Response to Dramaturgy Questionnaire : Executive Summary as compiled by Mark Charney National Chair of Criticism and Dramaturgy (a full report from each region follows) 1. Questions for the Participants: Because the request came late for most festivals, and the summaries relied on email, we didn t get much response here. What we did receive suggested students appreciate feedback, the more the better. Regions saw the need to raise the awareness of dramaturgy in the region and through state festivals, or particular schools. They suggested dramaturgy workshops for professors as well, and possibly connecting with departments in English and Humanities. Another region raises visibility by combining dramaturgy with new play work. Next year, we should send out a questionnaire for all coordinators before the festival to distribute to participants. 2. Guest Respondents Regions with guest respondents seemed to fare better than others. Guests gave credibility and provided information about the profession that academics could not provide. Regional breakdown: I: two respondents, one professional dramaturg and one very qualified academician II: one respondent, a PH.D and a very qualified scholar and dramaturg III: three respondents, two academicans and one playwright IV: one respondent, a dramaturg/playwright/director/actor from Australia V: two respondents, both professional dramaturgs/literary managers VI: None, just a dramaturgy leader VII: one respondent, a professional dramaturg and literary manager VIII: respondents, academicians, shared with the new play project 3. Number of Participants I: 5 II: 4 (with six entries) III. 10 IV. 8 V. 11 (with thirteen entries) VI. 2 VII. 2 VIII. 3 4. Suggested Improvements I will list suggestions here, not specific to region. For regionally specific suggestions, check the full report attached: A. Two-hour workshops detailing dramaturgy B. A dramaturgy activity C. Open response sessions
D. More participation/mentoring E. More workshops F. Added LMDA participation G. Open Response Session H. Requiring all dramaturgs to attend I. One-on-one hour long interview sessions J. Teaching professors the meaning of dramaturgy: workshops K. Figuring out a way to use dramaturgs at the festival L. Educate schools in the region M. Include more resource artists N. Interact with larger community O. Match dramaturgs with student playwrights to give them activities 5. Dividing Dramaturgy between Traditional and Original Only two regions felt strongly about dividing the two, and one was in the middle. The others felt strongly that the regions need to still teach dramaturgy to professors and spread the word before actually dividing the two. 6. Conclusions and Recommendations If you read the entire report, you will discover that many regions believe that the entire country needs to educate professors to include dramaturgy at their schools. Many regions are frustrated by a lack of support and participation, some blaming expensive festivals, others proximity, others a knowledge of the field. The healthiest regions include activities and workshops that attract students, and invite professionals to work along side academicians to teach the professional field. Advertising helps, as does getting the word out in other departments. Following are a list of suggestions for each region to improve participation and to strengthen education: A. Invite a respondent who works as a professional dramaturg and can teach the field. Have the respondent work alongside the coordinator/academician for the best effect. B. Encourage all dramaturgs to attend the festival. C. Add one on one interviews, not unlike the stage management interview, to understand the process. D. Display the dramaturgical work, and create a response session. E. Develop a community. Have the dramaturgs meet one another. F. Use dramaturgs at the festival, such as guerilla dramaturgy in Region II or combining them with playwrights in Region VIII. G. Get in touch with departments other than theatre, such as English or humanities to spread the word. H. Include interesting, provocative workshops.
