Housekeeping as homecoming: adapting Chamber Theatre in “great time”

ABSTRACT In 2018, I adapted and staged Marilynne Robinson's 1980 novel Housekeeping for the HopKins Black Box at Louisiana State University. The adaptation was both a return to my roots in Chamber Theatre and an adaptation of the method itself to speak to and of the contexts of a contemporary, situated ensemble of performers and audience. In this essay, I describe the rationale for returning to Chamber Theatre for an adaptation of Housekeeping and how my understanding of the practice has evolved in the last several decades.