Stage Proposal – Dan Nolan Missing by Mark WheellerSynopsisDan, George, Thom and Joe, a group of fifteen-year-old boys, set up their fishing rods to a peaceful night of fishing on January 1, 2002, but the tranquility is erased when a hidden bottle of vodka is revealed. The boys drink and have fun loudly, but they quickly get hungry and go shopping. On the way home, Joe gets sick and Thom takes him home. The group splits up and Dan finds himself alone. This is Dan's last sighting. A true story presented through re-enactments of the events of that night, interspersed with verbatim dialogue addressed directly to the audience by members of Dan's family. Why adapt it for television? Missing Dan Nolan (previously titled Dan Nolan - Missing) by Mark Wheeller is a play that oscillates between direct verbatim speech and reconstructed action scenes. Although the play has "gained national acclaim" (Southern Daily Echo: 2003), it is still not widely known. This is quite disheartening given that Wheeller wrote the play after "realizing that he might be able to help" (Wheeler: 2004: p.5) by raising awareness of Dan's disappearance, as his parents found " very difficult to get media coverage.” (Wheeler: 2004: p.5) Even though Dan's death has now been confirmed, the piece still has significance since "the National Missing Persons Hotline receives more than 100,000 calls each year...on all cases ; 30% remain tragically unresolved (Wheeler: 2004: p.5). By bringing it to the television screen as a docudrama, the tale will raise awareness of the problem the UK clearly has in finding missing people by engaging with the public's emotions. . I chose a television adaptation rather than a film because I...... middle of paper ...... sign on an estate agency sign erected in Nolan's garden. (I added this scene to show how life moves on and if you stay in one place you can get stuck in a rut or situation. By moving the family could start over again.) Scene 22. Ending scene where some flowers remain by the canal and a photo is revealed of Sara's necklace wrapped around fake flowers that were left behind. (I added this scene to show how people's lives change, but that doesn't mean the past is forgotten.) Reference List • McKee, R. 1997. “The Problem of Adaptation” in “History” . NEW YORK. Harper Collins• Southern Daily Echo (Monday September 5, 2003) “Dan Nolan Confirmed Dead” [Online] Available at: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/archive/2003/09/15/5586715.DAN_NOLAN_CONFIRMED_DEAD/ [ Accessed 14 May 2014]• Wheeller, M. (2004) Dan Nolan Missing. London, DBDA.