Response to Dramatugy Questionnaire as compiled by Mark Charney National Chair of Criticism and Dramaturgy REGION I Who was the guest respondent? Region 1 had TWO guest respondents: Bridget Frey (Dramaturgy Respondent) was the Literary Manager and Resident Dramaturge of Boston Theatre Works from 2002-2008. She was production dramaturge on many shows, including the Elliot Norton Award-winning productions of Angels in America and A Midsummer Night s Dream. She produced BTW Unbound, the annual new play festival. Her work in new play development includes tenures at the American Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company and American Stage Festival. She was the recipient of the LMDA Residency Grant for her work on Homebody/Kabul. Matthew Wilson Smith (Dramaturgy Respondent) is Assistant Professor of English at Boston University. He is the author of The Total Work of Art: From Bayreuth to Cyberspace (Routledge, 2008), and his articles on theatre and film have appeared in Theater, Modern Drama, Modernism/Modernity, and other journals and anthologies. He is editor of the Norton Critical Edition of the works of Georg Büchner, and is writing a book on melodrama. We had 5 student dramaturgy entries: 2 University of Rhode Island 2 Emerson College 1 University of New Haven 4 students were selected to participate at the Festival. 1 student from Emerson College did not attend. 3 students who did present were: Maria Day Hyde University of Rhode Island Rachel Nadeau University of Rhode Island Anne G. Morgan Emerson College and LMDA/ATHE/KCACTF Regional winner What could you recommend to improve the students educational experience at Since Region 1 has had NO dramaturgy attention, with 0 participants at the 08 regional festival, Magda, Sabine and I are planning to review other regional programs and work with you to learn and exchange ideas for growing ours. Again, this festival experience was new to our chairs, not just to the students who were participating. With only a short window of time to plan a strategy, recruit festival dramaturgy respondents and meet for Saturday only during the festival, Magda gave best effort to provide a solid educational experience for this year s participants. Magda, Sabine,
Bridget Frey, Matt Smith provided a 2 hour workshop on detailing the work of a dramaturgy and offered an activity to 13 festival participants (including the nominated student dramaturgs). The responses session was open and the 3 nominees presented their work to Bridget and Matt. At the conclusion, Bridget and Matt decided the regional winner and Magda took their notes in order to give written feedback to all three students (letters attached). Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? At this point in time, we need to create outreach and education regarding what dramaturgy and all of its functions are, as well as encourage region-wide participation. As Magda will confirm, there are many theatre departments who truly do not know what a dramaturg s work involves. I would expect as participation numbers grow, there may be a need to divide dramaturgy responsibilities and I would encourage Magda to speak to this. I have worked in Educational Theatre at the Huntington Theatre Company for 8 years and I am part of Trinity Repertory Company s Team Talkback (Laura Kepley says hello ). From my perspective, I would support a festival experience that would match student playwrights and student dramaturgs to work on new plays together. I think that the festival should offer the opportunity for student dramaturges to support student playwrights, provide research and give talkbacks to accompany new play presentations. I would also like them to have an opportunity to learn how to create curriculum materials for an education department, as well as to learn more about the traditional work of a dramaturg. As one of the transitional Incoming Co-Chairs sharing responsibilities with Jim Murphy, I am looking forward to strengthening Dramaturgy, Arts Administration and Educational Theatre in our region. I couldn t be more delighted to be working with you, Mark. I know that you will be a wonderful resource and guide to our Region as Dramaturgy grows. Region II Our guest was Lee Devin. I ve pasted his bio below. Lee Devin graduated from San Jose State College in 1958 and took his PhD (1967) at Indiana University. He taught at Indiana (1958-62), the University of Virginia (1962-66), Vassar College (1966-70), and Swarthmore College (1970-2002). In 1970 he founded The Theatre at Swarthmore, which became in time the Department of Theater Studies. He retired from teaching in 2002. In 1975 be became a member of the artistic staff of the People's Light and Theatre, acting, teaching acting, and doing dramaturgy. Over the years at People's Light he made acting versions of these scripts: Summerfolk, from Gorky, with Margaret Wettlin; A Doll House, from Ibsen; Oedipus, acting version from Sophocles, with Abigail Adams; Alice; scenes and variations from Lewis Carroll; Celebration, a cycle of mystery plays; The Madwoman of Chaillot, from Giraudoux. He played a bunch of parts, from T. Lawrence Shannon, Malvolio, Benedick and Nat Miller to Judge Robedeaux and Canon Chasuble. He wrote program notes and did dramaturgy for shows too numerous to mention.
