Process of Departures: Conversations and Practice in Adapting Titus Andronicus

Abstract: While most adaptation scholarship has predominantly concentrated on product—comparing source material to adapted script—there is a noticeable lack of process analysis applied to understanding new adaptations. The focus of this article is to examine the working process of adaptation under the permissive classification of "departure" from a rehearsal room perspective, and to propose a framework for analyzing that process. This article endeavors to answer the question of what the working process of intentionally departing from Shakespeare looks like in our contemporary theater practice. Using autoethnography, ethnography, and literature review, I detail and compare the creation processes of two contemporary Shakespeare departures based on Titus Andronicus—The Society for the Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius and Black Fly—and propose an analytical framework that is based on collaboration between artists, negotiations of fidelity, and a reclamation of narrative.