Dramaturgy

A dramaturg (or dramaturge, depending on who you ask), is vital in the process of both play creation and productions of established plays. In Canada, this is a severely underfunded (and by result, misunderstood) craft. This page of APR aims to give an understanding of what to expect when hiring and working with a dramaturg.
 

What is Dramaturgy?

 

Creative Process Designers

Dramaturgs have a zoom-out feature on their brain. They are big-picture thinkers.

Dramaturgs are creative process designers. Dramaturgs have worked, and continue to work towards, building skills in style, form, collaboration/creation techniques, theatre/project history, and a knowledge of the audiences plays serve. Because of this, they will have the creativity to know what a process needs. Depending on the project, the dramaturg can work with the team to structure a creation, rehearsal and production process that works best for the project.

Examples of creative process design:

• Creative process design also means meeting with the marketing and community engagement teams to identify ways to welcome, prepare, and excite the target audiences. Where do you find your audience? How does this audience engage differently than other audiences? 
• Designing pre- and post-show material.
• Developing rehearsal/performance strategies that best serve the work. For a one person show, will the performer be able to rehearse 8 hours per day? If there is a dancer or opera singer in the piece, what conditions may they need that are outside of rehearsals of conventional plays?

At times, we conflate the dramaturg and director roles. This is often due to budgeting, and has often led to the underpaying of the role. Understanding why these roles are different will help a producer identify the impact of the position, and the fee associated.

It is helpful to think of the dramaturg - playwright - director relationship as a triangle, where each needs the other to thrive.

As a visual: Think about a play as a forest.  The playwright might, at times, need to focus on one section of the trees. A director may be wondering what kind of trees best suit the vision and conceit. A dramaturg is there for the forest, not the trees. A dramaturg is there to view the forest from the meadow.

In New Play Development

In new play development, a dramaturg works closely with the playwright(s) and director to, firstly, help realize the playwright’s intention for the stage, and then, working with the playwright, director, community outreach departments, and marketing team, ensure that that intention is reaching the specific audience it is geared towards.

In Published Works

For established plays, part of a dramaturgs work is not only an understanding of the present day audience, but the audience a play may have been performed for, and WHY that audience had the reaction they did. This is not for a history lesson or footnotes, but it helps inform choices we make for the audience of NOW.

Institutional Dramaturgy

A dramaturg will also work with artistic leadership to program and plan seasons. In these scenarios, they consider how plays, within a season, can feed and influence an audience's  perspective of each other; as well as working with the community outreach/engagement teams to create production/season specific events and relationships with intended audiences.

Cultural Advocates

Dramaturgs learn how to connect the immediate world and community with the art work at hand. They create the links between the questions a piece of art asks, and the community asking them.

Audience Eye

A dramaturg is there as a constant audience eye. They collaborate with the director and playwright to work through how a specific audience may be experiencing the work, from perspectives of historical context, socio-political-economic background, and cultural understandings. They may not have lived experiences in all of these contexts, but will have the tools to seek out ways of learning more.  This is why, in many countries other than Canada, there are production dramaturgs working on established, canonized plays. They ask how this specific production will reach the audience of now.

More on What Is Dramaturgy

 

• For a list of responsibilities a dramaturg may hold in Research & Development, New Plays, Production Dramaturgy, Arts in Education, and Advocacy, visit the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the America’s page  “What Is Dramaturgy?”. 
• Sarah Ruhl’s A Love Note to Dramaturgs 
• Mark Bly’s essay “Pressing an Ear Against a Hive of New Play Explorations in the Twenty-first Century”. This is a great essay published by the John Hopkins University Press, so, it’s behind a paywall. If you or anyone you know has affiliations to universities, you should be able to access it for free. It discusses how, rather than attempting to prematurely understand/label work, the work of play development is to get inside the work, and let it inform and excite you. 
• Dramaturgs’ Network is a UK-based website that also has a lot of information on what a dramaturg does, how to work with a dramaturg, and you can purchase their freelance contracts package by becoming a member or paying a one-time fee

 

How they work and what they do

 

Dramaturgy is a very one-size-fits-one process. Depending on the work, the dramaturg’s process may change. Obviously, each dramaturg may have practises they return to (ie: asking questions, identifying the moments when sharing information is useful during a process, or when to let things play out), but overall, the dramaturg may be able to identify a process that meets the uniqueness of the play itself. Dramaturgs will often have experience in multiple ways of working, and therefore can better understand the style/form the creators/director are working towards.