Out in the great world, he wrote articles, chapters in books, plays, and librettos; he worked as a technical director, master electrician, production stage manager, and dramaturg; he acted and directed in the academy, and for movies and TV. He has a framed SAG residuals check in the amount of $0.01 to memorialize his brilliant movie career. With Rob Austin of the Harvard Business School he wrote Artful Making; What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work, published in 2003. In 2005 it won LMDA's Elliott Hayes Award for dramaturgy. It's about using theatre techniques to do creative work in business: replacing restraint with release, compromise with collaboration, and industrial teams with knowledge work ensembles. He and Rob are at work on the next book: Reliable Innovation. They've also published articles in several business journals. He's currently a Dramaturg at People's Light, a Senior Research Scholar at Swarthmore College, a Senior Consultant for the Cutter Consortium Innovation Practice, and a Certified Scrum Master. He's at work on several writing projects that interfere with his trout fishing, and cause him to neglect his grandchildren. This is the first year we have seen a decline in the number of entries over the previous year. We had six entries from four different students. (Two students submitted entries for two different projects.) Four students also participated in our guerrilla dramaturgy program. This number is also much lower than in previous years. Three other dramaturgy workshops attracted between 10 and 20 students each. What could you recommend to improve the students educational experience at We re not quite sure why participation was down this year. Our festival was in a more expensive location than previous years and we wonder if financial issues contributed to this change. We believe all aspects of our dramaturgy programming would be well served by having more participation. We feel we need to expand our committee a bit so that we can offer more mentoring to the guerrilla dramaturgs. Additional committee members could also provide additional workshops. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? I don t see a need to divide the SDI entries between new plays and existing ones. It s rare that we receive entries for new plays, and when we do, it provides a teachable moment to let all participants learn about the similarities and differences. We do offer workshops on both kinds of dramaturgy each year. We also talk about the differences in our guerrillas dramaturgy orientation. In general, I think this balance encourages students to learn about both areas, but the individual workshops also speak to those students who are only interested in one or the other area. REGION III
Anne Fletcher, Assoc. Prof SIU Carbondale Tyler Smith, Asst. Prof, Ball State Jon Myers, Freelance Playwright, currently working at Gersh Agency in LA I am planning on asking the Region IV DT chair if they want to start a "swap" wherein they come to our festival as an assessor and I go to theirs. I tried to actually engage some LMDA-types in the region and many wanted a large stipend beyond our payment for travel and lodging. I am LMDA but obviously cannot assess these projects. What is our relationship really with the LMDA folks? I was up to ten from three at last year's festival. What could you recommend to improve the students' educational experience at More visibility of LMDA members. I am one and give workshops but am "old hat" to some of these folks. Though I work freelance gigs, full-time D-turgs with "trenches" stories might be helpful. I am authoring a book with Julie Dubiner but her Humana Festival schedule precludes her from attending our festival. As mentioned above, the other LMDA types in proximity to our festival were not interested without compensation. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? Yes. New plays are a different beast all together and require other assessment measures than the five guidelines provided. The NPP chair and I are adding D-turgs to the 10 minute festival next year so as to engage student D-turgs interested solely in new plays. REGION IV What worked well about dramaturgy in your region? We have plenty of participants. They all came to the festival, and they loved the workshops. The one-hour interviews were especially successful, and they also had a chance to meet each other and talk about dramaturgy. We made sure to have a workshop that addressed new plays, and another that addressed traditional. It was our most successful festival, partially from good advertising, and partially because of our guest. His airfare was paid by his institution in Australia. Ours was Carl Caulfield, a wonderful playwright/dramaturg/director/actor I met at the O