Re: RAT ticket expiration and dramaturgs

[MFarkash@aol.com]

Perhaps I was misunderstood. My notion of a dramaturg is someone who may (or 
may not) be foisted upon a playwright by the big regional theatres who need 
to pound a play into "shape" so that it appeals to their subscription masses.

I am not against a play going through a development process (mine do) in the 
sense of reading them for fellow (male and female) playwrights, maybe doing a 
reading at a theatre one is associated with, and soliciting comments from a 
trusted director. I supposed you could say that all those people function as 
"dramaturgs," but a playwright is free, one hopes, to have the final say. 
That's why theatre is often magical -- the writer has the final word, even if 
it's not always the most overpolished, overdeveloped word. We've got to trust 
our instincts and not be pressured to bring in yet another body whose sole 
purpose is to remake the play. 
    The "remake" is a process that happens in screenwriting or journalism, in 
which change and editing occurs simply for the sake of a producer or editor 
to justify their "artistic" existence.

Michael Farkash