Lumenize Me, Captain!

The Lumen Prize.  The most epic undregraduate research grant an Elon student can recieve.  $15,000 for whatever your heart desires.  Oh the possibilites.

Today we have to blog about what we think would make a great project for the Lumen Prize.  The focus is supposed to be communications (for Digital Media Convergence purposes), but I feel like I can’t ignore my second major, theatrical design and production.  So what I’ve come up with is a cross-platform research project that combines my love of stage and screen.

I want to follow in Christopher Staskel’s footsteps and then take it to the next level.  My idea is to write, direct, and produce an original musical for the stage and then adapt it to the screen.  The intention is to discover not only what it takes to create an original piece of theatre, but to then adapt it to other mediums.  I think it is important to understand what goes into adapting a work for the screen, as it seems like recent adaptations (Nine, for example) have fallen short of their potential.

This is a project that will be very much a collaboration between the two departments, utilizing a core group of individuals that will work on both productions.  I believe that the writing of the show should take place starting now and with a finalized version of both the stage and screen scripts ready by junior year.  I think that the stage version of the project would take place in the fall semester with the winter and spring focusing on producing the film.

I already have a basic idea for the story, and I’m going through with the project whether or not I win the Lumen Prize, but I am really excited to create something that Elon has never seen before.

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