How difficult would it be to turn a script into a stage play?

I don't know that I can offer any actual help other than encouragement, but if it were me, I would probably approach it this way.

If the run time is going to remain about 90 minutes, I need an intermission, and the second part should be shorter than the first, which needs to end on a plot turning point or cliffhanger. What plot point occurs at about the right page of the script?

How can I reduce the total number of characters? For stage, and Equity's pay scale, fewer is better. My play is more likely to be produced if it's affordable.

How can I handle those flashbacks? Are they set in the same place, but in the past? Can simple changes in costume and set decoration tell the audience we're now in the flashback?

If I need another location, how can my stage instructions make it simple to stage?

Is the humor or drama a bit larger than life, which works on stage but not so well on film? Broader, more obvious humor may be hard to master, but it works better than subtle or witty.

Can I use a three-act structure? A five? Plays have fewer scenes than movies.

Have I seen a dozen or more plays in this genre, performed at a college or professional theatre?

Like I said, food for thought, some encouragement, but no real concrete Here's How to offer.

I do hope you'll check in often with progress reports.

Maryn, who has written two one-acts

Cool!

You might also consider whether location of the flashbacks matters. If it's how Character A and Character B became enemies, or why Character C trusts Character D when the audience knows he's a cheat and a liar, or that Character E was abused as a child, you might be able to create new scenes which serve the purpose but use your existing set with different dressing.

Maryn, thinking inside the black box

A few more thoughts:

Theatre audiences are much more imaginative than film audiences. Film is about cinematography, score, intimacy, realism, and spectacle. Theatre is about literature, relationships, conflict, and personal struggle.

That said, a theatre audience will more readily accept a flashback (or other scene change) without a change of scenery. Theatre audiences will also more readily accept actors playing multiple roles (in a non-farcical manner). However, theatre audiences do not more readily accept superfluous information.

There are always exceptions. But those are some generalities between the two.

So, I would first look for the main idea to the story. Determine the central theme and thesis, and outline the plot as it corresponds to those elements. Once you know that information (and know it like the back of your hand), you will have a much easier time determining what information should stay, what should go.

After that, I would begin with the protagonist (if you have a protagonist). And continue working into further details of the story.

Sorry to be so late weighing in. I've been on vacation and out of internet range.

I've tried several times to adapt a favorite film to a play without success. There are just too many structural differences to make an adaptation. First, movies are about pictures, plays are about words. Movies have many very short scenes, plays have a few longer scenes. Movies use many characters in short walk on roles, plays have fewer characters and today it is very hard to cast people for a very small role. (Think of the police at the end of Wait Until Dark.)

If you are looking at a realistic set, you are limited to one or, at most, two locations. Small theaters don't have the space or money for multiple sets. If you want suggested sets, there is more flexibility. Remember that even in suggested sets, there has to be something that signifies the specific scene so we will recognize it when we return. It can be something as simple and a tapestry on the wall, a chair, a painting or just a box. But remember that it takes time to make the scene change - even more so for costume changes. Here is a rule of thumb: You will lose the audience involvement in a play for three to five minutes after a scene change. Many short scenes mean a lot of time when the audience is getting back into the play.

The days of large casts are gone. Here are the cast sizes for our last two years: 8, 6, 4, 6, 2,2,11,2,2,5,5. The 8 and 11 are our winter shows when we try to use newer, less experienced actors. Our stage is 26' wide by 16' deep. It is extremely difficult to get 11 people on stage at one time and not have the actors stacked like cordwood.

Flashbacks are not difficult unless you need a major set. In one case, I had a wall and platform on wheels that rotated with another set on the other side. In another case, I had an empty area on stage and was able to move a very small table and two chairs into that area and lit it in such a way that the rest of the set was not lit. One play that is on my someday list has two narrators who comment on what is happening on stage. I would build a small thrust off to one side of the stage and sit the two characters there.

My advice is to not adapt the screenplay but write a new play from scratch. Same characters, same premise, same issues but written for the stage not the screen. It sounds like your screenplay is about ideas, words and relationships. It probably would make a better play.

Reading between the lines, I get the idea that people have told you that your screenplay is not a great screenplay. My gut feel is that, if you start from a less than great screenplay, you will end up with a less than great stage play. Start from scratch.

Just my two cents worth.

Doug

I just completed an adaptation from a stage play into a screenplay. The major challenge you are facing is eliminating multiple scene locations, any crowd scenes, moving to a one set format that is preferred in theatre venues.

I think everything said above is spot on.
I've tried it a couple of times, and the main problems for me have always been:

1) Reducing the number of actors.
2) Reducing the number scenes.
3) Changing those different, short, successive scenes into single scenes to get rid of the quick-cut film feel.
4) Replacing visual plot devices with spoken ones.
5) Replacing big action scenes, which take too much space, or are too dangerous on stage.
and...
6) Accepting the fact that theatre today is ultimately about voicing ideas, rather than delivering any neatly plotted action.