KRISTEN GILLETTE/Daily Bruin
By Kelly Haigh
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]
Now is the time for all good books to come to the aid of the
theater.
After all, the novel is no stranger to show business. Some of
last year’s most prominent films, including “A
Beautiful Mind,” “The Lord of the Rings,”
“In the Bedroom,” and even “Shrek,” were
pulled from the pages of books.
Stage adaptations of novels are not nearly as prevalent or
high-profile.
Obviously, the playing field is far from level. The theater
grapples with certain basic obstacles that mainstream American
cinema, in all of its wide-released glory, is generally able to
avoid.
Eric Bogosian, a character actor and writer whose one-man shows
have brought him considerable theatrical success, spoke of these
obstacles in a phone interview. He cited a 20-year economic
contraction of the theater, as well as the necessarily smaller
audience base that the theater commands, as significant
hurdles.
“Because the theater is not part of the pop media world,
it’s hard for it to find that broader audience,” he
said. “Basically, if you’re not there at 8
o’clock on the night the show is happening, you’re
missing it.”
But the theater does have a little something up its sleeve, a
unique immediacy that the cinema can never fully recreate.
At its best, theater is an opportunity to share an evening
““ and a room ““ with compelling characters. In the
theater, the actors are at hand. Characters are fleshed out in a
way that is literally impossible on a two-dimensional screen.
A personal connection is possible, not unlike that which can
quietly develop between the characters of a book and a reader.
It’s a dynamic that’s certainly worth exploring.
Writer Steven Belber, who adapted his play “Tape”
for film last year, enjoys playing up that personal angle by
focusing on character when working on a play.
“So many movies are made out of books, because books have
such good stories. But when I’m writing plays I’m
always thinking about character first,” Belber said in a
recent phone interview.
Fortunately, books tend to contain generous helpings of
both.
“Novelists are the best,” Belber said. “They
create incredible characters and they tell incredible stories. And
they’re so thorough. They take so much time. I think movie
and playwrights tend to crank out their work a little bit too
quickly. At least I know I do … You know, you work on (a play) in
rehearsal, but it takes five years to write a book.”
Belber pointed out that there have been several character-driven
novels that took well to the stage in the recent past. Years before
Tobey Maguire brought the role to the screen, Ethan Hawke was
portraying Homer in a stage version of “The Cider House
Rules.” And John Malkovich and Gary Sinise won acclaim in the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s “The Grapes of
Wrath” over a decade ago.
Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to spend a few hours with
those Joads?
Of course, the theater isn’t limited to interpretations of
fiction. Belber sees biography as a genre particularly ripe for
stage adaptation.
“I would make a biography of someone really good into a
play any day of the week. Because plays, more than movies, are
really so much about character, and a biography is nothing if not a
character study.”
Belber brought up the story of Bayard Rustin as an example.
Rustin was a conscientious objector who studied civil disobedience
with Ghandi. He then returned to America and shared his knowledge
with Martin Luther King Jr., and played a very influential role in
the Civil Rights Movement. But his homosexuality affected his
visibility in accounts of this era.
Belber has often thought about bringing Rustin to life on the
stage.
“He’s just incredible, this important historic
figure who’s not really been talked about much … I’d
love to make a play of his life story,” Belber said.
But even on a stage, where character is paramount, it can be
difficult to capture all the nuances of a historical or a literary
work. Those who want to adapt their favorite literary works are
obliged to proceed with the utmost caution.
“It’s like, what do you cut out? Everything is
important. And if you cut out the subtle stuff, it’s no
longer as beautiful,” Belber said.
At least these three fundamental storytelling mediums ““
theater, film, and literature ““ are able to work together and
fill in the gaps. There’s balance, an essential give and
take. Various sides of a story can be told and retold.
Ray Bradbury, whose “Fahrenheit 451″ was chosen for
our own “One Book, One City L.A.,” sees writing for the
stage and writing for the page as essentially the same art.
“There’s no difference between writing a play and
writing a novel. It’s the same person, and the same
ideas,” Bradbury told The Bruin in March. “As long as
you’re in love with the idea, it works. I don’t
intellectualize about them. I let them write themselves.”
Bogosian says that this sort of free-form, cross-media flow of
creativity is beneficial to all those involved.
“It does all work together. The same actors that are in
the theater are going to be the people who are going to end
up being in movies and TV, and essentially we all need movies
and TV in order to make a living … There are certain people who
go back and forth and who get influenced by the theater; Alec
Baldwin, Ethan Hawke, John Cusack,” Bogosian said.
“Hopefully there’s some kind of
cross-pollination.”
And what better way for theater writers to cross-pollinate than
to join the fray and put some more books out there?
Bogosian has responded to this call to arms. His first novel,
“Mall,” was released in November of 2000.
Belber is also eager to branch out. He’s currently writing
for the television series “Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit,” and he’s cooking up another film.
Maybe a stage adaptation of some character-rich piece of
literature is on a back burner.
“I’m kind of a frustrated novelist myself, so I
would totally be up for something,” Belber said.