What past students have said about the course...

Anna Maniecki (2006/07)

A director directs, a designer designs, an actor acts and a playwright writes; simply, every main activity in the theatre industry seems to derive from the subject (noun) performing it. However, it wasn’t until the late 18th century in Germany when Gothold Ephraim Lessing interfered with this great order by creating a new role (a role he found himself in) in the industry: the dramaturg. The German playwright invented and popularized the term whilst working as a ‘resident critic’ for the Hamburg National Theatre, where his role was to ‘advise his theatre’s management on play selection, and offer his theatre continuous, sometimes adverse criticism of its productions.’ (Schechter: 1997).

 

For the contemporary reader Lessing’s ‘job description’ may appear rather narrow, since nowadays a dramaturg’s duties may include everything from education to production responsibilities, from research to script reading duties. The functions of this role expanded over the last 200 years under the influence of great practitioners, such as Brecht or Witkiewicz, playwrights like Heiner Müller and theatre critics such as Jan Kott or Kenneth Tynan. Although a particular verb capturing the role of the dramaturg hasn’t been invented as yet (it is often described as: to serve as a dramaturg (Schechter 1997:16) or to be a dramaturg  (Cattaneo 1997: 3) or to work as a dramaturg (Branigan 1999: 27)), the spectrum of duties grows endlessly.

 

According to Schechter, ‘dramaturgs have also been known to direct plays, translate foreign drama, commission works, prepare essays for inclusion in theatre programs, assist stage directors and actors in background research, and usher’ (Schechter 1997: 17) Martin Esslin broadens the academic and creative duties by reminding of the more practical, almost administrative role of a dramaturg: ‘… the production and rehearsal schedule has to be carefully dovetailed (…)’ and more ‘…the dramaturg has to be constantly on the lookout for developments in world drama. But, as he chooses plays for a given group of actors, he is also something like the casting director of the theatre and part of his function consists in travelling to other theatres looking for young actors who might be recruited into the ensemble.’ (Esslin 1995: 44, 45). One could also add the preparation of educational workshops and lectures.

These are the main duties a dramaturg might have to face in his workplace (of course, one could easily list more of them…). In this field the catalogue of endless responsibilities means that it is impossible to find one verb capturing the essence of the dramaturg’s role (except for: ‘hard work’); on the other hand the diversity of tasks means numerous possibilities to suit ones individual curriculum.   

In the academic year 2006/2007 at the School of Drama, Film and Visual Art, Dramaturgy was launched as a new M-level specialism. This unique - in the scale of the country – opportunity meant that three students had the chance to experience and challenge different aspects and fields of dramaturgy in order to decide which path to take in their future career. This essay aims to describe and evaluate the various activities the dramaturgs took part in and delineates the direction I myself will take after graduating.    

Read Anna's full thoughts on her experience on the course here...

 Lindsey Shaw (2007/08)
'Having studied Dramaturgy for the last year and having practised as a dramaturg for my own projects, I like to think of the Dramaturg as an Artistic Advisor. They are the force behind keeping the artistic vision of a play or company on track. It is their job to convey this artistic concept through their work in research, education initiatives, production plans, and their work with new writers. They are, if you like, the artistic inspiration for writers, directors and performers. They provide the history and research to ensure the work is accurate, they remind the company or individuals of their artistic policies and drives for their performance, they give advice to what does and does not fit with their concept, they are key in 'selling' the artistic concept of a production and they are vital in making contacts and potential audiences interested in your production. They are the go-betweens. They go between the director and their stage crew, between the director and the cast, between the production and the audience, and they join the areas of performance and education in order to bring the company's production to everyone in their community.

They are also key to the creation of theatre. They can commission new writing, new productions and can choose to take an existing production and finding a creative team to realise a new version of it. They are sometimes actively writing a production as it is devised, making them the writer of the collaborative piece. They also work with new writers to edit, change and craft their script so that it is fit for the stage.

So the dramaturg can actually have a huge influence on the final product that is taken into the theatre. Throughout the Dramaturgy course at the University of Kent, we have covered a wide range of studies surrounding Dramaturgy. We have also met some of the key players in theatre today, and watched dramaturgy in action on the stage.'


 

 

Serena Norman (2006/07)

Explaining the practice of dramaturgy to those not familiar with it can be quite a challenge. It took me a considerable amount of time to properly understand what a dramaturg is, what the role entails and hardest of all, what a dramaturgical concept means. I believe this challenge arises because the practise of Dramaturgy is so all encompassing. The list of talents to a dramaturgs name is extensive and cannot be passed off as a singular role, which makes it harder still to give an accurate description of the job. In my opinion, if you are to understand what a dramaturg does, you have to be experiencing it practically- and that is precisely what I did.

 

The job requirements of dramaturg, according to the Dramaturg's UK Network, can consist of:

Reading plays, Translating or Re-translating plays, Encouraging new writing, Devising new work, Adapting, Analysing, Editing and Cutting, Research, Advice, Assisting, Compiling the Programme. Further jobs may be advising the Marketing, Education, Post-play Discussions, Input on press releases.

(*Further descriptions of tasks can be found at http://www.dramaturgy.co.uk/services/whatwedo.html)

 

 With all of these skills it is difficult to explain what the specific role of a dramaturg is, but it is easy to see how there are people in place in the British theatre industry who, unbeknownst to them, are already acting as dramaturgs. Kenneth Tynan was one of Britain’s first dramaturgs and his role at the National Theatre was of Official Literary Manager. Although he struggled with the amount of work that was demanded of him, Tynan saw his role as a necessity for the National, “No theatre could sanely flourish unless there was an umbilical connection between what was happening on the stage and what was happening in the world.” (Luckhurst 2006) In Europe, primarily concentrated in Germany, the dramaturg has been working since the 18th Century, first lead by Lessing. The discipline was cemented in the 20th century with many key practitioners such as Brecht carrying on the practice and employing dramaturgs in teams to assist his theatres. In America dramaturgy is a very accepted role in modern theatre production, however in Britain dramaturgy is seen as an emerging practice, to its critics, a new fashion that may die away. 

 

As there are so many aspects to dramaturgy as a novice I began to gain experience in the different areas separately and built up a portfolio of skills gradually.