Theatre Arts 274
DRAMATURGY
Professor Mazer
Spring 2013
519 Annenberg Center, 3-2659;
cmazer@english.upenn.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30-2:30, and by
appointment
THERE IS NO SYLLABUS, PER SE, FOR THIS
COURSE; the course is not organized on a tight schedule of weekly readings and
occasional writing assignments. Rather,
there will be regular in-class discussions of ongoing topics through the
semester, with some of them cued to specific readings; and there will be
regular assignments of succinct oral presentations (since much of the
dramaturg’s work in the theatre involves making succinct and persuasive oral
presentations). Some of the
presentations will be individual; other assignments may be team
presentations (since virtually all of the dramaturg’s work in the theatre
involves collaboration as a team member).
At the end of the semester, there is a final project, which may be team
or may be individual.
I.
Discussion Topics and Readings.
Topics include: What is a dramaturg? What is the dramaturg’s function? What is the dramaturg’s function in relation
to certain institutional structures, special tasks, ways of organizing
rehearsals, etc.?
Readings will be drawn, for the most
part, from Dramaturgy in American Theater:
A Source Book, ed. Susan Jonas, Geoffrey S. Proehl, and Michael
Lupu. Essays to be read include:
Anne Cataneo, “Dramaturgy: An Overview.”
Joel Schechter, “In the Beginning There
Was Lessing ... Then Brecht, Müller and Other Dramaturgs.”
Martin Esslin, “Towards an American
Dramaturgy: Adapting the function of
dramaturgy to U.S. conditions.”
Geoffrey S. Proehl, “The Images Before
Us: Metaphors for the Role of the
Dramaturg in American Theater.”
and other essays to be announced. There way be additional readings, for other
sources, depending on our other work during the semester.
II.
Historical/Social/Contextual Research (bi-weekly, team).
ØÑ_Every other week, each team will be
assigned to research a particular aspect of a particular period, country,
social class and/or activity. The team
can divide the assignment and presentation any way they wish. BEFORE THE CLASS when the assignment is due,
each team will post information, visual aids, etc. on the Blackboard site,
along with bibliographical references (reference book, web site, etc.) for the
sources of the information; in class, each team will make a brief
presentation.
III.
Dramaturging the Season.
Over the course of the semester, we will
both select a season of five plays and begin dramaturgical work on at
least one of these plays. The season has
a theme: “Journeys,” broadly
defined. Our collective task is to decide
on the scale and mission of our hypothetical theatre company; to define what we
mean by “Journeys”; and to select a full season of plays, representing a
balance of genre, tone, and company size, appropriate to the theatre company’s
audience and community.
The company’s Artistic Director has
already made the following decisions:
1)
One of the plays will be Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen.
2)
and one of the plays will be by Shakespeare or one of his
contemporaries.
During the first part of the semester,
we will devise a system for reading, discussing, and selecting the five plays
of the season, to be drawn from a list of appropriate plays we collectively
research and compile. It is likely that
the process will initially involve the groups assigning plays for individual
group members to report on, with a recommendation about whether the rest of the
group, and the entire class, should read the play. (I only ask that, in the initial stages,
individuals report on plays THAT THEY HAVE NOT READ BEFORE; if you know a
script that you think the group and the class should consider, that play should
initially be reported on by someone ELSE in your group.)
As we select the plays, we will schedule
individual and group dramaturgical projects for some or all of the plays in the
season. These might include:
Researching period contexts, historical
and political details, etc.
Preparing visual materials for the
director, designers, and cast.
Choosing a translation of Peer Gynt
and cutting the play.
For the Shakespeare play: recommending period settings (historical,
Elizabethan, contemporary, some other period, eclectic), preparing doubling
schemes, cutting the text, etc. (We will
be assisted by readings from Andrew James Hartley, The Shakespearean
Dramaturg).
If we choose to cast the season from a
resident company of actors, devising cross-casting between the five plays of
the season.
IV.
New Play Dramaturgy.
Special guest (date to be
announced): Edward Sobel, former
Director of New Play Development, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, and dramaturg
for the original productions of both August:
Osage County and Superior Donuts at Steppenwolf and on
Broadway; currently Assistant Professor of Theatre at Temple University and
Associate Artistic Director of the Arden Theatre. (Sobel is a Penn alumnus and Theatre Arts
major, class of 1987).
V.
Required Theatregoing.
.
TO BE DETERMINED, to include Chimera
(Annenberg Center January 30-February 3); the Theatre Arts Progam’s Productions
of Desdemona (February 21-23) and The Playboy of the Western World
(March 21-24); and the Theatre Arts Program’s script-in-hand reading of Pinchas
Vontz by Cary Mazer, directed by Ed Sobel, on Friday, April 19. (You are invited to participate in this
event.)
VI.
The final writing assignment.
At the end of the semester (at a date to
be announced) we will, individually or collectively, prepare a set of written
and visual materials for THE ENTIRE SEASON, including some or all of the
following: a) a program note about the
playwrights; b) a program note about the plays and the (hypothetical)
productions; c) a packet of materials for a program insert or a subscriber
bulletin; d) a packet of materials to be sent to the press; e) a packet of
materials to be sent to school groups; f) visual displays for the theatre
lobby; on-line blogs, articles, visual materials, etc. Materials should be posted on the website for
comment, and presented in the final class.
Attendance and participation are
mandatory. Persistent unexcused
absences, especially an absence on a day of an individual or team presentation,
will be reflected in your semester grade.
If your absences of unpreparedness jeopardize another student’s work,
you will be asked to drop the class.
The books for the course (Dramaturgy
in American Theater: A Source Book; The
Shakespearean Dramaturg: A Theoretical
and Practical Guide; The Shakespearean Dramturg; and Peer Gynt)
are available for purchase in the Penn Book Center (34th and Sansom). Other reading will be posted to Blackboard.