A dramaturg - as a creative process designer - can work with the team to identify what a project needs and when. For instance:

• A design workshop that allows multiple story-telling elements to be explored
• A community-based project to gain inspiration. 
• The ideal moments of who should be in the room when. When could a piece benefit from design conversations? For public workshop presentations, what kind of questions for the audience could fuel the next iterations? When is the right time to move toward casting or identifying the needs of the design?
• Dramaturgs can also support accessibility in theatremaking and viewing. Why call in an accessibility consultant when the project is near finished? Instead, if a show has captions and a projection design, the dramaturg may suggest always calling the designer and consultant in together, to work towards a more cohesive design.

 

What dramaturgs don’t do (in an ideal universe)

 

They are not the “police in the room”. This term has often been used by directors, as they fear the dramaturg is there to point out all the ways the production does not reflect the script. Firstly, it’s likely one crappy dramaturg and one equally-crappy director started this fad. Collaboration is best when multiple smart brains and perspectives can get together and work towards a beautiful piece of art. As producers, think about the teams you build, and ways to foster working environments that encourage collaboration and healthy conflict. 

They are not anyone’s assistant. They are collaborators. They serve the play, not a person.

They aren’t there to “fix the play”. A dramaturg is not hired to make a “perfect play”, because there is no such thing as a “perfect play”. They are there to support the follow-through of intentions. Often, in Canadian theatre, we like to blame the dramaturg if the play isn’t successful, but we forget they exist when the play is.

They are not a “library gopher”. You may have learned at one point that dramaturgs do research and provide context for playwrights, directors and/or actors. While this may be true in some processes, it is not the sole job of a dramaturg. If this is how you are considering employing a dramaturg, think again. Providing research should be part of a larger dramaturgical process.

 

Where to find a dramaturg

 

• Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas: The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of Americas (LMDA): Dramaturgs do not have a union like IATSE to advocate for them, but the closest organization advocating for dramaturgs in Canada, Mexico, and the United States is LMDA. Right on their home page they have a dramaturgy search tool that allows people to search based on regions, languages, and areas of expertise.  
• In Playbills: Browse through playbills and team listings to see who is working in the field, and find out what kind of work they are into. And if you don’t see a dramaturg listed on a new play, do all your fellow creatives a favour and ask the company who served as the dramaturg. 
• Ask Literary Departments and company dramaturgs who they are working with and mentoring because so few new Canadian plays advance to the production stage, you may not find names in playbills, as the play never got to the playbill stage. Email artistic directors to see who they have worked with, and who they are mentoring.
• BIPOC Arts is an American database for BIPOC opera professionals, which includes a specific section for BIPOC dramaturgs.

 

How much to pay

 

Dramaturgs, because their work isn’t as clear as, say, an actor or director, are notoriously underpaid. This keeps people from being able to be practising dramaturgs, which brings down the quality of theatre overall. No one wants that, so here are some help tips!

The LMDA website has a fee calculator. You need to be a member of LMDA to access it, but the membership fee is as low as $15. With the fee calculator, you can find an appropriate fee for a dramaturg based on the cost of living of where they work, the minimum wage of that region, their education/training level, their areas of expertise, number of workshops/productions* they’ve done, and if they have any lived experiences that may contribute to their knowledge of the subject.

Once you have that information, LMDA will offer you an hourly wage. Hourly wages are tricky, as they do not necessarily reflect how someone works independently. Factor in how long it may take to read the work, reflect on it, prep for a meeting, and then meet with the team. How to learn this information: simply ask the dramaturg! Don’t be scared of negotiations. They are not the enemy; they are an opportunity to find out how to work together fairly.

• Since Canadian new plays don’t often go to production (especially due to a COVID19 as well as institutionalized racism in the arts sector), rather stay in the workshop phase, it is helpful to use the number of workshops as a scope of understanding, rather than production.

Often, dramaturgs will also have a standard hourly wage and can tell you what they charge for typical processes like reading a script and providing feedback, participating in a workshop, or conversely, they can tell you what they would be able to provide based on a given fee.

Once a play goes into rehearsals, don’t assume that the dramaturg is no longer useful or necessary.  For both new plays and established ones, having a dramaturg come into a rehearsal process can be vital for the creative team - to have someone who has not been there to hear how or why decisions have been made, they can provide informed feedback that also brings some often much-needed fresh eyes on a production in process.

