Theatre

Anne Cattaneo was among the first Americans to fill the role of dramaturg, one of theater’s best kept secrets. A combination of theater artist, scholar, researcher, play advocate, editor, and writer’s friend, it is the job of a dramaturg to “reflect light back on the elements that are already in play,” while bringing a work of theater to life. Cattaneo traces the field from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to the present and chronicles the multitude and variety of tasks a dramaturg undertakes before, during, and after a production is brought to the stage. Using detailed stories from her work with theater artists such as Tom Stoppard, Wendy Wasserstein, Robert Wilson, Shi-Zheng Chen, and Sarah Ruhl, as well as the discovery of a “lost” play by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, Cattaneo provides an invaluable manual to those studying, working in, and interested in this most fascinating profession.

How are plays constructed? Taking this essential question and looking at a broad range of Western plays, from Greek tragedies through Ibsen, we can discern a remarkably stable set of dramaturgical principles. Some dramatists adhere to traditional principles to create meaning, while others delight in bending or breaking these conventions, seeking new ways to express meaning. In this book, Michael Evans discusses what he calls "standard dramaturgy" - a set of seven principles upon which most plays, from ancient Greek dramas to modern works, are based. He teases out seven traits found in most plays written before 1900 - and many popular plays and films since then. The book then looks at these key traits and how the playwrights of the Modernist era deliberately subvert them to create new methods of meaning. Examining each of these traits with well-chosen examples from dramatic literature, the book highlights these traits and illustrates how dramaturgs can understand instances of meaning within plays. Part of the Routledge Focus on Dramaturgy series, this book will interest scholars and students of dramaturgy, directing, and theatre studies.

Dramaturgy and History provides a practical account of an aspect of dramaturgical practice that is often taken for granted: dramaturgs' engagements with history and historiography. Dramaturgs play a vital role in amplifying and activating theatre's unique potential to contribute to the pressing public discourse around the uses and legacies of history.This collection challenges the notion of history as an unassailable or settled set of facts, offering readers a glimpse into the processes and methods of eighteen dramaturgs working in a variety of settings, including professional theatres, universities, museums, and archives. The dramaturgs featured use history to a variety of ends: they reframe classical texts for contemporary audiences; advocate for the production of lesser-known writers and the expansion of the canon; create new works that bring women's, LGBTQIA+,and Global Majority histories to life; and establish new and necessary archives by/of/for minoritarian artists. Collectively, they examine and animate some of the most urgent questions, concerns, and challenges that dramaturgs encounter in working with history. An essential resource for teachers and students of dramaturgy, the collection offers a concluding hands-on exercise for each chapter to facilitate the reader's application of the methods discussed in their own practice.

In Principles of Dramaturgy, Robert Scanlan explains the invariant principles behind the construction of stage and performance events of any style or modality. This book contains all that is essential for training a professional stage director and/or dramaturg, including the "plot-bead" technique for analyzing play scripts developed by Scanlan. It details all the steps for the full implementation of "Production Dramaturgy" as it is practiced in professional theatres, and treats form and action as foundational cornerstones of all performance, rather than "story" elements - a frequent and debilitating misprision in theatre practice. Scanlan's unique approach offers practical training that is supported by detailed diagrams and contextualized instructions, making this the missing text for classes in dramaturgy. Serving stage directors, dramaturgs, actors, designers, and playwrights, Principles of Dramaturgy is a comprehensive guide that puts the training of capable practitioners above all else.

The first book of its kind, offerring an inside view of theatre today from the literary manager's point of view.

Beginning with Aristotle and the Greeks and ending with semiotics and post-structuralism, Theories of the Theatre is the first comprehensive survey of Western dramatic theory. In this expanded edition the author has updated the book and added a new concluding chapter that focuses on theoretical developments since 1980, emphasizing the impact of feminist theory.

Dramaturgy in the Making maps contemporary dramaturgical practices in various settings of theatre-making and dance to reveal the different ways that dramaturgs work today. It provides a thorough survey of three major areas of practice - institutional dramaturgy, production dramaturgy and dance dramaturgy - with each illustrated through a range of case studies that illuminate methodology and which will assist practitioners in developing their own 'dramaturgical toolbox'. In tracing the development of the role of the dramaturg, the author explores the contribution of Lessing, Brecht and Tynan, foundational figures who shaped the practice. She excavates the historical and theoretical contexts for each strand of the work, uniquely offering a history of dance dramaturgy and its associated theories. Based on extensive research, the volume features material from the author's interviews with fifty eminent professionals from Europe and North America, including: Robert Blacker, Jack Bradley, DD Kugler, Ruth Little and Hildegard De Vuyst. Through these, a detailed and precise insight is provided into dramaturgical processes at organisations such as the Akram Khan Company, les ballets C de la B (Gent), the National Theatre and the Royal Court (London), the Schaubühne (Berlin) and The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab (Utah), among others. Dramaturgy in the Making will prove indispensable to anyone working in theatre or wanting to better understand the dramaturgical processes in performance-making today. The book features a foreword by Geoff Proehl, author of Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey.