Less than a week remains before I submit my adaptation. At present, I’m on the 4th draft of my treatment and the 2nd draft of the play itself. The play, as it currently stands, is a skeleton on which I need to add some flesh. The whole story is there but each scene and every character needs further development. In particular, I’m trying to convey the theme (love versus sex) through the action (male relationships) without it being too piecemeal. My first draft is a bit staccato, with one event being followed by another but not a lot connecting the two, except for the characters. Through developing the relationships and conflict between the characters I hope to resolve this problem. I’m trying to focus on what the main action and main change is in each scene, and how these propel the story forward. I’m glad to have the first draft done as it gives me a solid ground on which to build however, with the clock ever ticking in my mind, I get moments of pure panic when I feel I won’t get enough done to be satisfied with the end product. Given that my assignment is to submit 30 minutes of script (along with all the supporting documents and a treatment) I fully intend to finish the script over the summer. In fact, my first draft spans the entire play, so my plan going forward is to flesh out each of the first 5 scenes for submission next week and then work on the remaining scenes over the summer. The end product will be a 60 minute one act play and right now the idea of having a full script completed is motivating me greatly.
It appears someone has beaten to the finish line, however, with a play based on the same character opening last week in San Francisco! They do say great minds think alike. Unfortunately they also say fools seldom differ. Go figure.
David Keane 