THE NECESSITY AND FUNCTION OF THE DRAMATURG IN THEATRE A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Melanie J. Slabaugh August, 2017 THE NECESSITY AND FUNCTION OF THE DRAMATURG IN THEATRE Melanie J. Slabaugh Thesis Approved: Accepted: ______________________________ ______________________________ Advisor School Director James Slowiak J. Thomas Dukes, Ph.D. ______________________________ ______________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the College Durand L. Pope John Green, Ph.D. ______________________________ ______________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School Hillary Nunn, Ph.D. Chand Midha, Ph.D. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………….. 5 II. HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF DRAMATURGY ……………………… 3 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Hamburg National Theatre ……… 4 Lessing’s Influence on the Dramaturgical Movement …………………. 8 Dramaturgy in American Theatre ……………………………………….. 16 III. PRODUCTION DRAMATURGY ……………………………………………. 13 The Production Dramaturg/Director Relationship ……………………. 15 New Production Dramaturgies …………………………………………… 18 IV. NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………… 20 The Role of the Dramaturg in New-Play Development …………..…… 22 The Dramaturg as Supporter ………………………………………..….… 22 The Dramaturg as Guardian ………………………………..………….…. 26 The Dramaturg as Questioner …………………………………..……….. 29 V. DEVISED THEATRE ………………………………………….…………..……. 32 The Tasks of the Dramaturg in Devised Theatre ………………….….… 34 iii Dramaturgy and the Saratoga International Theatre Institute …..……. 36 Other Methods of Dramaturgy in Devised Theatre ……….….………… 38 The Actor as Dramaturg …………………………………….………..……. 39 The Director as Dramaturg ………………………………………………… 44 Production Staff as Dramaturg ……………………………….…………… 48 VI. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………. 55 Suggestions for Further Research ………………………………………… 55 Summary ………………………………………………………….…………. 51 iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The dramaturg in western theatre, especially American theatre, has always been a difficult role to define. The dramaturg does so many different things, ranging from selecting plays for production and helping to write new ones, to translating foreign plays, to adapting literature for the stage, to research and education. Oftentimes a dramaturg herself may have a hard time saying exactly what it is she does, because the role is so diverse and fills different needs within different organizations. Traditionally, the role of dramaturg has also been thought by others to be one of passive and distant critic and researcher, an aloof and rarely-seen presence in the life of a production. However, dramaturgy in western theatre, especially in the United States, is currently expanding to many different roles beyond the traditional as the world simultaneously expands and contracts. Thanks to the internet and the explosion of social media, YouTube, and other communication platforms, people are more aware of cultures and peoples beyond their own geographical borders and can also freely interact with 1 these cultures and peoples digitally and in real time. People have more and more access to others’ lives through texting and messaging, video, Skype and FaceTime, and other up-and-coming media that previous generations would never have been able to imagine. In the world of theatre, this increased global connectivity means anyone can log onto an electronic device and access thousands — if not millions — of videos and pictures of theatrical productions, both amateur and professional; scripts and cuttings of scripts from any country or culture; and chats, listserves, and entire websites dedicated to theatre and performance. Performers can create collaborative projects across cultures, languages, and time zones. Playwrights can weigh in on productions from half a world away, and anyone can have access to the most influential people alive in ways that weren’t available twenty, or even ten, years ago. This myriad of means to access people and information across the globe expands individual worlds beyond places that can easily be accessed physically, but also shrinks the world with the far-reaching arms of the digital age as people are able to pull these cultures and people closer to them. Does this change the way dramaturgy works in today’s American theatre? If so, how? Is it necessary 2 to shift the function and role of the dramaturg in American theatre as culture shifts to a more global and more culturally aware frame? Dramaturgy itself is an inexact role. The word itself translates from the German language to “play-making,” but the role is not so simple. Those who practice dramaturgy have a hard time defining it as well, and it is often used synonymously with the term “literary manager.” Dramaturgy has evolved throughout theatre history along many far-reaching branches, and according to the needs and desires of the individual organizations and directors who work with a dramaturg. The journey of this paper will explore several of these arms, but the role of dramaturgy remains vague. This paper will first lay the groundwork of the history of dramaturgy and attempt to explain and describe the field and its place in the theatre. An exploration of the traditional function and role of the dramaturg in several aspects of western — mainly American — theatre, especially in the realms of production dramaturgy, new-play development, and devised theatre will follow. The shifts within those realms will be addressed in relation to how the world and culture changes. This study will attempt to answer the question: why is the dramaturg important in theatre today? 3 CHAPTER 2 HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF DRAMATURGY The formal role of dramaturg as a separate theatrical function began officially in 18th-century Germany, when playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was first employed at the Hamburg National Theatre as in-house critic and published his Hamburgische Dramaturgie, or Hamburg Dramaturgy, a collection of his essays and critiques. It was in fact Aristotle, with his The Poetics, who was truly the first Western dramaturg (“Introduction” 1). Dramaturgy essentially is concerned with “well-structured drama,” which is also Aristotle’s main concern in The Poetics: Trying to find the optimal recipe for a successful piece of dramatic work, Aristotle deconstructed all its components, including plot, character, theme, language, rhythm, and spectacle. In The Poetics, he considers plot . as the most important element of drama, defining it as ‘the arrangement of the incidents.’ A plot must have all the necessary elements: unified and logical beginning, middle, and end . A successful plot has all the elements in the proper order . A plot is not a story or a narrative but rather a dramaturgical scaffolding that arranges the order of storytelling incidents in an order that culminates in cathartic release. (1-2) 4 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Hamburg National Theatre Artistotle’s theory of dramatic structure was supported formally by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, during his tenure at the Hamburg National Theatre. Already a celebrated playwright, Lessing took the position of resident critic in 1767. Lessing had first hoped to gain employment at the Royal Library in Berlin, but the king granted the job to someone else, and Lessing settled for the position at the theatre out of financial necessity. The consortium that was behind the Hamburg National Theatre actively pursued Lessing, believing him to be a welcome and necessary addition to the staff in order to achieve their goals for the organization. Lessing agreed to join the theatre after much negotiation and reconfiguring of the position. Thus, the field of dramaturgy began almost accidentally. It is important to understand the make-up of the Hamburg National Theatre, along with its goals for reforming German theatre, before exploring Lessing’s role both in the organization and in the larger scope of German theatre. At this time, Germany was not a unified country; rather, it was comprised of more than three hundred small units. One of the main focuses of the Hamburg National Theatre was to help cultivate a German theatre tradition that would be a stepping stone to creating a unified country. Previously, theatres 5 consisted of a troupe of actors led by a principal, or main actor, who made the decisions for productions, casting, staging, and publicity. Because the actors -- and not an artistic director or similar person -- selected the repertoire, the trend among principals was to choose plays that had little literary merit, but that would instead showcase them in the roles they were most known for and had already played many times. Lessing later described these plays as “mediocre,” produced only to show off the actors’ talents and fame, and not to promote quality theatre or even to challenge the theatre artists or their audiences (Luckhurst 26). The consortium of the Hamburg National Theatre – along with Johann Friedrich Lowen, the theatre’s managing director – had some very specific goals regarding the organization, designed to change the way theatre was “done” in Germany. First, the consortium wanted to provide a “stimulating and disciplined” training ground for German playwrights and actors. To do this, they reconfigured the principal role, choosing instead to defer decision-making to a consortium made up of twelve Hamburg businessmen, similar to today’s organizational board of directors in non-profit theatres. They also hired Konrad Ekhof, a famous German performer, to train