The Process of Dramaturgy: A Handbook

by Scott R. Irelan, Anne Fletcher, Julie Felise Dubiner

The Process of Dramaturgy: A Handbook is a guide to dramaturgy for students. Its practical approach is to "committing acts of dramaturgy," and contains exercises, models, and examples of how the dramaturg works to make his or her thoughtful and creative contributions to a theatrical production, from pre-production work through the rehearsal process

The book provides specific exercises, examples, and models to assist the student or emerging dramaturg in developing the ability to: 1) apply critical methodologies (among them literary theory) to production; 2) better communicate with directors, designers and playwrights within the context of rehearsal and production.

It includes a case study for analysis, Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Joni Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

After some of the other books I've read on Dramaturgy this one seems a little redundant, but there are still some useful tips. It's concisely organized enough to still be of value, so it'll hold a place on my shelves for future reference.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew close to nothing about dramaturgy before; this’ll be a useful starting place for my work this summer.

[Sam Figura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about dramaturgical processes. I highly recommend this book to beginners and experienced dramaturgs.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good practical info on dramaturgy in this book. The voice of the authors was more aimed at community theatre than I would have preferred.

[Wandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy moly I want this career so so so so so badly

[Levent Mollamustafaoglu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dramaturgy is one of the "invisible" disciplines in the theatre, since its practitioners are typically projected externally during a production. Many people not involved with theatre might not even know the existence of this discipline, which is crucial for the proper staging of a play.

This book by three established dramaturge and academicians sets the stage for a proper process of dramaturgy to be applied. They cover this vast subject in three areas: Pre-production, Rehearsals and In-Production. For the pre-production phase, the book concentrates on the "hunting and gathering" tasks, ranging from producing the Dramaturg's Book, establishing a dialogue with the Director to setting up a conceptual / theoretical framework for the play. For the Rehearsals area the book focuses on the task of keeping the continuity. They also provide a lot of hints and hints for a New Play Dramaturg, who may have the chance to have the playwright also be involved - along with the Director - in the Premier production. This seems to be a new challenge, but also a good opportunity to improve the play itself with direct intervention and contribution from the playwright. The last section of the book is about the actual production. There is also a case study about the staging of Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon.

The book by itself can not be taken as a full-fledged instruction in Dramaturgy, for which you would need other books (such as "What Is Dramaturgy?" by Bert Cardullo) but it gives a very good checklist of things a dramaturg would have to thrive for and would be useful in academic environments and amateur/semi-professional groups.

[Lillian]

This book gave me more insight into how a dramaturg works than what I knew before.