to Dramaturg, the verb

We all do it, in one form or another

Some designers are so uppity. I am. I do my own research for shows and form strong opinions about everything related to a show. I dramaturg like it’s a verb not a job title.

My approach to forming opinions doesn’t have any rigor to it. Dramaturgs understand how each element fits into an invisible (to me) structure. Often, I am sitting in previews finally realizing what the play is actually about and regretting one choice or another. The presumption that I get to have an opinion when I have studied how plays work is my first offense - uppity.

Only once has a dramaturg given me their research at the beginning of the design process. 85 pages of photocopied essays from the introductions to different editions of the play, academic journals and excerpts from seminal works on theater. 85 pages of prose takes longer to read than a similarly sized play. Especially when some of it is written in that academic style that assumes you know the jargon. Even in college, I had never read a paper that h…