Adaptation Adapt verb: To make fit (as for a specific or new use or situation) often by modification. Orson Welles’ adapted H.G. Wells’ novel to make a radio play. We are adapting Orson Welles’ adaptation of a radio play to make a multi-media stage performance. How is the experience of reading a story in a book different from listening to a story on the radio? How must elements of the story or the presentation be changed to fit the new circumstance (the radio play)? How is listening to a story on the radio different from seeing and hearing a story played out on stage? How must elements be changed to fit the new circumstance? H.G. Wells’ story has also been adapted into 2 films and a stage musical. What other media could be used as a vehicle to tell the story? Ballet? Opera? Visual Arts? Video Game? Rock Opera? Create the basic elements of a The War of the Worlds video game. What is the object of the game? Who are the characters? Protagonists? Antagonists? Where is the action set? What are player options, skills, weapons? Are there various levels to play? Activity
Using a page from the Orson Welles script, create a rap verse, a human statue and a human machine, each of which bears the title The War of the Worlds! Discuss the circumstances and differences in circumstances under which an audience member experiences the artistic medium. Listening, viewing or both. Literature as Various Media Lesson Plan Objective
Students will understand the following:
1.
Literature originally created in one medium is often adapted to another medium.
2.
Technology can make the unreal seem real and can otherwise confuse consumers.
Materials
For this lesson, you will need:
•
The novel War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, or excerpts
•
DVD of 1975 television movie The Night That Panicked America
Procedures
1.
This project exposes your students to the concept of literature based on literature based on literature. After your students have read either the complete H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds or enough to be conversant with it, play for them Orson Welles's 1938 radio broadcast of his adaptation of the novel. You can find an audio copy on the web.
2.
Lead a discussion in which your students evaluate Welles' version of Wells' work according to standard criteria for literature. You can begin with the following questions:
1. Did the radio play hold your attention?
2. Which techniques were effective in giving the play verisimilitude?
3. Was the outcome satisfying?
4. Did you care what happened to any of the characters?
3.
Regardless of your students' reactions to the radio drama, assign at least a few students to search through printed sources (newspapers, magazines) that were published after Welles' broadcast (which was on Halloween 1938) and that tell the effect the program had on listeners who tuned in late. Have the researchers report their findings to the class.
4.
Apply what students have learned about the confusion caused by the radio broadcast to a
discussion of how consumers respond to all the media around them today. Was the (unintended?) duping of the American public by Welles' Halloween broadcast something that could have happened only in the 1930s? Have Americans become more sophisticated in their consumption of media? Has anyone in the class heard about misinformation that has been passed on via the Internet as if it were correct information?
5.
From the Welles radio script, move on to tell students about the 1975 made-for-television movie The Night That Panicked America. This is the story of Welles' radio version; the movie dramatizes the panic caused among listeners who thought an invasion from another planet was actually taking place in New Jersey the night of the broadcast. The movie is not commercially available but occasionally appears on television, so you may have a chance to tape it yourself for your class. Ask students to suggest why they or anyone else who knows about the Welles-induced-but-unfounded panic would watch The Night That Panicked America. That is, if a person knows how a movie ends, what is the reason for watching it anyway?
6.
If you want to take the War of the Worlds chain one link further, ask students to track down reviews of the 1975 film after it appeared on television.
7.
Conclude this study of multiple media by asking students to state in a sentence or two what they learned along the way.
Discussion Questions
1.
Why would H.G. Wells never give a name to his hero/protagonist in The War of the Worlds ? What is the significance of his anonymity?
2.
Wells attended the Normal School of Science where he became a biologist. His prime passions, however, remained reading and writing. What effect did this combination of interests have on H.G. Wells' style as a writer?
3.
The character of the curate represents organized religion in The War of the Worlds. What is H.G. Wells saying about the role of organized religion in dealing with the Martians and metaphorically, with the real world's political and