Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey

by Geoffrey S. Proehl

What can we know? This study--aimed at students, teachers, and theater artists--argues the centrality of this question to dramaturges, dramaturgy, and a dramaturgical sensibility. It suggests--from two perspectives, Landscape and Journey--that the attempt to know the dramaturgy of a play is little different from the attempt to know another person for whom we care. Part I explores the landscapes of conversation, pleasure, and pattern as places in which a dramaturgical sensibility encounters knowledge, loss, subjectivity, time and inquiry--elements central to its composition. Part II follows the journey of rehearsals for Antony and Cleopatra at the Guthrie Theater in the fall of 2001 and winter of 2002, focusing on ways in which theater artists engage, explore, and respond to a play's dramaturgy from the first steps to the final previews. Geoffrey S. Proehl teaches, dramaturges, and directs at the University of Puget Sound.

Genres: Nonfiction

241 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2008

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the second book I had to read for school and once again, as I read it, I kept going back and forth between being really excited by and interested in the content, and then just rolling my eyes. It's very "I'm a white man doing theatre" and while it's definitely a great text for anyone studying dramaturgy, I do wish there were some other perspectives out there to comb through as a dramaturgy student! Sometimes I was right there with him, totally engrossed in the process and hanging on every word, and sometimes I just wanted to throw the book across the room and yell "it's not that deep!!"

Anyway, for the most part I enjoyed reading about Proehl's process as a dramaturg in the true sense of the word, and it made me excited to use some of the things he discussed in my next project.

[Karen Jean Martinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for any aspiring dramaturg.

[Gavin Reub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional book on dramaturgy in theory and practice. Geoff is a lovely writer and the connections of life and discipline are everywhere. The second half (journey) is a lot of specifics regarding his work on a production on Cleopatra, and while interesting and super useful, a little dry for someone not working on the show.