Once I'd decided to take a crack at adapting the "Rip Van Winkle" story into a play, it was time to do a little research. I searched the Pioneer Drama Service online catalog, and found that they do not currently carry a "Rip Van Winkle" adaptation. I ran a search at www.findaplay.com and discovered that only four publishers had versions. So on the one hand, I identified a potential "hole" in the Pioneer offerings (don't try to send Pioneer a "Cinderella," they've got 10 different versions!), with a well-known story and title, and a little but not too much competition with other publishers, so I felt the market was ready for a new, hip "Rip." I read the story, which is only about 20 pages long (a good length for a one-act adaptation!) very carefully, noting the locations, the principal characters, the plot and the thematic arc of the story. I ran an online search for "Rip Van Winkle" and came up with a study guide, biographical information on the author, illustrations from various printed versions of the story, and even a download of a 1906 silent film version filmed at Thomas Edison's studio and starring the legendary 19th century mega-star Joseph Jefferson! In the original story, Washington Irving provides an interesting lead-in to the actual tale, introducing a fictional Diedrich Knickerbocker, a collector of folk tales and legends, who purportedly had recorded and verified the Rip Van Winkle story. The Knickerbocker character (who I immediately changed into a female "Diedre") was going to be my "outsider," the one who goes looking for a story, and finds a play. Since the villagers "tell" (and act out) the story of Rip Van Winkle for Knickerbocker, I knew I would add numerous gender-neutral townspeople as narrators/storytellers, and maintain a theatrical element that allows for my broad style of physical humor, quirky characters and fast dialogue. Now I felt ready to begin writing. I created the file with all the proper formatting, wrote out the set description so I'd have a clear mental picture on which to stage the show in my imagination, and began listing the cast of characters. I wrote a quick sentence outline listing the "scenes" or "encounters" for the story, and key characters. I decided to make the "liquor" into enchanted (non-alcoholic) cherry cider dispensed from a flat, cut-out "barrel," thereby downplaying the drinking element. So now all the barriers to writing "Rip Van Winkle" were down, and I was ready to get to the real work, which is writing the play itself. |
