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Stage Adaptation of Rian Johnson’s Brick

Posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

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I always find it interesting when school drama departments choose to adapt movies into stageplays. Sure, the end result never ends up half as good as the big screen version (it’s a high school production after all), but it’s still fun.

The J.L. Mann High School Drama Program is putting on a stage production of Rian Johnson’s critically acclaimed 2005 high school noir Brick.  The show opened this weekend, but will also run the weekend of April 2nd through April 4th. Find out more information on BrickPlay.BlogSpot.com. You can see photos from the production’s opening night on smugmug.com.

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  • one of my favorite movies :)
  • freemachine
    I really liked "Brick". It was so cool to hear dialogue like that coming out of the mouths of today's youth. We need more film noir.
  • jason B
    peter,
    is this high school in south carolina?
  • yes
  • Wow, this is a great idea for a high school play. All we got were the requisite West Side Story, and Sound of Music travesties. Would be cool to have gone to this high school.
  • If only someone would make a high school adaptation of Serpico.... oh wait.
  • If only someone would make a high school play adaptation of Serpico.... oh wait.
  • Awesome idea. Wish I lived anywhere near this place.
  • that'll kick ass! there was a bugsy malone adaptation in my primary school, it was great!
  • Brick was an awesome flick. This probably turned out pretty well. One of Brick's strengths is obviously it's noir dialogue from the mouths of high school students so I get the feeling that would translate rather nicely to the stage.
  • What about copyright issues and shit? It seems like it would be a large legal hassle if they did that.
  • I wish my high school did stuff like this instead of those horrible Shakespeare adaptations (Shakespeare's not horrible, the people in drama were.)
  • yeah, I agree, Shakespeare should only be left up to the really talented people who can do justice to the classic plays.
  • travis
    Brick was filmed at my high school. Its so weird to watch because most of the extras were my classmates.
  • Holy hell that's cool!
  • Brick rules. I wish Rian Johnson would start a production company because I want to work for him!
  • Dan
    Am I the only one that hated Brick?

    Also, drama dept's have to buy the rights to use copyrighted material. The cost can vary from $20 for unknown plays and in excess of $1000.
  • THe movie!! very good one
  • Right. And I'm not a mathematician, statistician or even very smart, but I'd guess that somewhere between 70-85% of schools that do Shakespeare have to do some modern interpretation. It was pretty cool to see Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet with "sword" or "rapier" written down the side of the guns, but do we need to see that now in every high school version?
  • Yeah but his Vietnam play was infinitely better.
  • They probably dealt with that Brick feels like one of those films where everyone involved was friendly enough to give it away for cheap... but i wonder who wrote the stage adaption and what changes would be made....
    Awesome film
  • Wow, that's interesting

    "Sure, the end result never ends up half as good as the big screen version (it’s a high school production after all), but it’s still fun."

    Hey, my high school's Footloose production last year was WAY BETTER than the actual Kevin Bacon movie. But I'm not sure if that's a compliment to my school or an insult to Footloose.....
  • Odd. I was listening to the Creative Screenwriting Brick Q&A with Rian Johnson last night (Trying to catch up on some of the older podcasts since I didn't find the website until late 2007). In the Q&A, Rian talks about how his original treatment was around 100 pages long. Also, how the film took nearly 7 years before it finally was realized on screen.

    http://media.libsyn.com/media/creativescreenwriti...
  • I don't care what anyone says, Brick was nothing short of beautiful. I absolutely loved it. That said, I doubt they will actually be able to pull this off.
  • Pete (original)
    i hated Brick. i realize it may be a good movie, but i hated it. that being said, it did feel more like a play than a movie.
  • I finally get to watch this film today, yesss.
  • I always told my high school theatre director I'd come back if we performed 'Singin' in the Rain.' Now, I have another play to add to that list.
  • I am the drama teacher who adapted Rian's original screeenplay (with his enthusiastic support) and directed it for the stage at J.L. Mann High School in Greenville, South Carolina. Rian is attending our closing night performance Saturday, April 4. (I'm quite proud of our production...though I'm no Max Fischer or Dana Marschz.) I'll speak with him about making the script available to other schools when I see him this weekend.
  • Katey
    I came onto this prodution late (a week before opening), and love love love the play. Tonight's closing night and i will miss this play extremely. Playing the Pin has been a very interesting procedure, trying to get into character (I am normally a very bubbly person who loooves pink haha). And i have begun to love the cast like my family. We've had amazing turnout from all over town, and I'm beyond excited that Rian Johnson is coming. I wish we could go somewhere else to do the play or do more weekends.
  • movieguy711
    I just found out about this today... if this came to California I'd be there in a heartbeat
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