I wrote a stage play, and over time, I guess even when I was writing it; I felt the characters had so much life in them, so much to say so I'm now attempting to do a TV pilot script for it. so Let me ask this question; how much do I have to complete before submitting it to an exec?
Screenwriting : turning stage play into a TV series by Laronda Charese
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Laronda Charese I think as long as you've established a solid synopsis that supports a whole series of say 8 episodes - depending on your story, how long it is and how you wish to tell it - then you can be safe to approach an executive producer with the strong idea.
As well as getting a second opinion from someone who has faced the same decision and process as you have, if not for them to see and give feedback on the plot of the play-turned-TVseries. Honest feedback is always helpful.
All the best!
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Hi Laronda!
Congrats on choosing to adapt your own material, very clever, I did so too (Writing a loose adaptation of my very 1st screenplay to a complete new script but now with my writing experience and knowledge on structure and the ins and outs of story development.) In that regard:
A similar approach should be taken to making an adaptation of a play or novel into a TV pilot / TV series. Forget about "honoring" the stage play plot, throw that out of the window. Take your favorite characters, fully flesh them out (make a list with their bios and purpose in the story) and then construct a story where the reader/audience can get: WHAT the series is about, WHO is the PROTAGONIST and what she/he WANTS, ONLY introduce the SUPPORTING CHARACTERS in the pilot that are going to be MAJOR PLAYERS in the whole season (No room for charismatic but useless screen-time-grabbing characters), let us know WHO is the ANTAGONIST (perceived or real) or what is the MAJOR CONFLICT that is going to propel you to take an entire season to solve it. Last but not least, follow industry standards screenplay format and be consistent in TONE, that is, is is a drama commit to drama, if is a comedy commit to that, if is a cross-genre series the entire script must convey whatever you're aiming for, (like have dark comedy scenes sprinkled in a serious-topic drama).
Good fortune, let us know how it turned out. A book I strongly recommend to everybody after devouring it myself, Linda Aronson's The 21st Century Screenplay. It teaches everything you need to know, from traditional 3 arcs linear narratives to complicated non-linear narratives.
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Thank you all for your insight and input regarding the subject, this is very helpful and I will post again once I have put things in order! this is great!