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Subject Code: Music 4 – Popular Music and Music Performance

Learning Guide Code: 4.0 – Broadway Musicals
Lesson Code: 4.2 –Adapting a Text into a Musical
Time Limit: 30 minutes
TA ATA
Components Tasks (in (in
minutes) minutes)
Target After completing Lesson 4.2 of learning guide 4.0, you are
1
expected to minute
▪ decide on a short story or a novel to be adapted into a
musical.
Hook You have learned in the 3rd quarter that all musicals are taken or 2
minutes
adapted from an earlier work.
Carousel (1945), the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein II,
was an adaptation of an already existing work, the play Liliom by
the great European playwright Ferenc Molnár.
Some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatest Broadway hits
were built from the framework of literary texts (e.g.: South Pacific,
Cinderella, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat, and The King and I.)” You may browse for the
literary works of these musicals if you have time.
Adaptation means changing what you love into something
new. Instead of concentrating on what favorite parts you lose to
make it a musical. (Chary, 2011)
Your challenge in this learning guide is to evaluate the
possibilities for turning a selected text into a successful musical.
Ignite So, the task of adaption is not straightforward but rather to break
something and start anew. 1
minute
You MUST have a vision of what this new creature might
be. How it will look and sound and smell and taste and feel
different to its original.
Source material is the starting point. But the very point of
adaptation is to end up someplace new. (Lewis, n.d.)
According to Glynn (2015), here are 5 steps on how to adapt a short
story to a short play:
1) Read over your short story synopsis.
2) Identify 3-5 key ideas in the short story.
3) Identify characters needed for the key ideas.
4) Pick out dialogue from the short story that carries the key
ideas.
5) Paralleling the short story, write scenes and link them with
transitions.
Navigate Get a working pair. (You may communicate online through Google
meet, zoom, or messenger) 23
• Come up with a list of texts that you are studying in your minutes

literature or history classes. (Note: This is not to be published

but just an exercise. You must obtain permission from the
writer if it is copyrighted.)
Ask yourselves: What text is more effective in conveying
themes, events, or emotions in a musical?

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What Do You Want to Do?

This is the next question to ask.
According to Price (2017, para 3), these are the areas you must
think of: What do you want to explore with the original work?
What do you want to present?
What’s the most important part?
It’s impossible to put a Dickens novel word for word in a
play. So, what’s your approach?
- What style of play do you want to stage?
- Are you going to change the time-period? Do a modern
version?
The more you can envision the final product, the easier the
process will be along the way. If you know what you want, it’s
easier to make changes and cut.
*****************************************************
Title of the chosen literary text: _________________________
Author: ___________________
Identify 3-5 key ideas in the short story.
1. ________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________
Identify characters needed for the key ideas.
1. __________________________________
2. __________________________________
3. __________________________________
4. __________________________________
5. __________________________________
Pick out dialogues that carries the key ideas.
1. _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

MUSIC 4 Page 2
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Title of your musical: ___________________________________

How will you use the narrative of the source for your musical?
(Check the box of your choice.)
❑ follow the same structural plan.
❑ delete some key element
List at least 2 elements you will delete.
1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
How will you treat the personality of each character?
❑ will keep the personality of each character intact as he or she is
developed in the text
❑ will modify the characterization in some way?
Explain your decisions.
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
How will you project the setting?
• Explain your stage design—will it be elaborate or sparse?
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
• Produce a sample sketch of your proposed set design.

How will you approach costume design?

Make a sketch of costume design for one or more of the characters
in your musical.

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Knot Become an Expert

Know the original work inside and out. Become an expert. 3
minutes
Read it once, twice, keep reading. Read about the work.
Highlight anything in the work that leaps out at you as a
theatrical image.
Also highlight the character and story elements. Be able to
talk about the characters and the story at the drop of a hat.
Character and story will become the backbone of your play.
(Price, 2017, para 3)
When to Change
There will be changes. There must be changes. It’s one thing to be
faithful but a play is not a book.
What works in one medium will not work in another. For
example, descriptive passages do not work on the stage. Neither
do narrators.
What you change depends heavily on what you’ve decided
your final product is going to look like. If you’re doing a modern
version of ROMEO AND JULIET then you’re not going to be
using Shakespeare’s original language. If you want to do an all-
female version of MOBY DICK, the text has to reflect this
choice. (Price, 2017, para 7-8)
Narrators
When going from prose to play form it’s tempting to throw in a
narrator to fill in plot points and descriptions.
Resist the urge! Narrators are one-dimensional talking heads,
not fleshed-out characters.
If you must include one, it can’t be because you’re unable to
figure out how to tell the story. Make the narrator three-
dimensional. Give them a name, give them a purpose in the play
beyond sharing information. Give them a want, an obsession, a
flaw. Take narration to a new theatrical level. (Price, 2017, para
9-10)
Write the Play
Finally, once you’ve highlighted, become an expert, cut, changed,
and stricken the narrator, it’s time to write the play!
Remember above all else that this is a play. Plays depend on the
actions and reactions of the characters. Don’t have your
characters standing around spouting pages of text!
Adaptations can be fun to write and illuminate the original
work. It’s always interesting to look at a piece of literature from
a different point of view. (Price, 2017, para 11-12)

Prepared by: Reviewed by:

JONA JOY G. PALADA SHARON T. TUBIDA

Position: Special Science Teacher (SST) III Position: Special Science Teacher (SST) II

Campus: PSHS-SMC Campus: PSHS-WVC

MUSIC 4 Page 4
© 2020 Philippine Science High School System. All rights reserved. This document may contain
proprietary information and may only be released to third parties with approval of management.
Document is uncontrolled unless otherwise marked; uncontrolled documents are not subject to
update notification.
 PROPERTY OF THE
PHILIPPINE SCIENCE
HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEM

REFERENCES:
Chary, Ella Rose (2011, November 18). Tips for Adapting New Musicals From Literature (Part 1)
Retrieved from https://www.mtishows.com/news/tips-for-adapting-new-musicals-from-
literature-part-1

Glynn, River, (2015, June 16). 5 Tips for Turning a Short Story into a Short Play into a Short Story.
Retrieved from http://samwriteaway.blogspot.com/2015/06/5-tips-for-turning-short-story-
into.html

Lewis, Caleb, (n.d.). Adapting for the Stage. Retrieved from http://www.caleb-lewis.com/on-adapting-
for-the-stage

Price, Lindsay, (2017). Adapting a Play. Retrieved from www.theatrefolk.com

MUSIC 4 Page 5
© 2020 Philippine Science High School System. All rights reserved. This document may contain
proprietary information and may only be released to third parties with approval of management.
Document is uncontrolled unless otherwise marked; uncontrolled documents are not subject to
update notification.