In keeping with my program, the principle function of a dramaturg was threefold: to supply the historic and social context that helped inform the world of the play, to be obtainable to reply any questions on topic materials associated to the play, and—when requested—to advise the director on the general effectiveness of sure dramatic decisions in relation to the dramaturgy of the play. Moreover, when engaged on college productions as a lead dramaturg, my function included main talkbacks and creating foyer shows. Whereas I loved this work, I started to surprise about how my work as a dramaturg might change if I leaned into making a fully-formed inventive apply out of dramaturgy. How may talkbacks develop into much less stagnant? And the way may foyer shows develop and develop into extra totally built-in right into a manufacturing? Throughout my time in undergrad and in my time as a graduate scholar, I used to be all the time anticipated to include these components into my function as a dramaturg, however I used to be by no means taught in regards to the targets of a foyer show. I used to be by no means taught tips on how to successfully collaborate with a director and a manufacturing workforce to even set up a foyer show. On this time of questioning, I used to be inquisitive about what the results of educating dramaturgs to be creatives might have on academic areas. In {many professional} areas, dramaturgs have been embraced as artists with a inventive apply, which has allowed the function of the skilled dramaturg to develop and has led to industry-wide innovation—as seen within the work of dramaturgs Anna D. Novak and Katy Rubin, Sulu Leonimm, and Liz Morgan, in addition to many, many others. How, then, could extra dramaturgical coaching applications develop and innovate by embracing the dramaturg as a inventive?
I wished to create a dramaturgical expertise that was extra akin to a extremely curated and immersive expertise.
As I continued on in my graduate program, I discovered extra about tips on how to craft the right dramaturgy packet and tips on how to grasp the artwork of the talkback. My love for dramaturgy grew deeper, and about midway by way of my program I started to just accept work as a contract dramaturg, which continued post-graduation and into current day. In my freelance work, I started to crave greater than offering analysis and the occasional talkback. I wished to have the ability to present a totally immersive dramaturgical expertise, a full expertise with a foyer show that integrated artwork and sonic experiences. I wished to create a dramaturgical expertise that was extra akin to a extremely curated and immersive expertise that integrated elements of visible and media artwork to extra deeply inform the story of a manufacturing for each the interior workforce and the exterior viewers. Nonetheless, I rapidly realized that regardless of a complete of six years of theatrical coaching, I had no thought tips on how to create one thing of this sort. So I began a journey outdoors of my academic and collegiate coaching to attempt to incorporate multidisciplinary creative practices into my apply as a dramaturg. Relatively than chasing the educational apply that I used to be so used to, I started to discover dramaturgy as a inventive apply.
As a result of my background was primarily research-based, I didn’t know the place to begin by way of the place to be taught of different creative and inventive practices. Since I thought-about dramaturgy to be a inventive apply, I started to use to numerous interdisciplinary artist residencies and artist coaching applications. Whereas I used to be at a drawback due to my lack of a concrete visible arts background, the most typical suggestions that I received together with rejection notices was that the panelists and adjudicators understood why I used to be making use of however didn’t see the place a extra creative-based method could possibly be integrated into work as a dramaturg. As I received extra rejection notices, I started to develop a bit pissed off. To me the reply was clear: if the playwright is an artist and inventive, the dramaturg that collaborated on script consultations should even be thought-about an artist and inventive. If the directing workforce, manufacturing workforce, and actors are thought-about artists, the dramaturg who shares the rehearsal room and helps inform stylistic choices also needs to be an artist. In my expertise, alienating the dramaturg from the title of artist and from the title of inventive limits the potential of the dramaturgy.
If the directing workforce, manufacturing workforce, and actors are thought-about artists, the dramaturg who shares the rehearsal room and helps inform stylistic choices also needs to be an artist.
Lastly, after many rejections, I used to be chosen to hitch the Artist INC Houston program in 2023. Artist INC is a improvement program for artists of all disciplines to strengthen their apply and improve their entrepreneurial abilities, and it was the primary program that I encountered that thought-about my dramaturgy to be an inventive apply. In working alongside painters, collage artists, sculpture artists, dancers, and musicians, I started to create extra useful and collaborative connections and discovered instruments that might enable me to higher implement lots of the creative concepts that I needed to discover by way of dramaturgy. After working with so many artists, I now understood how an precise artwork piece will get conceived, constructed, and put in. And the entrepreneurial abilities that I gained helped me to higher pitch the concept of an inventive dramaturg to theatre firms—although it has nonetheless been a problem to get some of us to completely embrace the concept of the dramaturg as a inventive. It was right here that I lastly discovered to bridge the hole between the educational and the inventive and totally promote each as two sides to the identical coin.
Once I dream large about what an enlargement of the dramaturg’s function appears like inside academic applications, it features a collegiate literary division, an expanded timeline, and a task that’s extra totally integrated into all elements of a theatrical manufacturing. In my expertise in graduate college and as a contract dramaturg, I’ve solely ever labored on an especially tight manufacturing timeline. At most I’ve had three months to organize dramaturgical supplies, and a minimum of I’ve had two weeks to organize supplies. This period of time limits the standard and amount of potential work. If academic applications integrated scholar dramaturgs into the working timeline of their season, budding dramaturgs might extra simply achieve perception into season planning—a studying alternative that might be useful for any scholar all in favour of pursuing a profession in literary administration. From a contract dramaturg perspective, if a theatre doesn’t have a literary division or an on-staff dramaturg, integrating a contract dramaturg earlier on within the manufacturing course of can enable for extra streamlined and in depth collaboration.
