Adaptation Project Info

Adaptation Project Description and Guidelines

Part 1: Literary analysis and interpretation

All texts are read in detail and with close attention to their literary features. Focus on first identifying literary features and then probing the various layers of meaning. Close attention is also paid to the means by which these materials are presented by writers, and to their effects on the reader. Students should be able to discuss the various choices made by authors in their texts, as well as the consequences of those choices for the texts themselves and for the readers.

The features to be covered should include:

• diction/language (choice of words)
• imagery
• rhythm
• tone
 • structure and form
 • point of view
• setting
 • plot and characterization.

This list is not exhaustive and other areas may be looked at by students so long as they contribute to a literary analysis of the text.

In addition to close reading of the texts, the contexts must also be considered. Students should explore the similarities and differences between the genres and cultures encountered in their reading. They should consider the implications of these in the interpretations of the texts studied. 

Part 2: Transformation of Text into Theater

This is defined as the adaptation or reconstruction of a non-dramatic text for live theatrical presentation. Any type of text may be transformed: prose or poetry, fiction or non-fiction.

Possibilities for transformation include the following.

 • Speech may become dramatic dialogue and monologue.
• A narrated incident may become a scripted scene.
• A reported episode may become a performed episode.
• Viewpoint may be shifted, for example, from third person to first person.
• Focus or emphasis may be shifted.

Production elements (for example, costumes, lighting, make-up and sound) can be used to support the performance but it should be remembered that the students will be assessed on their theatrical performance. Dance and music are acceptable as production elements. However, performances involving only dance or music are not appropriate in this assessment.

Part 3: Analyzing Performance

The oral commentary will include a critical analysis of the performance and the choices made.

Some elements to identify include:

• the effect of direction, performance skills and acting techniques
• the synthesis of elements in a performance
 • the clear intent and effect of the performance on the target audience

Krik? Krak! Adaptation projects from my previous class

https://performingliterature.blogspot.com/2017/03/videos-of-ia-projects.html

Diane Ackerman poems

WE ARE LISTENING

I.

As our metal eyes wake
to absolute night,
where whispers fly
from the beginning of time,
we cup our ears to the heavens.
We are listening

on the volcanic lips of Flagstaff
and in the fields beyond Boston
in a great array that blooms
like coral from the desert floor,
on highwire webs patrolled
by computer spiders in Puerto Rico.

We are listening for a sound
beyond us, beyond sound,

searching for a lighthouse
in the breakwaters of our uncertainty,
an electronic murmur
a bright, fragile I am.

Small as tree frogs
staking out one end
of an endless swamp,
we are listening
through the longest night
we imagine, which dawns
between the life and time of stars.

II.

Our voice trembles
with its own electric,
we who mood like iguanas
we who breathe sleep
for a third of our lives,
we who heat food
to the steaminess of fresh prey,
then feast with such baroque
good manners it grows cold.

In mind gardens
and on real verandas
we are listening,
rapt among the Persian lilacs
and the crickets,
while radio telescopes
roll their heads, as if in anguish.

With our scurrying minds
and our lidless will
and our lank, floppy bodies
and our galloping yens
and our deep, cosmic loneliness
and our starboard hearts
where love careens,
we are listening,
the small bipeds
with the giant dreams.

Also, here is an article about the author and if you scroll down, a link to her reading of this poem (probably helpful to listen to it as well as read it): 

 https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/05/08/we-are-listening-diane-ackerman-the-universe-in-verse/       

And here is just the reading link: https://vimeo.com/216533976 

LIKE YOUR FACE

After Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Like your face,
a thousand-leafed day,
and I who rejoice
in what’s measureless
measure the onset of evening
and the imagined scent
of your eyelashes
shivering like flowers in the wind.
What fate threw us together?
The same chance
that drew airlanes for the bats
swooping like neuroses
from the sky, fluttering
over frail autumn leaves
which cannot harm or save
or be anyone’s victim.

The Consolation of Apricots


Especially in early spring,
when the sun offers a thin treacle of warmth,
I love to sit outdoors
and eat sense-ravishing apricots.

Born on sun-drenched trees in Morocco,
the apricots have flown the Atlantic
like small comets, and I can taste
broiling North Africa in their flesh.

Somewhere between a peach and a prayer,
they taste of well water
and butterscotch and dried apples
and desert simooms and lust.

Sweet with a twang of spice,
a ripe apricot is small enough to devour
as two hemispheres.
Ambiguity is its hallmark.

