Exeunt Magazine: At first encounter, it’s a terrifying word. The first time I came across the title I was still at school, and had just become angrily aware of the existence of Ben Power, a person who somehow had my ideal job. Now the first ever deputy artistic director at the National Theatre, at that point he was writing, adapting, working with Headlong and Complicite, and among other things delivering a ‘new version’ of Medea for the National. I couldn’t quite see how he’d done it, but he was undeniably there, in amongst the thick of it, some instrumental part of what was going on, and I even envied him for that maddeningly distinctive name. His Wikipedia page described him as a ‘dramaturg’. I had to look it up.
1 comment:
This article really takes an interesting stance on what the dull and lifeless qualities of capitalism do to the lively and collaborative nature of theatre and art as a whole. Capitalism needs for things to be in boxes and binaries and theatre, at least the most interesting kind, seeks to be anything but contained. In fact, part of the reason so many people are drawn to theatre is because it will never be the same twice.
I didn't really know how many roles a dramaturg was expected to fulfill though. I think that the author of the article is right in pointing out how much capitalism hates the role of a dramaturg because it is so nebulus. A dramaturg can be so many things and those things shift and change throughout the production process. How can a system so rigid and cold understand a job that is so circumstanial and based off of people's needs?
Theatre is meant to push boundaries and structures. So when capitalism tries to take away our dramaturgs we must insist that they are necessary to the process because they are.
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