When Obama was in office, Lin-Manuel Miranda performed an unedited draft, a work in the making, of “Alexander Hamilton”, conveyed only from Aaron Burr’s perspective. What seemed interesting to me was both the way he delivered it (a single piano being played in the back), as well as the audience to which he delivered the song (the Obama family and their acquaintances). The song can be found below:
After recently seeing this performance on YouTube, I want to creat a response, or, moreover, a newer version of the White House performance that incorporates my life instead of Hamilton’s life. This project is to help me become a more creative writer because creativity is a skill that I lack; I feel as though writing a newer and more contemporary version of the song, with a different interpretation and story, will give me another tool I need to help me grow as a writer..
With the incorporation of a single point-of-view as well as an audience of many students, I am considering a new adaptation of “Alexander Hamilton”, called “Ahad Khatri”, from the point of view of another student at Georgia Tech. The adaptation will narrate my successes, ambitions, and failures as a rising sophomore, but from a singular perspective, from an anonymous friend who knows and understands me very well.
The adaptation will consist of the same flow as the song “Alexander Hamilton”, but the lyrics will be entirely new and will make sure to maintain the flow of but give a more modern twist to the original song. The skills I would need to boost this project in terms of its success are understanding different points in my life as well as different points in “Alexander Hamilton”, making sure to comprehend what the song really means and how Hamilton’s struggle as a political figure could relate to my struggle as a student.
With two weeks to draft, revise and complete this project, I will inevitably encounter challenges, one being the inability to incorporate multiple perspectives into my adaptation. Because this story can only come from someone who knows and someone who I trust (no name necessary), I will choose to keep this anonymous figure in my life as the narrator of the song.
An example of a line I would change is “You could never learn to take your time”. The narrator, knowing what the effects of stress and procrastination have done to me, would then change “you” to “he”, and the line would change to “He could never learn to stop wasting time”, highlighting one of my failures.