How to eat an apricot:
first warm its continuous curve
in cupped hands, holding it
as you might a brandy snifter,

then caress the velvety sheen
with one thumb, and run your fingertips
over its nap, which is shorter
than peach fuzz, closer to chamois.

Tawny gold with a blush on its cheeks,
an apricot is the color of shame and dawn.
One should not expect to drink wine
at mid-winter, Boethius warned.

What could be more thrilling
than ripe apricots out of season,
a gush of taboo sweetness
to offset the savage wistfulness of early spring?

Always eat apricots at twilight,
preferably while sitting in a sunset park,
with valley lights starting to flicker on
and the lake spangled like a shield.

Then, while a trail of bright ink tattoos the sky,
notice how the sun washes the earth
like a woman pouring her gaze
along her lover’s naked body,

each cell receiving the tattoo of her glance.
Wait for that moment
of arousal and revelation,
then sink your teeth into the flesh of an apricot.



From I Praise My Destroyer (Random House, 1998)

When Edwidge Danticat spoke at CA....

Here are some notes I took and want to share with you....

• art has power (power to subvert governmental or political oppression)
• her family thought writing was dangerous
• she was aware of political oppression as a young child, but became aware of racial oppression when she moved to New York in 1981 at age of 12 -- called "AIDS" and "Boat People" because she was Haitian, and the bus driver could radio police and arrange beatings for anyone who was "misbehaving"
• she was used to state violence because of the Duvalier dictatorships but surprised by racial profiling and police brutality
• immigrants wanted to do what was right -- naively thought "if we are good immigrants, nothing bad will happen to us"
• inspired by MLK's speech in many ways, especially in the idea of "the urgency of now" -- the need to bring about change when it is needed and not wait
• art is not just beauty; it is a kind of "creative suffering" -- this term comes from MLK's speech too
• Danticat tries to explore the intersection of art and protest in her work
• quote from Salman Rushdie: "art isn't entertainment; art is a revolution"
• quote from Ai Weiwei: "the purpose of art is freedom"
• we should try to do what we can do to advance social justice, to live life fully, etc
• silence = betrayal
• dream big = ask not just why but also why not?
• seek inspiration wherever you can find it (Ghandi)
• stay focused no matter what
• don't let criticism stop you
• love trumps hate; love transforms opponents into friends
• create a "beloved community" based on justice, equality, love
• READ! -- stories can expand someone's humanity
• a story changes the perception of the teller/community
• start with conversation -- talking AND listening
• small acts count a lot
• we can bare witness to other people's experiences
• she comes from a history of people who have used art for social justice
• literature has the power to speak to people across cultures, makes us feel less alone
• something about stories touches you because we are all human -- as long as you are open, you can be moved -- allow yourself to acknowledge our common humanity
• art allows us to be touched by other people
• every immigrant family has their own version of the American Dream (escape dictatorship, economic opportunity, etc.) but parents' success is based on how well their kids do
• flip side of American Dream = a lot of sacrifice (leaving/loss)

Discussion Questions

A Period

Story #1

1. In the end of the story, the girl feels bad for her father after realizing his sacrifice. Did her perspective change after this? If so, how did it change?

2. Was Celianne’s death a simple suicide? Or was it a sacrifice? Give specific reasonings for your opinion. 

3. What does the butterflies mean to the woman?

4. In the end of the story, the woman narrator ends her letter with a similar description of the mountains that were mentioned earlier in the chapter by the man narrator. What is the relationship between the woman’s description and the man’s description? 

5. Is there a connection between the pregnant girl and Madam Roger’s son? If there is one, what is it and how does the narrator depict the relationship throughout the chapter?

Story #2

1. Why did Guy jump off the hot air balloon at the end?

2. Explain the quote: “People don't eat riches, they eat what it can buy.”

3. Respond to the quote: “How do you think a man is judged after he’s gone?” 

4. Why did Guy cry every time Little Guy read his lines? 

Story #3

1. Is Jacqueline a real figure?
2. What is the “flight” referred to in this story?
3. Describe how the theme of “fire” is carried through Manman’s life.
4. What role does the Madonna play to express the characters’ emotions?

F Period

Story #2

1. Why did the son recite his line over his father's dead body?

2. Why do you think that Guy jumped out of the hot air balloon?

3. What was the point of commiting suicide?

4.  What is the point of Lili saying that last line of the story?

Story #3

-What does madonna represent?

-What does flying represent when it comes to the mother?

-What can you tell how about her mother was treated by the government while she was imprisoned?

-Who do you think jacqueline is? Is she an important character throughout the story?