Tragedy, drama and romance aren’t typically what comes to mind when one thinks of senior seminars. Seminars may be tedious to make, but they are always enjoyable to watch. Their presentation acts as a closing to four years of hard work and dedication to their major, and usually represents at least a year of research and design. It’s stressful to say the least. Take this stress and then add to it the pressure of adapting someone else’s popular novel for the stage and you’ll find yourself in the shoes of senior musical theater major Lisa Knight.
Knight has written and is currently auditioning for her adaptation of Kristy Cambron’s historical novel “The Butterfly and the Violin” to be presented in the winter. “The Butterfly and the Violin” takes place in 1942 and follows the story of Austrian aristocrat and violinist Adele Von Bron; an heiress and daughter of a high-ranking Third Reich. Her noble birth and talent with the violin ensure that she wants for nothing. However, Adele risks it all when she begins smuggling Jews out of Vienna. She is subsequently caught and her life of luxury dissolves around her into the hellish concentration camps of the Holocaust.
Knight explained how she began the process: “I read this book and loved it. I finished it in one day. I knew that I wanted to play the main character but I also knew that I couldn’t,” she laughed. “So instead I decided I would adapt it into a show.”
Initially Knight was unsure how to proceed. “It seemed like a lot of work,” she laughed.“I talked to Professor [Carolyn] Conover about it, and of course she wanted me to do the larger and harder project.”
In adapting the novel to the stage, Knight has run into a classic problem for for those who make anything based on a written work. “You know how everybody always says ‘The book is better than the movie,’” said Knight, “That is the main challenge.” She went on to discuss how aspects of the novel had to be changed for convenience and that some dialogue was lost in translation. Theater professor Carolyn Conover helped Knight through the writing and revising process. According to Knight, Conover said the phrase, “People don’t talk like that,” many times before the adaptation was completed.
“I had to contact Kristy Cambron and ask her permission. She was all for it, but had to direct me to her publisher to ask their permission. From there I filled out a bunch of paperwork,” said Knight. “One of the conditions is that after I’m done I have to give them a finished copy of the script. It’s a little intimidating.” Conover agreed and said, “This work has never been dramatized. This really is a world premiere, and it’s a world premiere that the author is supporting and wants a copy of. It’s very exciting.” The first performance of “The Butterfly and the Violin” is scheduled for Dec. 1, with an encore performance the following night.