 

Meet for a coffee or zoom with your prospected dramaturg.

This relationship will likely be long, and will be filled with tricky moments. You want someone to challenge you, to support you, and someone who is willing to be in the weeds with you. At times they may be your best pal, but there will be other times when what they say may want you to hurtle them across the room…this is a good thing!

Ask how they’ve worked in the past, what their theatrical interests are, and share your experiences as well - they are interviewing you just the same as you are interviewing them.

 

Do not ask a dramaturg to work for free.

Do not ask any artist to work for free. Sometimes playwrights will send a play and ask for notes to “get a sense of if they can work together”. Would you ask a director to go through a week of rehearsals for free to “get a sense” of their work? No, no. And dramaturgs…don’t accept these asks. Yes, it may be a way to get one job, but it undercuts the work of the whole field.

Striving towards pay equity in the team will make the work better. It allows everyone on the team to contribute, and democratizes their voices.

 

One off meetings vs project fees

You may be at a stage where you are not sure how long a certain project will be, or you’ve found yourself up against a wall and really need someone to take a look at a script. Ask the dramaturg what their fee would be for one session. Based on their experience and factors listed under LMDA’s fee calculation, this can differ.

A one-time reading and feedback session is a typical ask of a dramaturg and a dramaturg can usually quote you an hourly rate or standard fee for this. This includes reading the play, having a meeting with the playwright to discuss notes and give feedback and, for an extra fee, a dramaturg can provide written notes to the playwright.  Be sure to give the dramaturg a timeline of when you would expect feedback and give them enough time to read the play - at least a week.

Some dramaturgs will stay away from one-off meetings for a few reasons:

• They don’t allow for the deeper conversations. Learning when to offer a note is as important as learning how to articulate a note itself. Many experienced theatre-makers know that a note offered too early in the process - no matter how important - can be lost if the time isn’t right.
• The more time the dramaturg has with the playwright’s intention, the more they can support the follow-through. A writer may have created something wonderful on the page, but if it’s not the thing they want to create…what do you do? A dramaturg learns what the playwright is after, not just what is appearing in the text. 
• It muddies crediting. Credits are important in the theatre industry, and if a dramaturg has unlocked a big part of the play with you, but they are listed in the “thank you’s” of the program, it won’t help their career. Speak with the dramaturg to see what they are okay with being listed as (they may also not want to be listed).

 

Other ways to figure out pay

• Equity within the Team: Look at how much the other team members are being paid and assess. A note that is sometimes offered - specifically for production contracts, not pre-production work - is to pay the dramaturg the amount of the highest paid designer. 
• Talk to the dramaturg! Ask what their fee is. If you are underpaying them, they may want to walk away, work through a way to allow the fee to reflect the responsibilities, or offer a different way forward. No one is being a diva, we’re all just trying to eat. 
• Fun fact: the Public Theatre and several original cast members of Hamilton receive royalties from the show, as they were vital in the creation of the musical.

 

Crediting and Collaboration

If any artist - not just dramaturgs - feel the crediting on the playbill may not reflect the responsibilities and work they have done, it’s never a bad idea to revisit contracts and credits. There are dramaturgs whose titles have changed to “co-writer”, and other instances where revisiting - and reimagining - titles help articulate how the art was made. Ultimately, it’s not about what appears printed in the program, but ensuring that everyone’s work was honoured publicly and financially. 

An example of this going south: the Lynn Thomson vs Jonathan Larson Estate lawsuit. Ms. Thomson alleged she contributed a large portion of lyrics and script to RENT, which should give her the royalty-earnings of a co-author. It is a challenging thing to prove, but making matters more difficult, is that Jonathan Larson tragically passed away directly after the opening. Thomson was originally paid $2000 for her work, and a subsequent $8000 later on. The case has been in and out of courts for years, but as one original cast member stated: Maybe this will improve the negotiating powers of dramaturgs, which wouldn't be a bad thing."

Creating a letter of agreement or contract before a process begins can also ensure that both parties are clear about hours, expectation of work, timelines and a fee. It’s always good to have those things on paper and articulate them for both parties involved. Crediting can also be determined here - including when and where the dramaturg is credited on social media posts. One general rule is to credit a dramaturg below the designers and above the stage manager.