Well, it is interesting how well an e-Storybook has been working out for The Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure, even though it hasn't been released to the public, the preparations and the way it looks on an e-pad are amazing.
So that leads me to believe that preparing a readable version of "Nunc Licet" as an e-book might be a good idea.
The Forth Reading of the Play
For those of you who did work on our "psuedo-stage" reading we had at Bryn Athyn College during the last Assembly there, you know how laborious it seemed doing that. I have to say - THANK YOU for your efforts and blame whatever difficulties we felt during the process, in part on the environment and the way in which a reading was presented. I confess to being somewhat rigid in my desire to present the material as I wrote it, but I also have to say that I chopped it up miserably at the various requests by folks, to only present parts of play. It really became disjointed because of that. The accouterments which seemed so inconsequential at the time were designed into it for a purpose and without those elements the core material lost it's levity. This is why I will wait until I can present it in full before I make another attempt. I am not a fan of theatre by vote. The calculated structure of a piece cannot easily be seen or modified without the composite of it being presented to view. But it was a gallant effort on the part of all those involved.
Liz, I have to say thank you for your effort. But I want to say that the writer's work is sacred and only he or she has the right to make any changes whatsoever... and only, if and when, he or she wants to. That is paramount and communication on that front is not only essential, but the creator's right. Everybody needs to be on the same page with that.
The play was really not written to work as a simple reading and that was obvious to me. There was also the issue of being pressed for space, time and the awareness of the attendees. Thanks to the planning people for putting us right up against a long day and supper time in a space with no air conditioning in the middle of a hot summer. Those things didn't help either the audience attention or the patience of the players. But Oh well, we did it. Thanks again.
An e-book
I'm thinking that an e-book version of this play, with the technical specification taken out (or provided in appendix) might be a good idea. I'm not quite sure how that would look just yet, but Revision 1 of the e-book might be as simple as providing the same digital text that is on the CD with no modifications. I'm going to look into doing that and will report the progress here.
A Film Version
This was alway part of the plan, but not until the core material gains a few refinements to condense it's presentation. I really do not want to change the premise around, as was suggested art the last reading. However I do need to refine some of the relationships so that the social inferences can be presented in a more subtle way. That is less possible on stage than it is in film, because the setting doesn't change as readily and I feel that can effect the way these inferences are presented. I'm probably the only one who knows what I am talking about here, but those are some of my internal thoughts on that subject. I do think that alters the perception of what the play is presenting in terms of the divergent subject matter which shapes to overall feel of the piece. I think that is unique to the film presentation because it involves subtitles which can only be presented that way.
So if I move to reshape an e-book version, that may lead to a screenplay, even without the stage version going up. I am sure that my more mature mindset will and a significant effect on that.
That's all for now. Look for some updates. AG
