DRAMATURGY: THEA 375
Instructor: Germaine Sota, Ph.D.
Office: Fine Arts 412
Phone: Off: 708.524.6292 Home: 630. 893.5082
Email: goetzsota@dom. edu
Note: This course is required for Theatre Arts majors and recommended for anyone who loves
theatre and wishes to acquire a more sophisticated understanding of this art form.
Texts: 1. The Bedford Introduction to Drama: 4th edition by Lee Jacobus. In addition to the plays on
this syllabus, the anthology contains 20 others that you may wish to include in your 100
play-reading-list requirement.
2. Dramaturgy in American Theatre, A Source Book, (1997) edited by S. Jonas, G. Proehl, and
M. Lupu.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
“… the dramaturg is potentially the artistic director’s Good Angel - a corrective necessity in his dealings
with Board members exhorting him to take the safe way, with Managers asking him to toe the bottom line,
with audiences proving unresponsive to challenging works, and even with reviewers displaying impatience
with the laborious process of building a company or developing a playwright. As the humanist in the woodpile, it is the dramaturg who must act as the conscience of the theatre, reminding it of its original
promise, when it threatens to relax into facile, slack and easy paths.”
Robert Brustein
Excerpts from Dramaturgy in American Theatre:
1. The dramaturg focuses on “long-range research …development and artistic planning.” S/he develops
“repertory material that will express the particular theatre’s artistic purpose.”
2. The dramaturg’s
role in theatre is one who “looks out for the play itself… who keeps the whole
in
mind.”
3. We expect the dramaturg “to find answers to questions posed by actors, designers, directors and
audience members” regarding a specific play.
4. The question a dramaturg must ask, “What is keeping me from a full understanding of this play?”
5. A dramaturg must “know the classics inside and out...how plays were produced and published in
their own time, how the theatre functioned, and who acted in the play... what role did this theatre
play in the community?” Knowing this, the dramaturg and the director collaborate in re-thinking
and often re-creating the play so that it may speak more persuasively to a modern audience.
6. Some of the best work a dramaturg performs “occurs when [s/he] brings dozens of pictures to
rehearsals.”
7. “Negotiating the working relationship [with the director] is perhaps the most crucial element in ...
dramaturgical work.”
8. A dramaturg presents the artistic director with “a slate of plays for the season.”
9. A dramaturg writes program notes, study guides, press releases, and newsletters. S/he speaks to
audiences and facilitates discussions among actors, directors, designers, playwrights and audiences.
10. “Some of the best dramaturgs are actors, directors, designers, playwrights and producers, even though
they might not use this word to describe what they do... Dramaturgy might be performed by an in-
dividual or by an entire production ensemble.”
11. “A dramaturg will want to get to know the work of the country’s leading playwrights [but] it is just as
important to read writers who are still unknown.”
It is
obvious that a dramaturg wears many hats!
As a professional, s/he must know theatre history,
dramatic literature, theory and criticism, research
methods, interpersonal communication, collabo-
rative skills,
public relations, the whole range of the liberal arts, as well as
exposure to and intensive
experience in theatre making. This course will introduce you to the profession of dramaturgy which began in 1867 in Germany, but didn’t take root in the United States until the late 1960’s. A single course
or even an academic program in this field cannot train you all at once. A mature dramaturg emerges gradu-
ally through incremental learning and hands-on experience. In THEA 375 you will begin this process by
first reading the following essays in Section 1: “Dramaturgy: An Overview” by Anne Cattaneo, the
essay “Towards an American Dramaturg: Adapting the
Function of Dramaturgy to U.S. Conditions”
by Martin Esslin (pg 25), and “From the Future of an
Un-American Activity” (pg 33) by Robert Brustein in your text Dramaturgy
in American Theatre, A Source Book.
REQUIRED PLAYS: (these plays will not be read chronologically)
1. Big River - music and lyrics by Roger Miller, book by
William Hauptman, based on The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - American
2. Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe (1588-1593) - English
3. Life Is a Dream - Calderon (1635) - Spanish
4. The Misanthrope - Moliere (1666) - French
5. Hedda Gabler - Ibsen (1890) - Norwegian
6. Mrs. Warren’s Profession - G.B. Shaw (1894) - British
7. The Strong Breed - Soyinka (1962) - Nigerian
8. Fences - August Wilson (1985) - African-American
9. The Beauty Queen of Leenane - McDonagh (1996) - Irish
10. How I Learned to Drive - Paula Vogel (1997) - American
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Students will:
Ÿ examine many descriptions of the role of dramaturg in order to discover the evolving
nature of this profession in America since the late 1960’s.
Ÿ gain facility in doing research using both online academic data bases as well as the university
library collection. Your Source Book provides online resources on pp. 535-556. Your anthology
provides a Web site at www.bedfordstmartins.com. Check inside the front cover for other resources.
Ÿ master essential vocabulary critical to understanding a dramaturg’s work
Ÿ articulate and apply dramaturgical theory to the play texts studied in the course, culminating in the
creation of a
production casebook
Ÿ Simulate the roles of a production dramaturg by engaging in a variety of collaborative oral and written assignments
Ÿ
engage
in ensemble dramaturgy by working together as a class on the Fall
production Big River