New Play Dramaturgy
Over the last month I have been asked numerous times to define my role as both the assistant director and dramaturg on Veils, and as a dramaturg in general. I’ve had to do this consistently for dramaturgy for at least the last two years, so you’d think I would have mastered it….but, alas! And the prevailing reason is the fluid nature of dramaturgy itself. In theater we often say that universality can be found in specificity, so let me explain my role on this process (even though this is just as complex!)
My role as dramaturg for Veils began well before the rehearsal process did. I began by doing my own usual preparation, which is to create an annotated script and then form a resource packet for the actors. It was crucial to build this foundation in order to live up to the team’s later expectations of me. The annotated script became the basis for forming the resource packet for the actors. The packet contains the concordance, which is like a small glossary containing short definitions of terms and often pictures or illustrations of the references, plus longer articles, and sometimes stories or poems and images related or reminiscent of the subject matter.
Once we were in rehearsal, my role exploded outward. Because as Directing & Dramaturgy interns at Portland Stage we are given the role of both dramaturg and assistant director, and as this production was a world premiere, my experience on this process was (literally) a once in a lifetime opportunity!
My job began as keeper of the script. I had both a clean script (consistently reprinted with changes), my annotated script, and an ultimately very strange document – the compilation of every page we ever had, i.e. a living record of the script and how it changed, containing everything from the first draft Tom Coash (the Playwright) ever gave us to the script we entered tech with. As time went on, and Tom was not always in rehearsal, part of my job was to act as intermediary between Tom and Sally (the director) and the rest of the team. The text remained in flux up until the night of our first preview!
Throughout the process I have also acted as photographer, cheerleader, note-taker, sounding board, split-second-fact-checker….the list goes on.
While it may seem like a disparate collection of jobs, working on this play I have had the blessing of feeling more like a dramaturg than I ever have. When I sat down to watch the first preview, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of accomplishment, and pride for the team I was a part of. Veils is an extremely important play, and with hard work and collaboration I believe we have contextualized and crafted it well. I urge you to come see it, to join our conversation on twitter and check out our rehearsal blog for an even more in-depth look at our process.
Ultimately, this experience has codified what I think are the characteristics at the core of dramaturgy: having the humility to say: “I do not know the answer,” and the drive, passion, and patience to find one.
PortlandStage 