“Of Moonjays & Motorcycles”: Adapting “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” to the musical theatre format

Edward Abe Plough, Purdue University

Abstract

For my dissertation, I have co-written a full length musical adaptation of Pericles, entitled Of Moonjays & Motorcycles , and I have composed this study. By examining the choices that adaptation requires one to make, such as what to keep, what to cut, and what to adjust, I show how Pericles is the play for our time because it dramatizes what I will call optimistic wandering. Chapter 1 begins with a hard look at the ontology of adaptation—a debate perpetually in flux. After establishing the larger critical territory, I take stock of contemporary attitudes in Shakespearean adaptation studies. The chapter closes with my own theoretical offering concerning the impulses behind adapting Shakespeare to the musical theatre format. In Chapter 2, I offer my own close reading of Pericles with a specific focus on the play's innate optimism. I begin the chapter with an assessment of relevant Pericles scholarship and an argument that Pericles is relevant to America's young adults. My close reading of Pericles begins with an examination of the play's interest in the healing power of story and music. I also explore divine justice in Pericles, finding that the gods have a much more hopeful relationship with mortals than in the plays of Shakespeare's recently concluded tragic period. The chapter closes by showing that optimism is even encoded into Pericles' grammatical strategies by a look at the auxiliary modal verb, which was a relatively new dramatic tool in Shakespeare's time. Chapter 3 examines how character was adapted for the musical. In order to use Pericles as an interpretant for optimistic wandering in the contemporary Midwest, some of Pericles' characters had to be omitted, some were merged, some needed heavy modification to suit the musical's modern-day setting, and some needed very little modification. Through the explanation of these character adjustments, I clarify the process of adapting Shakespeare to the musical format as well as the role that character plays in establishing optimistic wandering in Pericles. The final chapter tells the story of Of Moonjays & Motorcycles while charting the intellectual process of plot adaptation. I contextualize each of the musical's scenes by explaining how they were inspired by corresponding scenes in Pericles. The chapter pays close attention to moments in Pericles that became songs in the musical. Of Moonjays & Motorcycles was performed as a staged reading at Purdue University Memorial Union's Anniversary Room on November 4th, 2010 and was sponsored by The Purdue University Comparative Literature Department. A second reading was performed on November 15 th as part of the Purdue University Theatre Department's Workshop Series.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Adler, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Theater|American literature

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