I read "Reviving Ophelia", and I have written a piece
about a girl who identifies with Ophelia -- "Jenny
Does Shakespeare"-- but like you, I heard once that
somebody was making a piece based on the Ophelia book but that
the project had problems and I've heard no more.
I don't find myself attracted to this sort of work: the discovery
is already made by the literary author, the adapting one is
doing "illustrations".
OTOH, I DO admire and have been moved by Documentary pieces
that use interviews and public records to arrive at an understanding
of some event: I really really like "Copenhagen" at
one end "Fires in the Mirror" at the other. I'd love
to see "Bloody Sunday", that just opened in London
at the Tricycle Theatre. I'm reading "Living Justice"
now, a book about the development of "The Exonorated",
--- the authors were the keynote speakers while I was at the
Mid America Theatre Conference, where I also I went to panels
on "How To" work on a non-fiction piece. Some of these
sound breath-takingly artistic, others are at best an improvement
on a dull lecture and suited for middle school history or social
studies classes.
Also, when actors-turned-writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen
talked about their work on "The Exonerated" they were
filled with passion and a kind of wild ego-free artistic satisfaction
that moved many of us in the audience to tears of joy. Their
process of finding and taping these people who were on death
row and distilling what they got from them into the essence
of 6 different characters and the personal circumstances and
social significance of what they each went through, drew on
every bit of intelligence and empathy and craft and aesthetics
they had as actors and as human beings. They were willing to
risk everything to accomplish it and glad beyond expressing
when they realized that they had done it. JB & EJ (they
are married) recruited dozens of actor friends to help them
shape the material, working from edited typed transcripts rather
than the tapes. One amazing (but right on in my experience as
a playwright) thing they said was that although they never gave
a physical description of the "characters" or played
the tapes for the actors to hear the speech patterns, if the
editing they were doing was "right", then (undirected)
their actors took on the gait and posture and accent and speech
patterns of the real person they were portraying. When it came
time to do a high-profile presentation of "The Exonerated",
one that could save the lives of other wrongfully condemned
prisoners on death row, then Name Actors took over for the less
well known but equally good ones who had worked on shaping the
piece-- but no one seemed to mind. Everybody who worked on it
felt personally enriched by the experience.
Would I personally like to have the experience of working this
way?
Well, in a way I have had it. My 1990 play "Under
Siege" is documentary/non-fiction, based on interviews
with abortion clinic counselors under siege by pro-life fanatics
and with a whole spectrum of women who have had abortions, both
legal and back-alley. The counselors felt that the underpaid
and disrespected work they were doing was vital, important,
crucial to the lives of women as moral beings responsible for
their choices. They wanted their stories told! Shaping the material
I worked with wonderful volunteer actresses who "drew on
every bit of intelligence and empathy and craft and aesthetics
they had as actors and as human beings, and were willing to
risk everything". We weren't at all sure that the fanatics
who threatened to bomb the clinics wouldn't bomb our show! It
was a great experience. The script and I (at that time titled
"Choices") made it as far as Sundance. I'm only sorry
that I don't have gumption that JB and EJ have, and I was never
able to secure a high profile production that might have made
the insights we uncovered part of the ongoing social dialogue.
However, monologues
from the script are published in "Millennium Monologues",
and on my web site, and lots of acting students are doing them.
Maybe some day the script will have a high-profile production.
Reproductive rights are still "Under Siege", anti-choice
fanatics are vetting the judiciary, and clinics are closed by
threats or regulation every month.
by 
