Stage to Screen Proposal – Missing Dan Nolan by Mark Wheeller
Synopsis
Dan, George, Thom and Joe, a group of fifteen year old boys, set up their fishing rods for a peaceful night of fishing on the 1st January 2002, but the tranquillity is obliterated when a concealed bottle of vodka is revealed. The boys drink and boisterously fool about, but they soon get hungry and go to the shops. On the way back Joe falls ill and Thom takes him home. The group separates and Dan ends up alone. This is the last sighting of Dan. A true story shown through re-enactments of the events on that night interspersed with verbatim dialogue directly addressed to the audience from Dan’s family members.
Why adapt it for television?
Missing Dan Nolan (previously titled Dan Nolan - Missing) by Mark Wheeller is a play which fluctuates between verbatim direct address and reconstructed scenes of action. Whereas the play has ‘won national acclaim’ (Southern Daily Echo: 2003), it is still not that well known. This is quite disheartening considering that Wheeller wrote the play after he ‘realised he might be able to help’ (Wheeler: 2004: p.5) in raising awareness of Dan’s disappearance as his parents found it ‘very difficult to get media coverage’. (Wheeler: 2004: p.5) Whereas Dan death has now been confirmed, the play still holds significance as ‘The National Missing Persons Helpline receives more than 100,000 calls every year… out of all the cases; 30% remain tragically unresolved (Wheeler: 2004: p.5).In bringing it to the television screen as a docudrama, the tale will raise more awareness of the problem which the U.K. evidently has with finding missing people by engaging with the audience’s emotions. I have chosen a television adaptation instead of film as I f...
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... sign on an estate agents board which is erected in the Nolan’s garden. (I have added this scene to show how live moves on and if you stay in one place, you can get stuck in a rut, or situation. In moving, the family would be able to start new.)
Scene 22. Ending scene where some flowers remain by the canal and a shot is revealed of Sara’s necklace wrapped around some fake flowers which have been left. (I have added this scene to show how people’s lives move on, but that does not mean that the past is forgotten.)
Reference List
• McKee,R. 1997. 'The Problem Of Adaptation' in, 'Story'. NY. Harper Collins
• Southern Daily Echo (Monday 5thh September 2003) ‘Dan Nolan Confirmed Dead’ [Online] Available from: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/archive/2003/09/15/5586715.DAN_NOLAN_CONFIRMED_DEAD/ [Accessed 14th May 2014]
• Wheeller, M. (2004) Missing Dan Nolan. London, dbda.
On their way home from school Jenny and Willie hook up. Then on the weekend, Jenny, Johnny, Willie and his family decide to go to the lake. Willie and Jenny set the table for a picnic when Johnny is out skiing. Willies mom complains about him never being safe enough. Next it is Willie's turn to water-ski. As Willie was doing a 360° turn, he caught the tips of his skis under the water and he crashed. Willies dad was in shock, Jenny had to give Willie mouth to mouth, and save his life. The left the boat, got into the vehicle, and drove to the hospital. Willie ends up with a speech impediment, and problems walking. He ends up doing crazy things, like acid, and drinking. He talks to a counselor whom he really likes. Willie does not want to go into a Special Ed class that the school is referring him to. He feels hopeless, and even jealous of his girlfriend for her athletics. He tries to play racquetball, but his dad gets frustrated with him. That night he hears his parents arguing over him. He hears his dad say that he thinks it would have been easier if Willie had died in the accident. From there he suspects Jenny and Petey of getting together, and finds out that they are.
[1] How I came to choose Missing as the focus of my project is as a result of the learning experience I have been engaged in during my college career. Having first seen the film for a class, I thought of it as nothing more than a movie about something monumental that happened in Chile more than two decades ago. I watched it, unhappily, thinking about all the other things I could be doing, and even falling asleep during some of it. In the time between my first viewing of Missing and embarking on this most recent project, I have learned a great deal about history, politics, and people. My views on all three of those subjects are constantly changing, with each new piece of information I receive further complicating my thoughts. Missing has gone from a movie, the title of which I had difficulty recalling, to being a thought provoking exposition that has forced me to examine, evaluate, and reevaluate almost everything that had once been certain in my own mind.
son, that stated, "Let us unite in purchasing a small estate, where we may try the
Parker, Sandra, “The Performance of Disappearance.” MChor., University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, 1995.
characters felt the need to settle down in life and both saw the image of
The title of the book, ‘A Painted House’ is based on the actual farmhouse in which the Chandler family resides. It was an old house. It was a fine house that had never been painted. For this particular family, paint - like eating meat with every meal - was a luxury. It was not a requirement to have a painted house. It was not a sign of laziness as the reader might initially expect. It was a sign of being frugal with money. In this bold example of persevering and never giving up, Mr. Grisham demonstrates to the reader that ’one can’t have everything’.
A person’s home is a good representation of himself or herself. The way one takes care of their home can tell a story about the owner of the home and its residence. The members of the home may also affect the situations that take place, creating good or bad circumstances. In a story, a character's home does just that. The more or less elaborate it is explained, the more detail is presented about how the character is or will be. In “The House of Usher” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the elaborate descriptions of the characters and their homes set the story and can predict the outcome. A writer’s home and view of life may have a profound impact on their idea of home and therefore their writing that is produced.
This story is about three 19-year-old teenagers looking for adventure late one night. They drive up to a place where they would hang out called Greasy Lake which used to be a nice blue lake and now it’s dirty filled with dump and broken glass bottles. But they go there hoping to find some excitement before they go home. When they arrive to the lake, the narrator loses his keys, gets in a fight with "a bad greasy character," and almost killed him and then they were close to raping his girlfriend. When another car pulls up to the lake to see what was happening the boys run. The narrator heads for the lake; suddenly he feels something mushy and discovers a corpse.
A meeting is called and the boys come up with some new ideas and talk about problems. Meanwhile jack wanders off and enjoys the peace and quiet. Soon the boys get into a rhythm of everyday life.
Parts of the story begin to demonstrate how the journey the boys have embarked on have awakened their senses. In the middle of the story, Mahony states it would be fun to board one of the large boats along the river, and set off to lands that they had only heard about in school.
When Willy and Linda purchased their home in Brooklyn, it seemed far removed from the city. Willy was young and strong and he believed he had a future full of success. He and his sons cut the tree limbs that threatened his home and put up a hammock that he would enjoy with his children. The green fields filled his home with wonderful aromas. Over the years, while Willy was struggling to pay for his home, the city grew and eventually surrounded the house.
The last key moment that I have picked out in this scene is where the
Cathy and her family were about to move from Mango Street, because they no longer liked the status they portrayed while living there. Despite what Cathy believed, the readers can pick up from subtle hints in the text that
for Fanny Price. The estate as a reflection of self is a prominent theme in the
spent a lot of time thinking how to get rid of the house and the farm and to abandon his family. The mother also wants to be free from home and her marriage life. She plans to sell the house and escape to Europe where she thinks dreams can be attainable. Family and home are no longer a source of security, tranquility, and happiness for parents; they are rather a source of misery and meaninglessness for their lives. They are unable to realize the true meaning of their lives and the intimate and warm relationship that characterizes the relationship between a husband and a wife in the space of the house. The father escapes this reality by abandoning his family. He isolates himself and drinks heavily to find himself at the end drowned in debts