The Two Noble Kinsmen was the first time I ever read an entire play by Shakespeare, so this was a milestone in my academic life. My first impression of the play was that it had a stimulating plot with several twists. Apart from some of the superfluous dialogues, I immensely enjoyed the play. My expectations for the play were definitely met as I anticipated something dramatic and sentimental. The confrontation between Arcite and Palamon provided the dramatic pleasure, and the cries of the Jailer’s Daughter offered all the sentimental and emotional moods I predicted.

Adapting Shakespeare and Fletcher’s The Two Noble Kinsmen was a novel and enriching experience for me. It was the first time I adapted or modified someone else’s work, and the experience was surprisingly edifying. Before this assignment, I never realized how helpful adapting others’ works can be for my own writing; the assignment made me much more cognizant of the words and structure I use. My group was responsible for adapting the following parts of the play: Prologue, Act I: Scene III, and Act III.

Our first task was to edit the prologue, and everyone in my group agreed that the prologue in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s version was unnecessarily long. So, we decided to shorten and summarize it, while retaining the theme and concept. We converted the prologue to only six lines, and then began to plan our edits for the rest of the play. While discussing the generality of the play, we agreed upon the type of language we would use. My group decided on writing the play in a modern prose with an aged feel. The intended audience of our play is a contemporary one, but simultaneously, we wanted to preserve the themes. Therefore, we reached a compromise—using slightly dated language.

Another general idea I suggested to my group was to make the play as concise as possible while maintaining the central theme and ideas. For example, we converted the 32-line prologue to a 6-line prologue. The task slowly became more challenging as we discussed the specifics of the play, especially which characters and lines are vital. We discussed the character of the Jailer’s Daughter in-depth, and considered options for both keeping and omitting her character. Ultimately, we settled on her character remaining in our play because even though her story is a sub-plot, it adds a twist, or more spice, to the entire play. We realized we needed to make her role much, much shorter though. I also suggested to the group that we keep the character of Pirithous as he is a loyal friend of Theseus, and since the theme of our class is friendship, keeping the idea of friendship in the play is imperative.

One part that we omitted was the part with the Schoolmaster in Act III: Scene V. We felt that the Schoolmaster did not add any depth to the play, and we would be able to deliver the play reasonably without his presence. My own task in my group was to edit the first part of Act I, Scene III and the first twelve pages of Act III. The characters I edited were Pirithous, Hippolyta, and Emilia in Act I and Arcite, Palamon, and the Jailer’s Daughter in Act III. Adapting the work of other author(s) certainly makes us more aware of our own writing. Paying close attention to the words and literary techniques used by Shakespeare and Fletcher influenced me to improve the rhetorical strategies I use in my works such as my definition paper and papers for other classes.

One of my own personal goals in adapting the play was clarification. I strived to modernize the archaic words and phrases to bring them to a modern audience. In some instances, modernizing the play was an arduous task because some of the meanings or emotions were lost after the adaptation. To ensure this did not happen, I had to consider synonyms, etymologies, and idioms. A strategy that helped me through the process of editing The Two Noble Kinsmen was reading my edits out loud. It felt natural and aided me to see whether the flows of the lines were consistent or not.

The most problematic and uncomfortable part of the adaptation process was omitting characters or lines. I encountered much difficulty condensing the lines of the Jailer’s Daughter. One reason why I considered reducing her lines or overlooking her character completely was because she did not appear in the original version written by Chaucer. Shakespeare and Fletcher added her character to enhance the play by giving it another aspect, which was the sub-plot involving the Jailer’s Daughter and Palamon. In adapting the play, I took into heavy consideration the importance of her character and what it would mean for the play if I completely omitted her. After trying different approaches, we all decided to keep her character, but in a more concise manner. We decided to keep her because her character adds suspense to the story as the audience does not know what will happen between her and Palamon. The adaptation of The Two Noble Kinsmen was a collaborative effort of my group that has developed into a much better product than originally expected. Initially, I had no clue how to adapt something written by Shakespeare, but with the assistance of my group members, classmate, and teacher, I was able to adapt the play effectively.