Download dramaturgy

dramaturgy
(not at all related to metallurgy)
• What:
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Defined by what it’s not
Geographical differences
Literary academia vs. practical theatre
Common responsibilities
Differences depending on company size
Level of involvement in rehearsal
• Why:
 Importance of text analysis, research
 Theory into practice
 Getting a play to say what you want
• How?
“It is often observed that the position of the
dramaturg is one characterized by its ‘inbetweeness,’ defined by what it is not: not
playwright, director, or actor, but also not simply
literary critic, historian, or theorist.”
-Andrew James Hartley
The Shakespearean Dramaturg
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
Big Daddy of Dramaturgy
Literary Academia vs. Practical Theatre
Common Responsibilities
• Script editing and cutting
• Text analysis
• Research: historical context, previous
productions, scholarly works, theory, etc.
Peacham Drawing, c.
1595?
Common Responsibilities (cont.)
• Discussing research, analysis with director actors
(depending on level of involvement in rehearsal)
• Developing season
• Reading and cataloguing new plays
• Running seminars and workshops for the public
• Writing play descriptions for programs
“…the dramaturg is an intellectual presence in a
production (though this is more about
perspective than it is about raw cleverness),
one whose job is to view the show from the
standpoint of ideas.”
-Hartley
Why?
• Why are ideas important?
• Why should we view a practical thing from the
perspective of theory and ideas?
• What is the importance of text analysis?
• What can theory do for us?
• Wherefore to Dover?
How?
• Step one: Analysis. Read your shit.
• Step two: Make a decision. A good one.
• Step three: Make that decision visible.
Step three: Make that decision visible.
• Casting choices
• Tech stuff:
– Costumes
– Set, setting
– Props
– Sound
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Two Gentlemen of Verona, OSF 2014
Henry V, OSF 2012
King Lear, OSF 2013
Taming of the Shrew, OSF 2013
What we see, what we don’t, and how
• How the script is cut—what we show the
audience and how we show it
• Which words are emphasized and how
• Blocking
• Tableaus
• Pantomime
Closing thoughts
• You can’t perform an essay
• Theory as Liberatory Practice—and theatre as the
practical medium for the theory
• Shakespeare is a versatile and malleable type of
theatre that won’t get you in any legal trouble