RE RAT alternative dramaturgy

[emergency@notnow.com]

Wow. I am disturbed by the many confounded and hostile reactions to dramaturgs.

Some years ago, I enrolled in an MFA dramaturgy program. Then, fresh out of college, I had a very vague idea what a dramaturg did, but I thought it had to do with theater scholarship (which I felt I needed more of), and so I went. Quickly, I learned that few people knew what a dramaturg did, that most considered dramaturgy a sort of "editing" position, either working on a text or on a production. 

This is not false (some dramaturgs certainly perform this function, either by choosing a theater's season, by working on new plays, or working on productions), but it is certainly not the whole story. 

Dramaturgy is a nascent field in America. In Germany, dramaturgy began with Lessing in the 1700's. He worked for a theater and, during their productions, published essays about the plays, the actors, the productions, and - most importantly - analyzed the components of these plays. He wrote amazing essays on acting, on dramatic structure, on the business and hierarchy of theater. 

Brecht was a dramaturg. Jan Kott was a dramaturg. Kenneth Tynan was a dramaturg. These are all people who worked in the theater (as dramaturgs and, at times, as writers, directors, producers) and who extracted from the many productions and texts a philosophy of theater. These people are all dramaturgs, and all are philosophers of the theater.

After a year of the MFA dramaturgy program, I quit and entered a directing program (which I will complete this year). I have had the experience of being in a rehearsal as a dramaturg and as a director, and I love both. As a dramaturg, you can watch the proceedings, be invested in the play and the production, but not have to make everything work, as a director must. A dramaturg in a rehearsal has the distance and the freedom to watch and think about what's happening: what is acting? how do actors and directors communicate? how does a gesture elucidate a word, or fail to? For those who interest themselves in theater, dramaturgy is the perfect position to observe and be inspired, to notice the compressed stage event and relate it to the questions one asks oneself late at night about what it means to be alive.

Many of the wonderful writers you may read in "Theater" magazine or TCG or, less frequently, in the press, are dramaturgs. Jim Leverett, Elinor Fuchs, Alisa Solomon, Michael Feingold, Michel Kolbiaka, etc etc. I am constantly inspired by these people; they provide theoretical underpinnings, throw down analytical gauntlets.

Yes, but in the end, here I am getting a degree in directing rather than dramaturgy. Perhaps it was because I was tired of people saying: "A drama-what?" Perhaps it was because I just missed the amazing lazer-beam rush of directing a play. Perhaps it was because I had discovered enough about dramaturgy to make my own way with it (which I did when I co-founded the Emergency Gazette, a free bi-weekly broadsheet about performance).

In any case, this long long response to you guys comes from my surprise at seeing the narrow-mindedness and fear of years past reflected in the long list of 
emails. Sorry if its too long, but it comes from the heart. And, deep down, I still dream of starting a dramaturgical revolution, redefining how American theater thinks of and relates to their dramaturgs, their resident philosophers.

Good night.
Yelena 

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