International Theatre Conference: Directing and Authorship in Western Drama

Panel Five
Saturday October 25th, 9-10:30am

Jay Malarcher, West Virginia U
Abstract: What Good is a Dramaturg?

I reject the notion that a director is the good soul
helping the crippled playwright cross the street. -David Hare

The best definition of dramaturg that I have ever encountered is "an advocate for the text." As a director, playwright, and dramaturg, my perspective involves a multivariate approach, ever mindful of the relationship of the three job descriptions to the text, the ultimate production, and (most importantly) the process that gets us from one to the other.

Here, the dramaturg has been a fairly recent job title added to theatre companies, but in Europe the dramaturg has been an important contributor to the artistic end of production for many years. Bertolt Brecht, for example, began his career in theatre as a dramaturg. Oftentimes theatres couple the job of dramaturg with that of literary manager, since one of the myriad tasks that dramaturgs may take up involves locating new plays for production and helping to shape a season. Many directors have not worked with a dramaturg in production, or have had bad experiences with dramaturgs who either don't help enough or (which is worse) attempt to usurp the director's responsibilities and prerogatives. Production dramaturgs, at their best, can do many of the following and more:

* assemble research for the director;
* instruct the cast in cultural, religious, or philosophical contexts
for the play;
* make suggestions for cuts in texts, if needed;
* assist the director in locating the best (most actable) translation
or adaptation available; or,
* perform the translation her/himself if capable;
* act as liaison between playwright and director in a workshop or
development situation;
* provide another set of "eyes" in selected rehearsals through notes
to the director;
* write program notes and set up lobby displays to help orient patrons
to issues in the play; and
* engage the audience in talk-back sessions where appropriate.

Where the director deliberately takes the text as his own ("Arthur Auteur's
Hamlet") little remains for the dramaturg to do. For most directors, especially those dealing with playwrights they respect enough to trust, the use of a dramaturg can ease the process and bridge the text through earnest work and thoughtful contributions. As American comedy writing legend Larry Gelbart has said, he likes to work with a director who seems to be talking about the same play he has written, one who "touches the work without leaving a lot of fingerprints."