa Cron’s “Wired for Story,” Browne and King’s “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,” and Raymond Hull’s “How to Write a Play.”  Things my agent insisted I re-read while editing the novel.

In my head, I’m starting to grapple with a few areas: Tone, Theme, Structure and Sets.

TONE

The book unfolds slowly – sometimes very slowly – over a period of 12 years. The tone is uneven – there are moments that are heartbreaking, a lot that are humorous and some that border on the farcical.  For me – and most readers so far - it works.  For the book.  However, for the play, I think there needs to be a little more discipline.  

Is it a drama that is funny or a comedy that is dramatic? 

Which characters and themes will power the action?

Where within those twelve years does it open?

THEMES

Death – of people, of ideas, of civilizations.

Friendship – both budding and enduring.

Salvation – Through works, faith and manipulation.

Growth – Overcoming expectations of the church and community.

Sacrifice – Greater love hath no man…

Redemption – The exploration of what Brother Neil calls, “a Beautiful pain.”

And finally…

Beauty itself – in the most unexpected ways and places and always in the eye of the beholder.

A play is a different kind of journey than a book.  A book, you settle into, before bed or on a flight. It pulls you at times, but usually not dramatically so.  A play, on the other hand is expected to scoop you up and take you for a quick, thrilling ride. Which themes serve that best?

STRUCTURE

I typically love Three-Act Plays. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, etc.  They aren’t really in fashion these days – but there are a couple things that lend themselves to three acts here.  The book has three Parts – each with a different focus and mood, and the screenplay (which will come eventually) will most likely be in the Three-Act structure because almost all screenplays are. There’s so much you can do with scenes, time-shifts, etc. that I’m not too worried yet about nailing down acts right now. Just something to think about – and research.
I'll be reviewing and analyzing 12 plays... just ordered. $117.26, thankyouverymuch.
Fun Home
Fences
Angels in America
August: Osage County
Doubt
A Streetcar Named Desire
Candide
Ruined
Good People
Other Desert Cities
American Buffalo
Clyburne Park

SETS

The ‘setting’ of the play is a given.  (One of the first things that convinced me to do this story as a novel was that when I pitched it as a movie, a potential producer said, “I love it. The first thing we’d have to change is the location, it sounds more like Mississippi.”)

But coming up with the specific set locations is hard. A few pop to mind… (each with staging limitations and possibilities.)

The River.  The undercurrents, the meandering, the encroaching, the power and the history. The river was there before these people – and the peoples before them; it will be there long after. It is the one constant. (How do you stage a river?)

 The church. The building and the belief system. The guiding force behind so much here – so much good and so much bad. (This one is probably a definite – the baptistery with the cross hanging above it.)

Brucie’s Front Porch – The social structure of a past society. (I can see the opening scene playing nicely on stage, if I decide to keep true to the book.)

V.R.’s Grocery Store – From the porch (Family) to the store (Community). Both now largely abandoned for something else. (Less likely since there aren't many scenes that unfold there.)

The Bridge – Reaching out, unfinished.  (In the book I tried to keep the landmarks grounded in reality – with the bridge being the actual one up near Dyersburg, Tennessee – but there’s something interesting about the possibility of it being built right there in town…) A dangerous coming connection to the outside world looming over them.

SO…

There you have it. Some of the preliminary ideas and questions – for most of which I have no answers. That's what makes writing fun and scary. This could be a disaster. : )

My goal is that, come January 11^th, I will do a short blog post each day (5x a week) to go over the ups and downs of the adaptation process.  Until then posts will be sporadic.

If you enjoyed the book, please feel free to participate in this process with me.  Having some outside input is welcome – there may come a time when I have to cocoon – but for now, any thoughts are welcome. I'm particularly interested in what moments moved people - made you really laugh out loud or shed a tear. If you're so inclined to participate. : )

Back to some reading…