Hidden Human Computers, written by myself and Duchess Harris, is going to be performed by Stages Theatre as the play Hidden Heroes: The Black Women of NASA. This children’s theater is located in Hopkins, MN. They will create the adaptation and perform it in April and May 2019. What an honor!
Although I’ve written and sold one piece of reader’s theater about Gertrude Ederle, I’ve never had anyone else create anything to be performed on stage based on my work. It’s more than a little surreal. For those of you who aren’t familiar with reader’s theater, these are not pieces that will be performed. They are written to be read in the classroom.
This means that stage directions must be kept to a minimum. You also have to create a fluid cast of characters. In addition to the major characters, you need a body of characters that offer parts for both girls and boys. There have to be enough parts so that everyone in the class has the opportunity to read. But many of the parts should be small. That way if it is a small class, a handful of students can divide the parts without anyone being overwhelmed.
One way to make your cast of characters flexible is to create multiple narrators. In a large class, three different students read the parts of three narrators. In a small class, one student can read all three parts.
Reader’s theater also has to make sense without the “actors” actually moving around the stage. This means that the dialogue has to describe the actions and events sufficiently to create a complete picture but not so much so that they slow everything down.
Playing the story out on stage changes the dynamic yet again. You now have a setting so you don’t have to have a narrator announce “back in the lab.” I would really like to see a classroom adaptation and a theater adaptation just so that I can see how the two compare.
I have to admit, now I’m wondering what parts of Hidden Human Computers will be adapted. I know which stories I would select!
–SueBE