In this book, dramaturg Tom Bryant shares with readers and writers his insights into the process of historical adaptation. The book uses case studies from Bryant's collaborations with playwrights on successful Broadway and regional productions to work through the fundamental questions of historical adaptation: Why do you want to adapt history? For what purpose? What is your approach? How does that approach affect the portrayal of events? How does that choice by the playwright and the dramaturg then determine the framing and focus in the story, the selection of the key events and the choice of characters? What is the meaning you want the audience to take away from the events? How is your adaptation of past events relevant to contemporary times? In addition, the author explores the moral and ethical responsibilities involved for the dramaturg and the playwright in the adaptation of history and how issues of diversity, equity and inclusion impact the presentation of historical material. This is an indispensable resource for anyone whose craft brings them to the task of adapting historical material for the stage—in postgraduate work, teaching or professional practice.

This comprehensive work is truly the first textbook in the field of dramaturgy. Most of the material-much of it by leaders in all areas of the theater-was commissioned for this collection, rather than being reprinted. Its currency and importance cannot be overestimated. A review of the history of dramaturgy as a profession, together with its European antecedents, gives students a sense of historical context. Selections from respected and recognized names in theater provoke student interest and communicate the benefits of those experts' experiences.

The Dramaturgy of the Spectator explores how Italian theatre consciously adjusted to the emergence of a new kind of spectator who became central to society, politics, and culture in the mid-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The author argues that while a focus on spectatorship in isolation has value, if we are to understand the broader stakes of the relationship between the power structures and the public sphere as it was then emerging, we must trace step-by-step how spectatorship as a practice was rooted in the social and cultural politics of Italy at the time. By delineating the evolution of the Italian theatre public, as well as the dramatic innovations and communicative techniques developed in an attempt to manipulate the relationship between spectator and performance, this book pioneers a shift in our understanding of audience as both theoretical concept and historical phenomenon.

An introduction to the mysterious theater role of a dramaturg by a legend in the field Anne Cattaneo was among the first Americans to fill the role of dramaturg, one of theater’s best kept secrets. A combination of theater artist, scholar, researcher, play advocate, editor, and writer’s friend, it is the job of a dramaturg to “reflect light back on the elements that are already in play,” while bringing a work of theater to life. Cattaneo traces the field from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to the present and chronicles the multitude and variety of tasks a dramaturg undertakes before, during, and after a production is brought to the stage. Using detailed stories from her work with theater artists such as Tom Stoppard, Wendy Wasserstein, Robert Wilson, Shi-Zheng Chen, and Sarah Ruhl, as well as the discovery of a ‘lost’ play by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, Cattaneo provides an invaluable manual to those studying, working in, and interested in this most fascinating profession.

This groundbreaking book moves beyond the conventional association of dramaturgy with plays to consider the substance and process of dramaturgy for dance and movement performance. Focusing on text and language, research, audience, movement, and interculturalism, the author provides vivid, practical examples from her collaboration with renowned choreographer Ralph Lemon.

What Is Dramaturgy?attempts to document, by way of articles, statements, and bibliographies, the dramaturg's profession, which began with Lessing in Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century and was instituted in the United States two hundred years later during the rise of the regional theatre movement. As critics-in-residence (also known as literary managers), dramaturgs perform a variety of tasks: broadly speaking, they select and prepare playtexts for performance, advise directors, and educate the audience; they are translators, theatre historians, public lecturers, even «artistic consciences.» Dramaturgy literally means «the craft or the techniques of dramatic composition considered collectively», and in a sense the dramaturg is the dramatist's representative or advocate in the theatre. That is, he is the guardian of the text - new as well as old - and therefore a person whose work is necessary for the revival of dramatic art in our time. What Is Dramaturgy?is dedicated in the end not only to promoting the dramaturg's function, but also to anticipating his creation of an intellectually illumined American theatre.

Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre is a substantial history of the origins of dramaturgs and literary managers. It frames the explosion of professional appointments in England within a wider continental map reaching back to the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century Germany, examining the work of the major theorists and practitioners of dramaturgy, from Granville Barker and Gotthold Lessing to Brecht and Tynan. This study positions Brecht's model of dramaturgy as central to the worldwide revolution in theatre-making practices, and it also makes a substantial argument for Granville Barker's and Tynan's contributions to the development of literary management. With the territories of play and performance-making being increasingly hotly contested, and the public's appetite for new plays showing no sign of diminishing, Mary Luckhurst investigates the dramaturg as a cultural and political phenomenon.