from SMT's ENCORE, Winter 2003

Mark Brown's AROUND the WORLD in 80 DAYS
A Totally New Direction

Move over, Mike Todd, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS has a new adaptor and he's doing it his way. Mark Brown has written a one-of-a-kind adaptation of the well-known Jules Verne novel, which will run October 23 - November 2, 2003 at SMT Downtown. Here, Brown, also an who got his start in musical theater and has made TV appearances in Ally McBeal, Diagnosis Murder, Providence and countless made for TV films, opens up about writing a new work, the star-studded Mike Todd movies, and no... there's no balloon!

SMT: What gave you the impetus to write an adaptation of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS?

BROWN: Pure happenstance. Several of my friends and I are constantly thinking of books and novels that might make good adaptations. One day AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS came up. I had never read it but decided to launch into it. It was really that simple. I wasn't some Vernie who went to Jules Verne conventions dressed as Captain Nemo.

SMT: Tell us a little about the play.

BROWN: Thirty-nine characters, five actors, two hours of non-stop acting, and no balloon.

SMT: What were the major challenges of adapting this novel into a play?

BROWN: I think the title pretty much sims up the major challenges. How do you take a story that goes AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, with a myriad of characters and locales, and out it on stage? Very, very carefully. And with adapting any novel, it's a challenge to distill it down to a manageable time frame for an evening at the theatre.

My first draft was nearly four hours long. Good God, it nearly lived up to its name. I was almost forces to put in a dinner break and serve food from around the world. Fortunately I was able to cut it down to about a two-hour show and release the kitchen staff. I also wrote it for five actors, so I was challenged with how many characters I could have on the stage at one time.

In the second act, there's a scene that takes place on a U.S. train. At one point, I needed six characters on stage but had only five actors. So I made one of the characters have to use the bathroom. That got him offstage to he could come back on as a different character. It makes me laugh every time I see it because I know why he's exiting.

SMT: This version is quite different than the star-studded Mike Todd version. What makes this adaptation unique?

BROWN: THERE'S NO BALLOON! My adaptation hasn't won an Academy Award. Frank Sinatra will never be in it.

I tried to be as faithful to the novel as I could, but I also wanted to imprint my sensibilities onto it. And my sensibilities tend to go towards comedy.

Have I mentioned there's no balloon? It's the curse of the film.

SMT: Do you have a certain technique or ritual for when you sit down to write a new work?

BROWN: A couple of vodka tonics and I'm good to go. I'm kidding. Straight whiskey works much better. Actually, I don't like to write at home. I go somewhere else. My focus is much better when I can't hear the siren song of Sports Center on ESPN. There's a place in LA called the Farmer's Market. It's been around forever... well, actually since 1934, but in LA years that's forever. It's this great old outdoor market with lots of little shops, fruit and vegetable stands, a fabulous donut shop and coffee shops. I love going there to write. I grab a drink and a muffin and write for several hours. And then later that day or the next morning, I put it into the computer and that acts as my first edit.

I usually rewrite as I put it into the computer. I usually put in the kitchen sink and then back and edit, rewrite, edit and rewrite. I never know if I'll want to use something from an earlier draft, so I end up with a thousand drafts.

I also pray fiercely to the God of Playwriting to watch over me and help me not write something that's crap.

SMT: Do you have any new projects in the works?

BROWN: I'm doing a workshop of a new play of mine called THE TRIAL OF EBENEZER SCROOGE at the Orlando Festival of New Plays at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival this November. The play takes place a year after the three ghosts visit Scrooge. Scrooge is back to his old ways and is suing the ghosts for kidnapping, breaking and entering, intentional infliction of emotional distress and a slew of other charges. It's a retelling of the night in question through a courtroom trial. Hopefully it'll be funny with some heart.

I'm up to my ears in research for a new play about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

There's some interest in a TV show I've developed. I have a couple of screenplays in various forms of doneness. I recently went into the studio to record a song of mine for a film and now it looks like I'll be going back in to record a few more songs.

SMT: Any advice for other writers?

BROWN: Oh jeez, like I'm some old wise sage?

Write every day. That's what David Emmes, founding artistic director of South Coast Rep Theatre, keeps telling me. And he really is a wise old sage.

I try to write every day and it's really helped me. Read some good scripts. Read lousy scripts. Read good books. Get a good lawyer who will deal with all of the business crap so you don't have to worry about it. Know that you'll do lots of rewrites.

Writing a play is a process. Don't expect it all to come out onto the page perfectly the first time... 'cause it will never ever come out perfectly the first time. Get a good, first-rate, tip-top, spanking thesaurus.