Changing narrators

One of the more interesting assignments this semester is unfolding in my Dramatic & Cinematic Theory class. It’s a four-part assignment:
1) Write a brief narrative (2-3 pages). It can be a screenplay, a stage play, or a short story;
2) Take a classmate’s story and modify it to take on a different point of view (POV). That is, rewrite a classmate’s story - keep the same plot and characters, but change the perspective through which the story is told;
3) Take another classmates' story and change the ending;
4) Compose a statement reflecting on the experience of the group project;

I’m currently in stage three of this assignment. Initially, I found it quite confusing. I’m reluctant to criticize another classmate’s work, let along have the audacity to change it. But since this was the assignment, all two partners - Johanna and have been very open and accommodating.

Just to give you a sense of how this is going, here are the three original stories we produced:
- My story, Irma (short screenplay)
- Johanna’s story, The Pit Bull (short story)
- Julie’s story, Untitled (short stage play)

Here’s my rewrite of Julie’s story, in which I modified the POV and gave it a title, Faith. You’ll notice that I also transformed Julie’s work from a stage play to a screenplay (mostly, because I’m still not very comfortable writing for the stage from a formatting perspective - something I’m learning in my other class through trial by fire).

Here’s Johanna’s rewrite of my screenplay, Irma, which she cleverly adapted into a short story. And here’s Julie’s rewrite of Johanna’s short story, The Pit Bull. I must say I was skeptical when we first received this assignment. But I’ve started to see more and more about ways that altering a POV in a story can radically reshape the experience of the receiver. It’s an interesting exercise, for sure.

My next task in this assignment is to rewrite Johanna’s story, The Pit Bull, with a new ending. Since her story involved dogs, and because I just so happen to like dogs, I’m thinking my new ending will be an exceedingly happy one (no Cujo lol). Stay tuned!