Re: RAT Playwriting Opportunities & Dramaturgs

["Megan Monaghan" <meganmonaghan@email.msn.com>]

Michael, where could I get a copy of your book?  The Playwrights' Center is
holding a class in rewriting techniques this spring, and it sounds like your
work could be a terrific addition to the resources we're offering.

And, back on topic, thank you for your beautiful articulation of the
dramaturg as war-artist.  That rang a very true emotional chord for me as
soon as I read it.

Megan

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Wright <myquagga@yahoo.com>
To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
Date: Saturday, December 02, 2000 8:54 AM
Subject: Re: RAT Playwriting Opportunities & Dramaturgs


>dennis, thanks for such a fine articulation.  the
>valorous playwright/director hacking away in the
>art-war trenches is a great image and one to
>absolutely treasure.  having come up through
>experimental work in the early 70s, you speak exactly
>the beliefs i held then and hold, mostly, now.
>
>however, i need to speak to your opening assumptions:
>the work of development and dramaturgy is not about
>perfectibility.  or at least this is how i see it.
>that work is about giving the playwright all the
>needed tools to keep true to her initial vision, that
>spark of recognition or "holy fuck" or whatever it was
>that triggered the play in the first play.  often,
>rewriting or laboring alone can blur that first spark
>and the work i've treasured most has been when a group
>of co-artists (and 'turgs are valorous war-artists as
>well) help create the space and context in which the
>playwright can get back to that original vision with
>her best abilities.  now, are there people in the
>field who think all plays are flawed but for their
>kind ministrations?  yes, but they're misguided idiots
>and form a minority.  in the majority of new play
>development programs--and in many theatres where new
>work is done--the aim is to deliver the playwright's
>vision as completely as possible, not to "perfect" it,
>but to open the vision out as the playwright dictates.
> most programs i've visited have said, in one way or
>the other, "here the playwright is king/queen/god."
>and they mean it, and they do it.
>
>in some ways, i think the misapprehension of
>dramaturgy is that it has gotten mixed up with the
>notion of play doctoring (neil simon did this for a
>long time, earning his nickname "doc") and the
>out-of-town tryouts of a broadway that died a while
>back and continues to kill itself off even as we
>speak.  dramaturgs are not play doctors--and never
>have been.
>
>okay enough: whoever has been suggesting that we hold
>a massive dramaturgy/rat conference somewhere on the
>planet has a great idea.  there's a huge office space
>in d.c. that's not being used at the moment--called
>"the transition headquarters" or something.  why not
>there?
>
>michael wright (with signature block again, because my
>new book, playwriting master class, is in part about
>the nature of process for the individal
>playwright--the subtitle of the book is "the
>personality of process and the art of rewriting," and
>shows enough models, i hope, for pretty much every
>playwright.  and there ain't a dramaturg in sight...)
>
>--- DennisLMo@aol.com wrote:
>> i guess its this abstract idea of perfectibility.
>> the cool eye of the
>> dramaturg, the intelligent other person to bounce
>> off ideas, get an insight,
>> find that ineffable structural twang, o so butiful
>> and so fine, just made it
>> so perfect... the vision finished now, the music box
>> ticking over plunk,
>> plunk, plunk... not a messy, messy, talented mess no
>> more...
>>
>> now then sometimes, for some of us, theater is war
>> and you have the fog of
>> war. generalisimo playwright, and generalisimo
>> director, and valorous, naive,
>> idealistic, give it what you got, pedal and petal to
>> the metal actors...
>> taking orders, sometimes, and also talking back to
>> naive, idealistic, pedal
>> to the metal, flower loving, generalisimo playwright
>> and papa doc director...
>>
>> i guess it's the neat box routine, the apolonian
>> balance, the who would not
>> want a third reasonable eye all over their work
>> respectfully asking delicate
>> leading questions here and dere, mannerly, sweet,
>> cause art and life's so
>> sweet...
>>
>> maybe bourgeois theatre needs the tidying hand
>> (dramaturge) in a regional
>> theatre setting, so that work will not provoke... or
>> provoke a subscriber
>> revolt in La Jolla or another place where the money
>> is? (i pose a socratic
>> question).
>>
>> after all we know brecht's entourage was no sweet
>> thing... and weren't the
>> kings men rough and ready... look what happened to
>> marlowe, and how about all
>> those rock'em sock'em females in the present day
>> theatre scene...
>>
>> love,
>> dennis
>
>
>=====
>Michael Wright, (918) 631-3174. Shameless Self-Promotion Department: my new
book, PLAYWRITING MASTER CLASS is out! (yes, in time for the holidays...)
PLAYWRITING IN PROCESS, also published by Heinemann is #4 on Amazon.Com.UK's
top playwriting book list! THE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO PLAYWRITING OPPORTUNITIES
(2nd Ed., co-edited with Elena Carrillo) is available; (802) 867-2223 or Fax
(802) 867-0144 to order.
>
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