Neill who teaches Writing for Performance and Directing in the School of Drama, Fine Art, and Music at the University of Newcastle, NSW. He has his own theatre company, Stray Dogs Theatre, and has won numerous awards for his plays, directing and acting. He has been dramaturg on many productions and for the Australian National Playwrights Centre. Carl s show about the actor Peter Sellers, Being Sellers, was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival, and then London. Last year, Carl was a guest and mentor at the Eugene O Neill Theatre Center. We had eight this year. What could you recommend to improve the students' educational experience at We had great attendance at our two dramaturgy workshops, up from previous years: 25 in one, nearly 50 in another. I believe that comes partially from Carl s good reputation, his sense of humor, and his background. We also tried harder to sell the dramaturgy workshops by advertising more often within the region. To improve the students experience, I d love to ask each region to require the students who send material to come to the festival, much like designers. Work could be displayed in the design area, with responses, very much like the design responses, to be held. Also, we require our students to have a one-hour interview with the dramaturgy guest, who also decides the winner. That way, he can really understand the process, not just what the material suggests. We send him the material ahead of time, and he had a chance to truly examine it before meeting with each candidate. A LMDA person would also help to provide advice about careers as dramaturgy becomes more popular. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? Yes, we do. I believe that dramaturgy for traditional works and new plays are entirely different animals. We d love to have two sessions at least, in terms of workshops and responses, to address these differences. I know we can t have two awards that go to DC, but I d like to recognize both if possible, with a cash award. It will still be simple to choose among the two best, especially if interviews are involved, to find a winner. REGION V What worked well about the dramaturgy process? The participants appreciated the critical feedback portion as well as the "required" dramaturgical workshops that I made them attend. What needs improvement to make the dramaturgy program more educationally beneficial? Of course they want clearer guidelines about what the projects should BE when they bring them. But I think that's the nature of the dramaturgical beast. Martin Kettling, Literary Manager, Eugene O'Neill Center and Faye Price, Artistic Director, Pillsbury Theatre Eleven. Two of them had two projects (one each entered in the Regional portion)
What could you recommend to improve the students educational experience at I think I'm doing all I can think of right now. Any input from you would be greatly appreciated. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? Hmmm... it's two different approaches, isn't it...um... at this point, we just don't have enough entries to justify splitting them into two groups. If we did, then absolutely divide the entries. But until we have at least 4 entries on new plays, it seems silly. REGION VI What worked well about the dramaturgy process? - WE HAVE VERY LITTLE AWARENESS OF DRAMATURGY HERE. THAT EXPLAINS WHY, SINCE ITS INCEPTION, THE REGION VI AWARD HAS ALMOST ALWAYS GONE TO UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA STUDENTS (IT'S ONE OF THE FEW SCHOOLS IN THE REGION WHERE THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A MAJOR IN FIELD). DURING THE PAST 3 YEARS, WHILE I WAS COORDINATOR, I FOUND THAT GOING TO STATE FESTIVALS "EVANGELIZING" RASIED SOME AWARENESS. HAVING PROFESSORS AT SCHOOLS TALK UP THE DISCIPLINE ALSO HELPED. What needs improvement to make the dramaturgy program more educationally beneficial? I THINK A BIG DRAMATURGY WORKSHOP FOR PROFESSORS (MAYBE A 2-3 DAY THING SOMEWHERE NICE) WOULD HELP TO RAISE AWARENESS, WHICH IN TURN WOULD CAUSE THEM TO SPREAD THE WORD TO THEIR STUDENTS. A LOT OF DRAMA/THEATRE PROFESSORS REALLY DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT. INSTEAD, THEY CONCENTRATE ON ACTING AND TECH STUFF. GETTING PROFS FROM OTHER FIELDS (ENGLISH, HUMANTIES) MIGHT ALSO HELP SPREAD THE WORD. DRAMATURGY MAKES ITS EDUCATIONAL VALUE OBVIOUS ONCE THEATRE ARTISTS KNOW ABOUT IT AND BEGIN USING IT. WE HAD ONE IN 2008, BUT NOBODY SHOWED UP TO HER WORKSHOP. VERY EMBARASSING. IT WAS MELISSA COOPER FROM DALLAS THEATRE CENTER. SHE'S VERY TALENTED, COMPETENT, AND NICE. THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE HAD TO SPEND ON HER WAS ALSO EMABRASSING ($100 + MILEAGE). WE CHOSE NOT TO HAVE ONE THIS YEAR, AS EVEN THAT SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY WAS WASTED. IN 2009, I INSTEAD TOOK MY DRAMATURG ENTRANTS OUT FOR A NICE LUNCH (AT MY EXPENSE) AND HAD A NICE SHARING OF PROTOCOLS. THEY LEARNED A LOT FROM SHOWING THEIR WORK TO ONE ANOTHER. How many participants applied to participate in dramaturgy at your ONLY 2, DOWN FROM AN AVERAGE OF 5 THE PREVIOUS YEAR. What could you recommend to improve the students¹ educational experience at
