Available Formats
The Dramaturgy of Space
By (Author) Ramn Griffero
Translated by Adam Versnyi
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Methuen Drama
10th March 2022
United Kingdom
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
808.2
Paperback
192
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
252g
In Ramn Grifferos seminal work, The Dramaturgy of Space, the playwright and director describes his aesthetic philosophy and theoretical approach to theatrical creation, illustrating his theory through practical application in a series of exercises. As well as touching upon some of Grifferos own work, like Cinema utopia (1985), Tus deseos en fragmentos (2003), Fin del eclipse (2007) and El azar de la fiesta (1992), this book also reinforces the practicality of Grifferos concepts through a series of online videos, breaking down each exercise and allowing readers to engage with the effects of his celebrated approach. Published here in English for the first time, in a translation by the leading expert on Griffero, The Dramaturgy of Space reveals the internationally renowned Chilean artists thought process, and how his practice has influenced the theatrical, political, and social context, from the Pinochet dictatorship to the present day.
Adam Versnyi translates and edits an eminently useful edition of Grifferos theory of the dramaturgy of space. A text that originally emerged out of the urgent need to expand the dramatic and scenic alphabet in the Americas to decolonize dramatic discourses, Versenyis translation makes available to an English-speaking audience the collected reflections of what Griffero called "the artifice of the dramatic structure. As one of the most important voices of Latin American theatrical creation, this updated edition of Grifferos seminal text includes exercises designed to help the reader institute a practical application of his theory, while sharing his ideas and ethical, political, and cultural positions towards scenic creation. A necessary book for all artistic creators and scholars. * Analola Santana *
Playwright-director Ramn Grifferos The Dramaturgy of Space encapsulates a forty-year career spent conceptualizing, writing, directing, and teaching for the stage. Through reflections, exercises, video links, and photographs, Griffero immerses the reader in his refreshingly spatial approach to theatrical creation; and in the process the Chilean artist ably demonstrates that not everything that comes from the periphery is a mechanical reproduction of ad hoc models from the centre. Adam Versnyis translation is a most welcome addition to the Theatre Makers series. * Jean Graham-Jones *
Ramn Griffero is a highly influential and radical Chilean playwright and director, former Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Chile. His plays from the late 1980s to the present have been essential components in the resurgence of contemporary Chilean theatre. He is the founder of the theatre company Teatro Fin de Siglo and El Trolley, a cultural space for resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship. As a professor, he has given classes at the Department of Theater, University of Chile, among others in Chile, as well as internationally. Adam Versnyi is Chair of the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill, US, and Senior Dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company. He is the author of Ramn Griffero: Your Desires in Fragments and Other Plays, Theatre in Latin America: Religion, Politics, and Culture From Corts to the 1980s and The Theatre of Sabina Berman: The Agony of Ecstasy and Other Plays, among others. He has written widely on Latin American theatre, U.S. Latino/a theatre, dramaturgy, theatre production, and theatrical translation. He is founder and editor of The Mercurian: A Theatrical Translation Review.