My Old Lady

Book excerpt: Famed playwright Israel Horovitz has written more than 70 produced plays, which have been translated in more than 30 languages worldwide. Along the way, he has also written screenplays for film including Author! Author!, starring Al Pacino, as well as the award-winning Sunshine, James Dean, and The Strawberry Statement. At the age of 75, he directed an adaptation of his play My Old Lady, starring Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith, and Kristin Scott Thomas. Now he shares tips and techniques on adapting plays for the screen. The book includes the full script of both the play version and screenplay of My Old Lady, along with an in-depth analysis by Horovitz of the challenges of adapting the written language of a play to the visual language of the screen. He discusses what inspired him to consider adapting the play in the first place, and his diligent efforts to distill the spoken language of the play into the visual language of film. In discussing his adaptation process, Horovitz also reveals his brilliant insights into the creative process itself, as well as how to keep inspired during the course of a lengthy writing career.