Few people in the United States who are not directly involved with making theatre know what a dramaturg is, and many of us who are devoted to the craft still have a hard time understanding or describing what exactly the job entails. It’s a confusing term! The awkward “turg” (or “turge” if you’re French) comes from the Greek word for “making.” But isn’t everyone who works on a show somehow responsible for its making? Why is the dramaturg etymologically saddled with such a heavy task?
As part of the beauty of the position lies in its flexibility, dramaturgs themselves are loathe to over-define their role. Generalizing grandly, dramaturgs are charged with the duty of thinking critically about the historical and aesthetic world of a performance (both before and throughout the rehearsal process) and collaborating with others to help integrate that information into what the audience experiences.
A famous dramaturg was asked once what exactly he did and his response was simply: “I question.”
On the first day of my dramaturgy class, we brainstormed alternative answers to this question. The list we made reminds me why I love dramaturgy.
I visualize
I gather
I make connections
I research
I probe
I challenge
I support
I provoke
I remind
I stimulate
I translate
I adapt
I inspire
I refocus
I synthesize
I chronicle
I witness
I record
I remember
All of these actions seem powerful, productive, and truly necessary for engaged art-making practice. Dramaturgs in the (blogospherical) house, do you have any additions that we forgot? Anything on this list you’d like to question?
Do you really need the lightbulb?
ReplyDeleteWhen John Ferreira directed my first ever staged reading, which was for my first play Rice Kugel at Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, one of the most valuable things he did for me, besides directing, was take a dramaturgical role in reading the play. He asked me lots of questions. Some of them resulted in my making changes to the play. Some of them resulted in my answering his question. But I do appreciate that he asked rather than told. It definitely lowered the stakes of considering a particular change.
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