Recalling the first draft of the play, it didn't go so well. At the beginning of the project, we faced a lot of problems; First, two of our three members including me, did not watch the movie until it was decided to be transformed into play. So we couldn't have sufficient understanding to the work. I took us quite a while to comprehend the general idea and theme. So the plot designing process was slowed down, and we have to work faster than others to write the script. Well, nothing is going to come out well with a higher pace. The script was a mess and the audience couldn't understand the play.
It was such a frustration to us and arguments started to occur in my group. Different group members had his own idea of how to change the plot. The main problem was the transition between the scenes. In our play, there are five scenes of present time and flashbacks, the alteration between the past and present is the main theme of the play. In the movie, the transition between the scenes were quite smooth, and audience are able to understand because of the change in characters(actors). For example, little Jamal can just performed by the child character. On contrary, our play has to utilize all sorts of costume and acting changes to show that time has traveled back.
Another issue was the scene selection process. The components of the movie's plot is quite complicated. Jamal Malik(Performed by me) is involved in a show which can make him a millionaire. And he used all the knowledge from his experiences to answer the question, which were presented in the flashbacks. Each question that the host asked has a corresponding flashback scene for explanation purpose. Of course, we can't pick all the scenes from the movie, or it will be too long for a play. Therefore we had to pick the ones that best represent the concept, and abbreviated them. Eventually, my group picked six scenes, and they connected quite well.
During the process of discussing and solving problems, the group members got the chance to communicate, and a good teamwork atmosphere was built. The later process was smooth and our play got much better.
For me, my character appears in every scenes, and shows up as both adult and child. It was quite a challenge for me. Firstly, I had to change costume quickly between the scenes, since the alternation of old and little is frequent. Also, I had show different characteristics on different age of Jamal. When he is little, he was always afraid of the darkness and dependent on his brother Salim. But the Jamal at the show is brave and confident. He had been through all of the conflicts and finally became a man who owns real wealth - which is experience. I think I did so much better at the end, because the starting was not good at all. The lack of emotions was my biggest short side.
Generally, the play was a success to us. It's probably the hardest theme to perform in the entire year, and we made it! There are a lot of improvements shown in the play, the actors had grown too. It's a great treasure for us.
