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When theatre artists employ adaptation, reimagining and reshaping stories to speak to contemporary issues, they reach across generations of audiences and, in the process, take advantage of seemingly boundless creative opportunities.

The most prominent recent example is the film version of Wicked, but adaptations from pen to stage to screen have been happening for decades. This ongoing transformation of stories highlights how reimagining narratives has become a cultural mainstay. As 小蝌蚪APP graduate students are showing through their theatre scholarship, this process is much more than a commercial tactic鈥攊t鈥檚 a creative, ethical and even political act.

鈥淎daptation: Looking Back, Moving Forward鈥� was the theme of the 2025 Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium, held on Friday, May 2, at the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts. The day included a keynote conversation between Bess Rowen, PhD, assistant professor of Theatre at Villanova who planned the conference, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose own career has redefined what adaptation can look like in the American theatre landscape.

The symposium also served as a showcase for four Villanova graduate students during the Emerging Scholars Panel, a session that underscored how adaptation is a powerful lens for interrogating the present.

Grace Acquilano 鈥�25 MA opened the panel with a presentation on a unique immersive London production of A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream that restructured not only the play鈥檚 physical environment but also its character dynamics. Acquilano argued that promenade staging and queer adaptation didn't dilute the essence of Shakespeare鈥檚 comedy but deepened it.

鈥淭his particular production pushed the audience鈥檚 experience past mere spectatorship, as though they too were characters in the play,鈥� she says.

Cas Corum 鈥�25 MA had a different challenge: translating critical theory into drama. Corum鈥檚 play, Symptoms of Society, draws from Michel Foucault鈥檚 Madness and Civilization, charting how society historically constructed madness to enforce bourgeois social norms. Set in both 1803 and 2016 at the same Quaker asylum, the play uses dream-sharing and time travel to connect Maria, a cisgender woman from the 19th century, and Nina, a transgender teen from the present.

鈥淢y goal,鈥� Corum says, 鈥渨as to inspire people to take action against oppressive systems in their lives.鈥�

Emily Mosset 鈥�25 MA followed with a critical exploration of Sarah Ruhl鈥檚 In the Next Room, or the vibrator play. Mosset argued the play demands a deeper, more serious reading. It tackles misogyny, racial inequality and medical misconceptions rooted in outdated understandings of female sexuality.

鈥淗ow do you justify the perpetuation of misinformation like this? I believe this is where recontextualizing comes into play,鈥� she says.

Finally, Sydney Marie Hughes 鈥�25 MA presented an investigation into how ancient Greek tragedy, particularly Aeschylus鈥� The Suppliants, can be adapted through performance choices rather than textual changes.

In her own version of the play, Hughes draws powerful parallels between ancient and modern refugee crises, advocating for casting choices that reflect contemporary identities鈥攊ncluding performers of color, disabled actors and transgender individuals鈥攖o prompt audiences to see themselves in stories of displacement and moral reckoning.

鈥淩ather than rewriting Aeschylus鈥� text, productions can reframe its moral dilemma,鈥� she explains.

The symposium, hosted by Villanova since 2007, provides a forum for theatre scholars and practitioners to share their research and enter a dialogue about current trends. This year, it also included a playwriting workshop led by playwright and professor Jennifer Barclay; a roundtable discussion on intersectional feminist directing and historically oppressive theater practices; and a panel about adaptation in practice.