HOTEL NEW WORK

“ Hotel New Work gave us a chance to develop our adaptation of This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first and most experimental work. Some critics have dismissed the novel, especially next to the overwhelming success of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s manuscript was rejected many times before finally getting published. Fitzgerald responded to each rejection not by cleaning and cutting (or heeding his editors’ advice!) but by leaning into the work’s chaos: stitching in poems and songs, disrupting the narrative voice, even interpolating a complete one act play. With each draft, the novel became more of a multidisciplinary collage. We loved this messy complexity but knew it would take time to translate it to the stage—not to mention putting our own stamp on it.

Theaterlab heartily supported the low-pressure, process-oriented laboratory we needed, and they also helped us organize a hugely beneficial sharing session with a talkback at the end of our residency. Hotel New Work provided precisely the time and space we needed to take our exploration to the next level.“