Practice as Research: Can't Be Arsed: Autobiographical Memory and the Creation of an Adapted Script for Stage and Screen.

Play Script. Adapted Script for Screen. DVD of Filmed Adapted Script. Forthcoming article on the adaptations of Anthony Minghella, Anthony Minghella: Autobiographical Memory and the Creation of an Adapted Screenplay Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance (2013) It is the exploration of the permeations of adaptation of autobiography as if it were text which underpins the creation of Can't be Arsed which was commissioned by Bishop Grosseteste University College as the catalyst for a large citizenship project in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire with the target audience being aged 13-16. Marcus (1994) identifies autobiography as playing a central role in the perceived crisis of nineteenth century and early twentieth century culture. I would contend that autobiography has taken on a particular focus in the new millennium for similar reasons. The uncertainty surrounding globalization and the recent global financial crisis has led people once again to look to autobiography as able to heal "some wounds of the… spirit." (Swindells 1995:14.) Drawing on the work of Marcus, Swindells, Eakin (1985) and in adaptation terms the work of Cardwell(2002) Hutcheon ((2006) Leitch (2009) and the practice of Minghella, I aim to demonstrate that the adaptation of autobiographical memories when used in the creation of a script for stage and further adapted for screen can be used effectively as a tool to contextualise the relationship of the citizen to other citizens in order to help combat the feelings of estrangement and ultimately encourage the possibility of change