Dramaturgy

Reflection 1: December 2022

I’m most likely in the minority, but “dramaturgy” is phonetically one of my favorite terms, though I understand why it tends to make others keep their distance, especially in theatre education. It’s one of the terms I tend to tread lightly around when explaining to students all the various categories under the umbrella term “stagecraft” (see also: “wood” and “screw”). The coursework this past summer afforded me the opportunity to expand dramaturgy into its own unit for my Stagecraft class, which is taught as a semester course.

Previously, I attempted to structure the class to focus on a student adaptation of Antigone: students would devise a design concept, then a scenic design, followed by costumes, then (time permitting) lights and sound. However, after 4 years, there was clearly a need for a change. Students were just not mastering the necessary skills by the end of a semester; their eyes glazed over as I sped through each design area at breakneck pace. Plus, since I only had them devise an outline for an adaptation (not an entire script), it made all the subsequent design units unnecessarily difficult. Scenic and costume design are so dependent on a finished, published script, especially for those new to theatrical design.

By revising the course structure into just four units, this would hopefully give students time to more thoroughly master these concepts and absorb the stories for which they were designing and adapting. The first unit is the general structure of a theatre, from the building itself and the varied types of stages to the myriad of jobs that work together to produce live theatre; the second unit is dramaturgy & design concept, in which the students read & analyze Antigone, then devise a concept for an adaptation; the third & fourth units would use a student-chosen play (with parameters from the teacher) to design sets and costumes.

The dramaturgy unit laid the essential foundation for the subsequent units and for the first time, fewer of the students appeared to feel overwhelmed by the assignments and projects. I look forward to further revision and implementation when I have a “second chance” of sorts in the next semester.

I also took the opportunity to utilize this new (to me) dramaturgical knowledge in my direction of our school’s fall play, Our Town. For such an iconic play, there’s a wealth of research available, not only for the highly specific given circumstances, but also the context of the society in which Thornton Wilder was writing. However, the students in this particular class (the first year we’ve been able to implement a Production class) weren’t as enthusiastic as I was, and they struggled to connect with the story, although their characters had enough relatable attributes for them to explore their relationships more deeply. The story, though, was more challenging, lacking much of the heightened spectacle they had come to expect. I reiterated one major theme that seemed to help over time: Discover the extraordinary in the ordinary. 

Reflection 2: May 2023

“I didn’t think this class was going to have so much reading.” So said a graduating senior who didn’t need my classes to graduate, which is why she drifted through the semester without completing a single assignment, aside from the final costume design project that was only turned in when her parents stopped ignoring my emails and voicemails about their student failing. I set aside my academic biases towards this individual student to consider this constructive feedback. Even when asked, I don’t think students would give me an honest response, so that left me to deduce the reasons why a solid third of the class either earned a D or below in the course.

First conclusion: I should model the assignment more than I have been and check for understanding more often. After each direct instruction, I’ll spend time showing students how to complete the assignment that uses similar examples, but nothing that does their work for them. I also perceived I’ve been too lax when I go around the class to check for understanding. 

Secondly, I need to teach the students how to read plays. I think I’m on the right track in my dramaturgy unit, which falls in the first quarter of the semester. I use the script for an adaptation titled Antigone in Ferguson, and students follow along with an archival recording of a staged reading. However, there’s very few stage directions in that script. I thought about taking volunteers and reading aloud, but that has historically been an uphill battle, and I suppose I didn’t feel like fighting it. Perhaps I’ll return next year ready to give some kind of incentive to students who volunteer; I cynically have my doubts whether they can grasp the benefits of public speaking, even when struggling with pronunciation and/or vocal projection.

Additionally, in the scenic & costume design units, students exhibited great difficulty in even choosing plays to begin with. This is one area that I feel that I offered sufficient guidance and modeling, but I can always improve. I gave parameters that would point them towards a full-length play with a large enough cast to merit thorough design and analysis. I was encouraged when students asked for assistance in their choice, so we talked about what genres interested them and went from there. The shortcuts some took were somewhat amusing, though mostly baffling. Four students who all sat near each other chose titles that were actually musicals adapted from popular films: The Lion King, Shrek, and Mean Girls. However, rather than reading and studying the actual libretto that I provided for each of these musicals, they would answer based on their vague memory of each movie, and in one case, she was actually watching the Mean Girls film on her Chromebook! “Facepalm,” to translate the emoji.

I don’t feel I have the time necessary in this Stagecraft class to devote to more advanced analytical skills like Triggers & Heaps, but in future courses, I would apply this to either the Production class or one of my Acting courses, both of which are year-long. But I believe I’ve succeeded in improving my dramaturgical lessons in both performance and technical courses. There’s probably a larger discussion to be had when a good deal of the students have difficulty with an assignment or project even when examples are given.