Adapting Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” into a Screenplay
This article is a detailed explanation of my method of crafting a modern, faithful adaptation while incarcerated in solitary confinement. It includes images of my hand written documents and a link to the finished product at the end. The screenplay is available to be optioned for development (Copyright March 2025 and Registered with WGA West).
Introduction
To put my process in context, I must note the environment was difficult. Solitary confinement, 24 hours a day, for 380 days is not a pleasant situation. The conditions at the Lon Evans facility run by Tarrant County Corrections are, in my opinion, designed to promote mental distress and wear down a person to capitulate to any change of circumstance — in my case, that meant being deceived by my Public Defender and agreeing to a Plea Bargain arranged in service of the District Attorney and Sheriff.
While that subject is for articles in the future, it does frame why I found reading and writing to be respites. Through good luck, I obtained a few Shakespeare plays by way of the jail library cart. First I got “Twelfth Night” and “As You Like It,” enjoyed them, passed them to other inmates, then snagged “The Tempest” and had an epiphany.
As chronicled here, I spent significant time pursuing screenwriting with the aim of going Pro. The screenwriting learning curve is significant. I can reflect on my first few attempts wiser now, understanding the over-writing which simply did not fit industry expectations. William Shakespeare fixed that for me.
On Shakespeare’s Playwriting
The plays I had were accompanied by scholarly articles, first in the Signet Classic editions, then in the New Folger Shakespeare Library edition. Learning (again) about how his works were designed for stage performance with limited Elizabethan era set design and mechanics flipped a switch. Once I clearly saw how he simply got people up on stage and they talked and acted out the story, basically trusting the audience’s willingness to follow along, I had new insight into screenwriting.
Without a computer at my disposal, but paper and ball point pens, I dedicated hours and hours to thinking about how I might be able to write a screenplay by hand. Who better as a tutor than Shakespeare himself? Why not start with “The Tempest” and modernize it?
After all, he’s still a draw and his name is recognized around the world…and his work is 400 plus years old, so it’s Public Domain in the United States…
Following a Guide
The images below are my Act and Scene-by-Scene outline of the original play. I used color coding to group persons and locations. Overall the result was a strong grasp of how the narrative functioned in order. With visualization, following the disparate action became much easier.
Once the narrative itself made sense as a structure, I went into imagination land and rummaged around for a while. I needed to replace the setting. I needed to update the characters to match that setting. I wanted, most of all, to be able to follow the scene-by-scene outline with my screenplay so I could, well, brag that it’s a faithful adaptation in that respect.
Instead of a deserted paradise-like island with magic at the disposal of the Protagonist, I came upon the idea of a paradise-like music festival where technology could stand in for sorcery.
The following is a map I drew for “The Global GRRL Power Music Festival” that became the setting:
Pretty standard as far as a modern music festival layout, save the attached hotel, and it correlated very well in practice to the nature of the original. The ability to separate characters, in groups, transitioned nicely. All that color coding in the scene-by-scene document paid off.
Yet again, starting with Shakespeare’s original pieces helped create new roles in the music concept that aligned with the character functions and hierarchy. I took liberty with modernization and reworking the names to suit my purpose, as he would often do with source material. The most obvious change — and functional — was reworking Ferdinand to be Fernanda, a transgender singer-songwriter.
By substituting a musical performer relationship for a romantic relationship, I aimed to preserve emotional gravity and also the Protagonist’s intentional pairing of the two components. While the adaptation stretches the concept, within the world of music, well, I drew upon personal experience. There is a lot of emotion in doing something creative, danger in opening up to the world at large, and doubt about acceptance…so I built that into Fernanda and Ratchet Racket’s relationship arc to the best of my ability.
Ariel and Caliban posed their own challenges. One is an airy spirit and the other is a savage, per “The Tempest” descriptions. Doing justice to their story lines was my main priority, how they function in the narrative so to speak, followed closely by the impressions they give to the other characters. Basically I tried to use them the way Shakespeare did and I’m rather pleased at how they turned out.
Writing the Actual Screenplay
Because I sincerely wanted to follow “The Tempest” scene-by-scene as much as possible, my outline was very detailed. It’s about eight (8) pages, and while my following screenplay projects all had outlines as well, they never passed the two (2) page mark. I highly advise taking as much time as possible to outline before sitting down to write — it’s useful for an original concept, but for an adaptation, the process can genuinely help iron out pacing, conflict, and consistency of the narrative.
While a lot of changes and notes took place during the writing process, the outline became a living document on its own. I chose to not specify times in the screenplay though they’re prominent in this document. I tweaked the actual content of the screenplay and re-arranged components where needed to smooth out my initial feeling with how the story was unfolding in the actual script. Little bits of expressions or gags that would make it into the document got added as they popped into my head.
Actually writing the screenplay happened rather quickly — it took about five (5) days and clocked in at 109 of my “half-page” method by hand. What felt the most special though was being able to immerse myself in the world, of the motives and fluid “this happens, then this happens, then this…” nature of Shakespeare’s flow. He really kept things moving and did not over-think whether an audience would follow along. He trusted. So did I.
When basically living in this dream land, I put my music skills to use and created original songs both for Fernanda and Ratchet Racket.
Each of the songs embody a spirit of the characters. The grand finale of the script is a musical number as well, taking the best known Lynyrd Skynard hit and re-tooling the lyrics to fit the performers. It didn’t feel like me pretending to be female musicians in the moment, it felt like I was watching something unfold in a touching crescendo, ending on a high note.
The Final Product
If you’ve come this far, maybe you’d come a bit further…
I thoroughly enjoyed this first effort in my new writing process. I don’t think I’ll ever write a first draft screenplay on the computer again. There’s something unique and limiting about putting pen to paper, of trying to scribble down dialogue as fast as it unfolds in the imagination. As a result, my screenplay is short. The action descriptions are still a little clunky and chunky, but many of the fouls were reduced. At 59 pages, including the Epilogue, I know I spent solitary confinement doing something few others have or will, by making the most of a bad situation with my tutor, the great William Shakespeare.
I hope you enjoy “Tempest Records Inc” by Sam Henry Cliff
Read “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare at the Folger Shakespeare Library
