Lois Lowry Adapts 'Gossamer' for the Stage
By Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 7/15/2008
Lois Lowry has adapted her 2006 novel Gossamer (Houghton) for the stage—actually, for two stages, one in Milwaukee, the other in Portland, OR, whose artistic directors are partnering on a unique long-distance collaboration to debut the award-winning author’s first play at both theaters.
Portland's Oregon Children's Theatre (OCT) and Milwaukee’s First Stage Children's Theater will both stage the world premiere of Gossamer this fall. Working from one script, each theater is staging the production independently, though jointly conceived. “Nationally, two children’s theatres collaborating on the same piece is very rare,” says Sharon Martell, OCT’s community relations director. “It takes two artistic directors whose focus is on the final piece as opposed to their individual vision.”
The project was conceived in 2006, when Lowry attended a reading of The Giver (Houghton, 1993), her Newbery-prize winning futuristic novel, which OCT was then staging. Over lunch, OCT artistic director Stan Foote asked Lowry whether she had ever considered writing a play. Lowry suggested adapting Gossamer, the story of a group of “dream givers” who weave soothing dreams for troubled souls.
“Stan was someone I could work with, someone open to ideas, passionate about the outcome...and full of mischief,” says Lowry, who with more than 30 books to her name won the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2007 for her lifetime contribution to young adult literature.
The project has afforded Lowry a welcome opportunity to collaborate. She’s attended several stage readings at the theaters so far. “It’s exhilarating for someone who has done the same thing…over and over…for such a long time, to try my hand at a new genre, a different sort of creativity,” she says. “I’m accustomed to sitting alone in a room and writing. To work things through with a director, a set designer, and performers…that’s a whole new thing. I’ve loved it.”
As for what she’s anticipates seeing on the respective stages, “I expect—I know, actually—that they will do things differently. Set design will be different. Costumes will be different. How to create the dog who is integral to the play?” Lowry wonders. “That’s one of the most intriguing and exciting parts of the theater experience for me—that others are bringing their skills and imagination to my work.”
Gossamer runs at First Stage from September 19 through October 5, and at OCT from October 18 through November 9.