IT'S DIFFICULT TO SAY. IT SEEMS DIFFICULT TO ROUND UP DRAMATURGS IN THIS REGION. TRULY, THE "AWARENESS" WORKSHOPS I HAVE RUN HAVE BROUGHT IN A FEW STUDENTS WHO DID NOT KNOW ABOUT DRAMATURGY, BUT THE REAL WORK OF CAPTURING IMAGINATIONS AND INSPIRING STUDENTS TO BECOME DRAMATURGS HAPPENS WHEN THEY ACTUALLY WORK AS DRAMATURGS ON A SHOW OR TWO. UNTIL WE GET MORE DRAMATURGY ON THE STAGES AND CLASSROOMS OF THE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN OK/TX/AR/NM/LA, THERE WILL NEVER BE THAT MUCH INTEREST AT FESTIVAL. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? NOT AT ALL. UNTIL THE PROGRAM GETS MORE INTEREST FROM STUDENTS, I WOULD TAKE WHATEVER I CAN GET. Right now, nobody has been identified to be Initiatives Coordinator for 2009-2012. All the academic dramaturgs I have talked to do not like the travel involved, as it takes away from their time doing shows and being with their families. I gave up doing shows to be on the committee. I would be willing to come to some state festivals in the region to help raise awareness next if anyone on the committee/the new coordinator would like. REGION VII Meghan Beals McCarthy. She's the Literary Manager and Resident Dramaturg at Northlight Theatre in Chicago, IL. Also a member of LMDA, and a professional director as well. Only two this year. We've traditionally had low numbers, but this year they were really low. Schools who usually send dramaturgs sent none this year. What could you recommend to improve the students educational experience at It would be nice if there was an active way to use dramaturgs at festival. (Directors have SSDC things, actors have Ryans, etc. Dramaturgs have workshop sessions, but, at least in our region so far, have no artistic work during the week.) Perhaps there's a way to attach dramaturgy to playwriting or directing in some way. That might also draw more interest. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? No, not at this time. Region VII already has low participation in dramaturgy. Dividing it out any further would be problematic at this point. Perhaps in the future it would work. REGION VIII What worked well about the dramaturgy process? Wellllll we have very few programs in our region so we attempt to combine dramaturgy with new plays. This year after having had primarily student dramaturges we had faculty and guest dramaturges on the new plays and that served the playwrights better.
Student dramaturges participated as shadows, in workshops ( development of devised work, adaptation etc),roundtable ( open to all students to share their work and their questions-plus focus on all who submitted for the award) and we introduced a guest resource psychotherapist this year. Tho she was able to interact with only 3 of the pieces, we at least began this resource. What needs improvement to make the dramaturgy program more educationally beneficial? There is very little time to do more than above. In our region I think there are no more than 3 schools that even know what dramaturgy is so our challenge is to keep the area integral to new play development, accessible to students who are encouraged to submit packets despite the level of their expertise in the field--, and to educate a bit in our roundtable and lobby displays. We had faculty plus Jennifer Maisel, professional playwright, Laurel Ollstein, director, Christine Jansen Gillum, pscytherapist(former actress) Not sure what you mean here. We had about 4 packets submissions for the award but our workshops and panels were full to overflowing. What could you recommend to improve the students¹ educational experience at Be inclusive, value ALL levels of work, be creative in defining elements of dramaturgy (that is, intellectual,creative, community connections etc), include more resource artists thru the week who interact with larger community. Do what is possible and directly responsive to the student populations needs and not according to an external idea of what is needed. Do you feel the need to divide dramaturgy in your region between those who work with new plays and those who work with more traditional ones? Why or why not? Possible there is a whole area of New Play Dramaturgy that we try to approach in the new plays but there is VERY LITTLE TIME to split the two areas. I think this can and is addressed with workshop, panel and hands on activity throughout the week.