We are adapting Susan Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It for our final project. It’s a full length novel, but we’ve chosen to stage only excerpts. The book is set mainly post moonpocalypse, so we’ve written all of the BEFORE scenes ourselves using the character profiles we had developed for our roles. We are doing a BEFORE and AFTER performance, meaning there are constant flashbacks. The AFTER scenes take place in chronological order, but the BEFORE scenes are working backwards i.e. they are moving further and further away from moon- day. It’s a very cool idea(at least I think so) because is their no fluid timeline. It’s a little vague and less about action and more about a change in behavior. The scenes are relatively short, so we have to show the change and rely less on dialogue. I think maybe I took this idea too far because some of our scenes were too vague. The dialogue needs to set the tone and give us insight into these characters’ relationships, but at the same time not be too forced or coming off as a monologue. I was too worried about the latter to work on the former. I’ve changed the dialogue around and taken some liberties with the book excerpts to make the relationships we’re going for clear.
Our biggest problem was how to say that the moonpocalypse had happened without really saying that the moonpocalypse had happened. The subtext was critical to portraying a shift in emotions rather than a shift in circumstances. Of course, the two are linked and intertwined tightly, but the changing family dynamics is what makes this piece really powerful- not the fact that the moon nearly fell out of the sky. To fix this, we manipulated Peter’s role to allow the audience to receive some context. I didn’t want to introduce the background too quickly because I just wanted to set the stage that this drastic thing has happened and this family has been altered completely, causing the audience’s focus to move to the emotional shift between Scenes 1 and 2. We get our context with Peter, who comes into play in Scene 3. We manipulated his scene to show that the health of the family was deteriorating(Mom’s ankle breaking) as was the rest of the world(flu epidemic, busy hospital, etc..) We also added context to his existence, so I mention him in Scene 2, and then closure to his departure (mention of his death in Scene 7.) We worked on dialogue and added some context to the situations.
The dialogue is mostly fixed, but we still have some work to do on the acting. We have to make the transitions between BEFORE and AFTER clear. We have the blankets and the set changes to show a change, but we need to work on making the time shift clear, rather than a setting change. Adding coats and scarves to our AFTER costumes will make a change in situation more clear. We also have to work on coming off as physically changed, partly as result of emotional turmoil but mostly because they are barely eating. We have to work on perfecting the tones we use and when being loud is appropriate and when it isn’t. I have to work on developing my relationship with Peter and the boys. We’ve been kind of awkward, but I need to make sure it doesn’t look weird when I act like their mom or girlfriend. We are just all unfamiliar with the type of devastation we have to portray and we haven't done anything this heavy in class before. For such a serious piece, despite our few issues, I think we are doing pretty well. We ll are trying to make it obvious that we are weakened and that we’ve changed. We’ve done well with line memorization and working on character development. I think we really just have to work on following through with our characters and not feeling awkward or like it's too much if it’s actually called for.
I think the other group is also doing really well. I think many of the comments I have are a result of them not knowing their lines, so I think the scene will improve a lot when they do. I was a little confused when they started mentioning a baby, but they said they are going to use a fake baby bump, so my confusion was just a result of me not seeing the right picture. I was also a little confused when Charlie and Taylor played their part as a drama, but Wiebke and Bryn were clearly characters that are byproducts of comedy. They just need to work on making the beginning match the end. I liked Bryn and Wiebke’s dialogue a lot and I liked how innocent Charlie made herself seem when she was interacting with the cops. I like how they use the whole stage; it feels like a full length show- just in seven minutes. I liked the bit when Bryn and Wiebke were having a conversation at the same time Adler and Wiebke were. There were two scenes going on at once and I liked the idea of them bouncing back and forth.
Both scenes are working out well, but we both have to work on finalizing scripts and making the changes we’ll talked about in class. I have to work on putting myself into this performance. It’s something very different than anything I’ve ever done before. It's challenging, but I I’m excited for it. I think we have a solid script, a good cast of characters, and motivated actors; I suspect that we’ll be able to do our story- Pfeffer’s story- justice.
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