This past summer, some Briarcliff students participated in workshops at the school doing something which has never been done here before: they adapted a book into a play.
“Brave New World,” the 1932 dystopian novel which takes place in the year 2540, has now been turned into a play which will be performed this month at the school auditorium.
According to drama teacher and director Paul Kite, he has adapted literary texts before professionally, but never at a high school.
“I wanted to do it with this group of students because I felt that they were ready to be challenged,” he said.
Since the text is available online, Mr. Kite used a program called Scriviner to help format the text into a play.
“I pulled all the dialogue and deleted a lot of the text,” he said.
To help him with the process, he invited students to work with him on the adaptation during the summer.
“I sent out an email to anyone who had previously performed at the school, so we had seniors, juniors and a few sophomores, who attended three workshops with me this summer,” he said. “During the workshops, we developed the world of the play. We had a lot of conversations, back-and-forth discussions and improvs, which helped with making the adaptation. Everyone involved in the workshops had a lot of power to make changes, and we also had to problem-solve together while adapting it, and the students really stepped up to the challenge. I had never seen this type of commitment; they were very involved.”
Although the play has many parallels to today’s world, Mr. Kite and the students made some changes to make it appropriate as a high school play.
“The book was written in 1932, so we made some modifications about how some of the female characters were represented. In the book they were restricted in society, so we made changes and voted on them,” Mr. Kite said. “We wanted to modernize the play and to grow and develop the characters. It was a very experimental process, but it ended up looking like a conventional play, for the most part.”
“We tried to make the female characters more involved, as opposed to the way they were in the book, which was more passive,” said Alivia, a sophomore, who plays the role of Linda.
Senior Jasmine Behr, who plays the role of Bernard in the show, is also the play’s dramaturg.
“We made screen addiction part of the play – we call cell phones ‘prisms’ and when characters have to deal with a big emotion, they pull out the prism,” she said.
“In the story, there is a caste system: there are alphas, betas, gammas, deltas and epsilons. The alphas and betas are genetically superior. We find out that babies are being conditioned before birth to love their place in life and to be addicted to their place in society,” she said. “For example, the alphas are conditioned to feel sick when they have so many emotions, so they are completely dependent on the prisms.
According to Alivia, the show is pretty dark.
“My favorite scene is one of the lighter scenes, where two girls – Fanny and Lenina – are having a girl talk about relationships and dating,” she said. “It’s a fun scene.”
There are 15 students in the play and about as many students behind the scenes.
Tally, a freshman, wears many hats.
“I’m Assistant Stage Manager, scenic charge artist and Props Manager,” she said. “As Assistant Stage Manager, I help the show run smoothly and do things like write rehearsal reports and send to the people in charge of the different sections, like the scenic section or lighting section, so they can see what needs to be done.
“As one of the scenic charge artists, we design the set in terms of looks and as Props Master, I have a chart where I keep track of each item, how many we have, what scene it is in, and what character/actor uses it. Eventually I will have to know where each prop is located off-stage, once we start running the entire show.”
According to Tally, there are many talented techies in the show.
“Noah is the Stage Manager, and I call him a Swiss Army Knife personified, because he can do everything,” she said. “Plus, he can use power tools and he’s great at mentoring.”
According to Jasmine, the story seems relevant to today’s world.
The main message of the show is that the loss of individuality can lead to the downfall of society,” she said.
Although the book has never been turned into a play before, Mr. Kite was up to the challenge.
“It is a hard play to stage, but I like doing hard things,” he said.
Brave New World is appropriate for students in middle school and up.
It will be performed on Thursday, November 20 at 4 pm; Friday, November 21 at 7 pm; and Saturday,
November 22 at 1 pm and 7 pm. Price is $15 per person. Tickets can be purchased here:
