by Dana Pepowski

They’re all over the place: sharing analysis within the rehearsal room, main a thought-provoking talkback, or sifting by means of new scripts as literary supervisor for a theatre firm. Dramaturgs’ abilities in evaluation, problem-solving, and creativeness make them ultimate collaborators with actors. However what does that relationship appear like? Let’s discover out about dramaturgy!

I spoke with Maren Robinson, freelance and resident dramaturg at TimeLine Theatre, an ensemble member at Lifeline Theatre, college professor, and all-around beneficiant dramaturgy mentor, to create the actor’s information to dramaturgy. 

What is a dramaturg?

In line with Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), the preeminent member group within the trade, a dramaturg collaborates with artists to “hone their imaginative and prescient” for a mission, facilitate “retailers” for brand spanking new work, and enliven the world of a play for artists and audiences with considerate analysis. Dramaturgs supply a “crucial hyperlink” amongst artists, cultural establishments, and the establishment’s literal and ideological neighborhood, making them key gamers to honor the heritage and assemble the way forward for theatre-making.

In a day-to-day dramaturgical and literary administration follow, their work could appear like:

• Contextualizing a play with analysis and script evaluation for a manufacturing’s creative staff. 
• Composing analysis packets, glossaries, examine guides, academic applications, and foyer shows for the creative staff and viewers. 
• Providing readability and perspective within the rehearsal room.
• Speaking suggestions and inquiries to the playwright. 
• If a playwright is unable to be within the room, serving as “consultant” for the script’s intentions. 
• Supporting the playwright’s writing course of with contextual analysis.
• Facilitating talkbacks and neighborhood occasions.
• Soliciting, evaluating, and monitoring new script submissions.
• Strengthening relationships with playwrights and their brokers.  
• Advocating for productions, workshops, and readings of recent performs. 
• Collaborating with the theatre’s employees to pick a season of performs. 

How does dramaturgy apply to my work as an actor?

Excellent news! You’re already (hopefully) training dramaturgy as you thoughtfully put together for an audition, rehearsal, or efficiency. In line with Maren, an actor “commits random acts of dramaturgy” as they analyze your character’s arc throughout the story, analysis themes throughout a playwright’s work, outline an unknown phrase, or unearth the context of a interval reference. An actor’s dramaturgy follow deepens their script preparation to be an “open-minded reader” of the textual content and imaginative scene associate.

How can actors study from dramaturgs? Collaborate with dramaturgs?

Whether or not you’re in command of your personal script preparation or are working with a dramaturg within the rehearsal room, the follow of dramaturgy provides invaluable abilities to an actor. Check out these dramaturg-inspired tricks to deepen your subsequent rehearsal course of:

1. Ask the nitty-gritty questions.

Maren loves it when actors come to her with inquiries to “assist them construct the life and world of the character.” She provides some latest examples: 

• What cigarettes would I be smoking?
• Does a woman cross her legs proper now?
• May you present me with some interval recipes so I do know what I might need been consuming?
• Do you’ve gotten a e book for movie reference for the sort of workout routines I is perhaps doing?
• May you go over the Heisenberg Uncertainty Precept with me once more?

You are able to do it, too! Self-directed analysis for an audition or rehearsal also can open thrilling insights into your character’s life. Use your creativeness to stroll by means of her world and its sensations: What scents can she scent? What reminiscences does she have of this room? How a lot did it price to purchase these sneakers? 

2. Stretch your (analytical) muscle groups.

You probably have a dramaturg in your subsequent rehearsal course of, you’re lucky to have a person within the room who’s educated to “learn performs in a barely completely different method” from administrators or actors, Maren explains. A dramaturg switches their focus between “huge image” and “character work” and between the “context of the world of the play” and “our personal political second.” In rehearsal, the dramaturg provides context to actors and director to allow them to discover the “number of methods” to interpret a beat or cultural reference in a scene. 

Equally, an actor who’s gotten to know their script by way of “open-minded studying” and analysis also can unlock particulars and the big-picture context of the play’s world. As you follow flexibility in your perspective, you’ll uncover moments that “issues in a scene [or monologue] might go one other method” – Shurtleff’s Guidepost #6, anybody? 

3. Comply with your pursuits.

The phrase “analysis” fills some actors with dread, remembering boring highschool historical past tasks. Others get nervous as they face a completely unfamiliar world of a play (“how do I do know what inquiries to ask concerning the every day lifetime of a prince of Denmark?”). Don’t despair! The best dramaturgy follows the researcher’s particular person pursuits. 

Experiment to search out your distinctive “in” to the character’s world. Listed below are some examples from latest dramaturgy tasks by yours really:

• Make a playlist of well-liked songs from the character’s childhood, area, or the period during which the play is ready. Or, make a playlist of songs from your personal life with lyrics or music that mirror the story. 
• Scroll by means of the setting (or your greatest guess on the location) on Google Maps Road View for the expertise of strolling your character’s neighborhood. 
• What are the day-to-day logistics your character follows? What bus do they take for work? What’s their ultimate morning routine? What acquaintances do they see on their commute?
• Primarily based on the textual content or crammed in by your personal creativeness, what’s a narrative your character is aware of by coronary heart? Discover a e book they could have learn or a bedtime story from their area of origin. 

How does dramaturgy match into the way forward for Chicago theatre?

Maren believes that dramaturgs, particularly those that additionally direct, write performs, or act, follow “empathetic creativeness”. They use their expertise in numerous creative roles to think about collaborators’ wants: “What would possibly this actor be interested in for this character?” or “What questions would possibly serve this playwright or this designer or director?” 

Trying towards the longer term, she hopes that Chicago dramaturgs preserve their curiosity and “proceed to…ask what our communities want.” She tells me that “theatre survives [by]…responding to what the neighborhood tells us their wants are,” not by “telling [others] what we predict they want.” The follow of inventive flexibility by means of dramaturgy helps the way forward for equitable, accessible, and revolutionary theatre-making.