Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a fantastic, sprawling novel, fun, complex, with footnotes on Dominican history, taking place in multiple times and locations: New Jersey, Washington Heights, the Dominican Republic. Its hero, Oscar, is a hugely overweight Sci-Fi loving nerd, who displays none of the stereo typical “requisite” traits of a Dominican male; his college roommate, our narrator, Junior, is an athletic lady killer. No one thought it was possible to adapt this book, but I was fortunate to work with a wonderful actor, Elvis Nolasco, who plays both Oscar and narrator, Junior, along with over thirty characters, using only verbatim text from the novel. Students in the audience participate by reading the footnotes aloud. For students to see both nerd and bully portrayed by the same person is a revelatory experience, and leads to intense post-show discussions of bullying and what it means to be “cool.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is often considered “too difficult” for many of the high school students whose story it tells. So Literature to Life performances are gateways for teachers and students into this novel and the rich world of Dominican history it portrays. |
