Dramaturge
{{Short description|Literary adviser for drama productions}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=May 2019}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
A dramaturge or dramaturg (from Ancient Greek δραματουργός – dramatourgós) is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults authors, and does public relations work.{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=dramaturge|title=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|edition=5th|year=2022|chapter=dramaturge|access-date=25 February 2025}}{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/dramaturge|chapter=dramaturge|title=Collins English Dictionary|access-date=25 February 2025}} Its modern-day function was originated by the innovations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, an 18th-century German playwright, philosopher, and theatre theorist.{{cite book|last=Schechter|first=Joel|editor-last=Cardullo|editor-first=Bert|year=1995|title=What is Dramaturgy?|page=27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wE9g4Jt8buAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA27|isbn=978-0-8204-2177-3|publisher=Peter Lang|edition=reprint| quote= While at the Hamburg National Theatre, Lessing wrote Hamburg Dramaturgy, a collection of essays on theatre which popularised dramaturgy as both a word and a practice. Today Lessing's successors — resident theatre critics throughout Germany and Austria — are called Dramaturgs.}}
Responsibilities
One of the dramaturge's contributions is to categorise and discuss the various types of plays or operas, their interconnectedness and their styles. The responsibilities of a dramaturge vary from one theatre or opera company to the next. They might include the hiring of actors, the development of a season of plays or operas with a sense of coherence among them, assistance with and editing of new plays or operas by resident or guest playwrights or composers/librettists, the creation of programs or accompanying educational services, and helping the director with rehearsals. At larger theatres or opera houses, the dramaturge works on the historical and cultural research into the play or opera and its setting.
In theatre companies, a dramaturge will create a workbook for the director and actors and work extensively with the director prior to the first rehearsal.{{cite book|last=Proehl|first=Geoffrey S|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8386-4112-5|publisher=Associated University Press|title=Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey|page=19|quote=dramaturgy is the name given to that set of elements necessary to the working of a play at any moment in its passage from imagination to embodiment ...}}
History
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was hired by the Hamburg National Theatre in 1767, to serve as the theatre's critic of plays and acting, a position which would later be named dramaturge. This position grew over time to what it is today, encompassing the wide variety of tasks seen by modern dramaturges.{{Cite book|date=October 2018|chapter=Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|title=Encyclopedia of World Biography|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/german-literature-biographies/gotthold-ephraim-lessing|via=encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite book|editor-last=Dewald|editor-first=Jonathan|editor-link=Jonathan Dewald|author=Ulrich Groetsch|chapter=Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|pages=489–491|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/europe1450to17890003unse/page/488/mode/2up|chapter-url-access=registration|via=Internet Archive|title=Europe, 1450–1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World|volume=3|year=2004|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|isbn=0-684-31203-4}}
Discrepancies with definition
The modern definition of 'dramaturge' is often debated as to what specific tasks this job does, with some defining it as the bridge between the director and the actors, others defining it as one who determines the meaning of plays and shows for the actors, and others claiming that even they don't quite have a complete definition for their job. This discrepancy between dramaturges is likely due to the lack of an official historical definition, and the wide variety of tasks that dramaturges could be asked to work on, depending on the theatre, director, the show being produced, and the actors. Since Lessing did not create an official definition for his own position at the Hamburg National Theatre, modern dramaturges have to infer their tasks based on what Lessing did during his career, and adapt to the current needs of modern theatre.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/12/theater/arts-in-america-dramaturges-take-a-while-to-define-themselves.html|title=Arts in America; Dramaturges Take a While to Define Themselves|last=Honan|first=William H.|author-link=William Honan|access-date=2018-10-25|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.americantheatre.org/2015/09/29/the-dramaturg-is-in/|title=The Dramaturg Is In|date=2015-09-29|magazine=American Theatre|access-date=2018-10-25}}
Recent growth
Since the year 2000, the number of dramaturges working around the world has increased. In 2000, 400 active dramaturges were recorded in the United States, with that number growing. There are various possible causes of this growth, but some dramaturges attribute the growth to the fact that dramaturgy combines two popular studies for young students: the liberal arts and theatre. Some dramaturges are worried, however, that this growth may slow down, due to a decrease in the number of modern plays being written.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Dramaturges}}
- [https://lmda.org/ "Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas"], official website
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