Adapting a written work is all about bones, breath, and heart: rearranging the bones (structure), choosing the breath (style,) and staying true to the heart (themes) of the original work. Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel Lovecraft Country is both an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short sci-fi stories and the source material for the hit HBO series of the same name. In this class, we’re going to put these three works in conversation with each other and discover all the ways one story can be told. If you like history, pop culture, dismantling racism and smashing the patriarchy, this class is for you!
Instructor: Lisa Langford is a Cleveland-based playwright and actor. She is a member of Dobama Theatre’s Playwrights Gym. She received her B.A. in History from Harvard University and her M.F.A. in playwrighting from Cleveland State University. Her play Rastus and Hattie was a 2019 Joyce Award winner (w/ Cleveland Public Theatre); a 2019 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference finalist; and a The Kilroy’s List honorable mention. After productions at Cleveland Public Theatre and 16th Street Theatre in Chicago, the play will be published by New Stage Press. Lisa’s other plays include How Blood Go, which was an August Wilson New Play Initiative reading series selection at Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre and excerpted in a reading at Global Black Voices at the Roundhouse Theatre in London UK; The Art of Longing, a Leslie Scalapino Award finalist for Innovative Women Playwrights; and two short plays, The Bomb, published in the anthology Black Lives/Black Words, and Revolt. Ing, which was part of the I Am…Festival at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. A recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, Lisa is a member of the Dramatist Guild and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Details: Reader Series: Adaptation in Lovecraft Country with Lisa Langford will meet Saturdays 1/9, 1/16, 1/23, 1/30, & 2/6 from 10am-12pm using Zoom video conferencing.
Zoom Info: Register for the class and Lit Cleveland will send you an invitiation and instructions on how to attend via Zoom. All you need is a good internet connection and a computer or smartphone with a camera. Not sure if your system is compatible? Just click here. Have any questions about online classes? Email or call associate director Matt Weinkam at mweinkam@litcleveland.org.
