TAKING ON EARTHSHINE
by Cynthia Shur
In junior high I read a book called Earthshine by Theresa Nelson. It tells the story of a girl named Slim whose father is fighting hard to enjoy the last months of his life while dying of AIDS. For whatever reason — the identifiable voice of the girl’s first-person narration, the familiarity of the California setting, the quirky characters, the high stakes of the situation — it was one of those books that stayed with me. It had been sitting in the back of my mind that it might make a good stage adaptation. A few months ago I bought a copy of the book (I took it out of the public library the first time) to re-read it and see if I still think it would do well on stage, now that I have more experience. As I read I could envision the scenes and possibilities for dealing with events that can’t literally fit on a stage.
After I finished reading I did a Google search to check if someone else already had this fabulous idea. I also figured I could find some way to navigate through various channels to reach the author herself, linking as many times as I needed through publisher sites, fan sites, etc. I didn’t find any websites that indicated anyone else had attempted this project yet, and I found something even better: Theresa Nelson’s personal webpage.
I hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but now that I think about it, this must be more and more common. Chances are, if there’s someone in the professional artistic world who you admire, he or she has a personal webpage to promote his or her latest endeavors, and that page also has a link right there in front of you that says Email Me, since artists at all levels love to hear from people who follow their work. So I did.
Actually, first I thought about it nervously for a couple of weeks. I didn’t want to sound weird or unprofessional. Finally I composed something saying that I had read the book years ago and loved it, that the story stuck with me, and that now I’m interested in adapting it for the stage with her permission (and, if she’s interested, her input). That was last Monday. I was about to sit down to write this blog and lament the lack of a response, how I’m still waiting anxiously to hear, but just before I started writing I checked my email again and there was a reply from Theresa Nelson. She said my email was a “lovely surprise,” that she’s “truly honored” to hear how much the book means to me, and that she’ll let me know after she checks out the situation with the rights. Wheeeee! I’m not sure how all that works in the book world, but I think the publishing company, not Theresa, has to okay the project if I want to do it all above board and charge for tickets.
I see this as a great production for Thunder and Lightning Ensemble. The Artistic Director has been urging me for a couple of years to work on a new play (he knows I’ve done some playwriting before), and we gravitate toward shows that have strong possibilities for an outreach component, like the AIDS theme in this case. I really hope it works out. You know when there’s something that’s a big part of your life, and it’s easy to neglect it for long periods of time? That’s been the case for me with writing lately. I get busy with other things and feel a void where the writing was. This project would be just the thing to fill that void.
Cynthia Shur is an Artistic Associate with Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, and an ensemble member at Thunder and Lightening. You can catch her on the CIC stage twice this weekend: with 96D in the Saturday Night Showcase, and Bad Review on Sunday at 8pm.