Dramaturgy

An Introduction

Cock Dieleman
Ricarda Franzen
Veronika Zangl
Henk Danner

Amsterdam University Press

Originally published as: Inleiding in de dramaturgie. Cock Dieleman, Ricarda Franzen, Veronika Zangl, Henk Danner. Amsterdam University Press, 2020

Cover design: Suzan Beijer

Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout

ISBN 978 94 6372 496 8

e-ISBN 978 90 4855 464 5

DOI 10.5117/9789463724968

NUR 677

© C. Dieleman, R. Franzen, V. Zangl, H. Danner / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2021

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.

Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. What is dramaturgy?

1.1 Dramaturgy with and without a dramaturg

1.2 The roots of today’s dramaturgy: From Poetics to postdramatic theatre

1.3 Theatre as a process of transformation

1.4 Dramaturgy in the Netherlands and Flanders8

1.5 Perspectives on dramaturgy

1.6 Dramaturgy and theatre research

1.7 Dramaturgy within and across disciplines, styles, and genres

2. Material

2.1 Text as material

2.2 Aristotle: Language as medium of imitation (mimesis)

2.3 Theatre landscape until the eighteenth century

2.4 Absolute drama

2.5 Concepts of drama analysis

Primary text / Secondary text

Story & plot

Dramatic characters

Monologue

Re-definitions of processes of meaning production

2.6 Brecht: Epic theatre

2.7 Metatheatricality

2.8 Theatre of the Absurd

2.9 Textual montage techniques

Accumulation as a principle of montage

Juxtaposition as a principle of montage

Dissipation as a principle of montage

2.10 Material and materiality

2.11 Theatre as a means of exploration

3. Process: From material to performance

3.1 The material and the envisioned performance

3.2 Translational processes in theatre

Context – location

Context – time

Translation for accessibility

Starting point: The source

Relevance and inspiration

Research and interpretation

3.3 Visual aspects of dramaturgy

Scenography

The space and the audience

Writing the space

Light

The visual experience

3.4 Auditory aspects of dramaturgy

Voice

A few historical examples of voice in theatre

Beyond meaning

Accents, dialect, play with language, and sound of voice

4. Audience

4.1 The first spectator

4.2 The position and the role of the audience in the performance: the spectator as/is dramaturg

The dramaturg as intermediary between performance and audience

4.3 Audience reach

4.4 Theatre and politics: The heritage of Brecht and Boal

4.5 The auditorium and the stage

Site-specific and immersive theatre

4.6 Youth in/and theatre

Dutch Theatre for Young Audiences

Theatre education for children and youngsters

The last spectator

Epilogue

Glossary

Notes

Illustration acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index

Introduction

For the past decade or so, dramaturgy has attracted a lot of attention: as a process; as a profession; and as a focus of academic research. This holds particularly true for the Anglo-Saxon part of the world. The emergence of numerous publications on the subject indicates an increasing awareness of dramaturgy in these countries, both in the academic and in the professional field of theatre and performance. However, in the theatre of continental Europe, including Dutch and Flemish theatre, dramaturgy and the profession of the dramaturg have been widely accepted for some time. As teachers within the Theatre Studies department of the University of Amsterdam, and particularly as teachers of the International Dramaturgy Master’s programme, we find it important to share our knowledge on this topic, with a special focus on Dutch and Flemish theatre. The field of Dutch and Flemish theatre may not be very large in comparison to that of their surrounding countries, but it is extremely diverse, has an international reputation, and dramaturgy is an intrinsic part of it. Over the past fifteen years, dozens of students have graduated from our (International) Dramaturgy Master’s programme, which teaches the subject from both a professional and an academic perspective. Many of these graduates work in the field as professional dramaturgs; in text-based theatre as well as music theatre, mime, youth theatre, and dance. In this book, we bring together the insights that we have assembled during our time teaching Bachelor’s and Master’s students.