From Page to Stage (with Lani Tupu)

“Great Fun —I’d do it again! Might even consider screenwriting for real.”

— Joan Showronski

Lani Tupu (top picture) and Tee Morris (middle picture) take words from the book and translate them for a script format in From Page To Stage.

When you hear that your favorite book or movie has been “optioned” for a film or television mini-series, you may feel both elation and dread. Anytime a book is being adapted for stage, screen, or some other performing arts medium, change is inevitable. And it is this change that fans of particular titles abhor and resent from Hollywood. When occurrences or characters absent from the original story appear, (Minority Report, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Legends of Earthsea) or a successful book fails as a film (Timeline, Queen of the Damned), the go-to excuse is “Books rarely translate well…”; but if this were the case, why do Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and The X-Men films continue to succeed at the box office.

These questions are answered with interest in From Page to Stage, a workshop in adapting literature for the performing arts, presented by Lani Tupu and Tee Morris.

Lani Tupu (Captain Bylar Crais and the voice of Pilot from FarScape) and Tee Morris (author of the MOREVI saga and The Billibub Baddings Mysteries) bring their collected experiences as actors and writers together in From Page to Stage (FP2S), a look into one of the toughest aspects of entertainment: adapting published works for media. This interactive seminar will take its participants through the process of written work being adapted for stage. Ending with a candid and honest discussion on when things work or when writers get lost in translation, From Page to Stage gives you an idea of what to expect on the road between published work and blockbuster movie.

What to Expect: The FP2S Curriculum

How would you like your workshop? Regular? Large? Or do you want your workshop SUPER-SIZED?!? Lani and Tee offer FP2S in several different sizes, all based around a one-day (the REGULAR size) curriculum. Here’s what FP2S has to offer:

• Meet the hosts: Lani Tupu, Tee Morris (and optional “Guest Artist in Residence” when applicable)
• Discuss workshop goals and expectations
  • Stage/screen adaptation
  • Stage Reading
  • Radio play adaptation
• Open Discussion of source material
  • Best adaptation — stage, screen, TV or radio?
  • Casting
  • Scene Intentions
• Review materials and assign participants to team/teams
• Begin treatment of manuscript with beginning of adaptation (provided by workshop)
• 15-minute break
• Tupu & Morris: The Producers
  • Teams must rewrite scene in order to placate to producer’s desires
  • Session with rewrites on the spot with teams working independently
  • Each team then presents their segment of the script
  • Discussion on coordinating with multiple screenwriters
  • Session with rewrites where teams collaborate to restructure and recast scene
• Discussion: The Challenges of Producer’s/Director’s Expectations
• 15-minute break
• Continued treatment of material — or — new material distributed for treatment
• Bringing everything together with working with screenwriting, producers, actors, and directors
• Notes & Discussion
• Closing Thoughts

“Having never seen the process, it was great to learn. It raised my appreciation for how a book becomes a play or a movie, as well as why so much ends up omitted.”

— Olivia Hicks

And FP2S is offered in a customizable format! If you want a one-day workshop for your SF/F/H convention, a three-day workshop for your scriptwriters’ workshop, or if you are looking for a week-long program featuring the art of adaptation from the beginning to the end—culminating with a staged reading of participants’ works—Lani and Tee can adapt the FP2S two-day schedule to meet your needs.

Perhaps you have explored the Uncharted Territories with Lani Tupu, or traversed The Rift to the fantasy realm of Morevi with Tee Morris. Now take a journey of a different kind with both of them as actor and author take you From Page to Stage.

If you would like to book From Page to Stage for your school, library, SF/F/H convention, or writer’s group, e-mail Jean Orrico of Peachtree Services at peachtreellc@msn.com
for available dates and booking arrangements.