I always thought of the dramaturg as an unholy cross between research geek and glorified gofer–just one step above the critic in theater’s Great Parasitic Chain of Contempt. It took Mame Hunt, renowned dame of the dramaturgical arts, to set me right. For starters, the stubbornness of New York Times copy editors notwithstanding, people in the know pronounce and spell it without the “e.”
“It’s a really ugly word for the best job in the world,” Hunt said. “Most people in theater think they know what it is–the geek in the corner with a library card–but it’s a lot more than that. A good dramaturg is like a midwife for a new play.”
There are three kinds of dramaturgy: process (midwife), production (research geek), and institutional (something between a literary agent and arts bureaucrat). Hunt clearly privileges the first role. New play development is what dramaturgs, born of the ’60s and ’70s Ford Foundation and NEA grants, were created to do. As universities began to offer degrees in dramaturgy, the profession took a turn toward research. “It’s easier to teach research,” she said. “You can’t teach the interpersonal skills and psychology of talking to a playwright to make a play better. Sometimes you’re the cop and sometimes you’re the nurturer, feeding a playwright at 3:00 a.m. after a really rough preview.”
And what, besides late-night cookery, does a dramaturg actually do?
“How many dramaturgs does it take to screw in a light bulb?” she asked. I paused. “But do you really need that light bulb?”
Dramaturgical lesson number one: phrase everything as a question.
Dramaturgical lesson number two: love. “You have to love playwrights,” she said. “I imagine it’s a lot like coaching sports–you try to get the best out of someone.”
A dramaturg’s accomplished playwrights are the top items on her resume. Hunt has four “children” (Darrah Cloud, Marlane Meyer, Claire Chafee, and Nilo Cruz) with national productions and dozens of awards, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, between them.
Hunt stumbled into dramaturgy in Chicago, where began reading scripts for the literary department at the Goodman Theatre. Hunt became “hooked on the direct communication with the playwright who is, of course, the primary creative artist in the theater.”
The ranks of dramaturgy are steadily swelling; even the fringiest plays have dramaturgs attached these days. But as a recent invention and the first to get the ax come budget-crunch time, aren’t dramaturgs a luxury?
“Luxury?” she asked. “I guess that depends on how much you want to see new work get done.”
Perhaps, but I can’t help noticing that there was a whole lot of new work getting done before the first ‘turg crawled out of the jungle. Still, mine isn’t a very informed opinion. Until a few days ago, I didn’t even know what a dramaturg was.
