Dramaturgy in the Making: A User's Guide for Theatre Practitioners

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Dramaturgy in the Making maps contemporary dramaturgical practices in various settings of theatre-making and dance to reveal the different ways that dramaturgs work today. It provides a thorough survey of three major areas of practice - institutional dramaturgy, production dramaturgy and dance dramaturgy - with each illustrated through a range of case studies that illuminate methodology and which will assist practitioners in developing their own dramaturgical toolbox. In tracing the development of the role of the dramaturg, the author explores the contribution of Lessing, Brecht and Tynan, foundational figures who shaped the practice. She excavates the historical and theoretical contexts for each strand of the work, uniquely offering a history of dance dramaturgy and its associated theories. Based on extensive research, the volume features material from the author's interviews with fifty eminent professionals from Europe and North America, including: Robert Blacker, Jack Bradley, DD Kugler, Ruth Little and Hildegard De Vuyst. Through these, a detailed and precise insight is provided into dramaturgical processes at organisations such as the Akram Khan Company, les ballets C de la B (Gent), the National Theatre and the Royal Court (London), the Schaubhne (Berlin) and The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab (Utah), among others. Dramaturgy in the Making will prove indispensable to anyone working in theatre or wanting to better understand the dramaturgical processes in performance-making today. The book features a foreword by Geoff Proehl, author of Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey.

Reviews

One of the books strengths is that while it tells a story about the creative process from the dramaturgs point of view, it also offers rare and detailed insight into the dramaturgy of creative rehearsal processes. The book is, therefore, also relevant to anyone who is interested in learning more about theatre, performance-making and creative working processes ... The detailed case studies alone make Dramaturgy in the Making a useful and interesting addition to the growing literature on dramaturgy. * Studies in Theatre and Performance *
By introducing dramaturg Mira Rafalowiczs four-stage concept (exploration of the field, creating and shaping the material, finding a shape, performance gains its own life), Trencsenyi is able to paint a broad comparative picture of different Western practices while still structuring and contextualizing the multiple voices and trying to find and formulate patterns and threads that connect the practices ranging from text-based and devised theatre to dance dramaturgies. In this, the monograph offers an alternative to the often quite eclectic ways in which edited collections present accounts on rehearsal practices. -- Ann-Christine Simke * Theatre Research International *
Dramaturgy in the Making first and foremost is a far-reaching book, with an international perspective and ambition ... This work is of an exemplary high quality, deep, and at the same time is infinitely useful and pragmatic. * Sznhz *
Katalin Trencsnyi's Dramaturgy in the Making is a welcome, wide-ranging discussion of dramaturgy, featuring historical overviews, geographic diversity, and contemporary case studies in both theatre and dance. It is refreshing and informative to have so many developmental processes described in detail and to hear the varying points of view about dramaturgy from core collaborators within the process. * DD Kugler, Simon Fraser University, Canada *
Dramaturgy in the Making ... signals a generational shift. It assumes that for many answering the founding question What is dramaturgy is no longer the central challenge for the field. It addresses instead a new and, for many of us, most welcome focus: exploring the rich range of practices found in the lives of individuals who have again and again demonstrated in their work as theatre artists why dramaturgy matters. * Geoff Proehl, University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, USA *
[Trencsnyi] has carried out richly informative interviews with a wide range of dramaturgs from across Europe and North America ... [The book's] real strength lies in its range of case studies, and the attention to the detail of specific production processes. * New Theatre Quarterly *
[H]aving documentation of the challenges that a dramaturg will experience within the course of their work, and a litany of excellent and useful interviews that detail methods for overcoming those challenges, makes the chapters feel robust and readable, researched, and useful. [T]he guidebook aspect of the text makes it appropriate and useful for undergraduates and emerging dramaturgs. * Theatre Topics *

Author Bio

Katalin Trencsnyi is a London-based dramaturg. She was trained at the Academy of Drama and Film, Budapest, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and the EtvsLornd University, Budapest. As a freelance dramaturg she has worked for the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, Deafinitely Theatre and Corali Dance Company among others. For her research on contemporary dramaturgical practices, she was a recipient of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas' Dramaturg Driven Grant. From 2010 to 2012 she served as president of the Dramaturgs' Network.