Welcome to our new series, “Parker’s Performance Playbook” which is all about theatre dramaturgy! If you’ve never seen that word before or you don’t know what it means, read on! I’m here to talk all about it.
So, what is dramaturgy? Dramaturgy is an exploration of the world of the play. It is the study of the context of a show, learning what the world looks like outside of what is directly mentioned in the script, helping the directors and actors understand what is going on around the characters in the play.
If a play is set in the 1920’s, the dramaturgy would include research about the jazz music being created in that time period and the kind of clothes people wore, even what kind of food the characters might have eaten! What could the dramaturgy include for a show set in 2024? Is the main character in the play more likely to have seen Inside Out 2 or Despicable Me 4? Are there trends they might be following, like stylish clothes or TikTok dances?
Sometimes a play is all about a historical event. In that case, the dramaturgy is very important because it helps the cast create as accurate a picture as possible of a real moment in history. Our Flip the Script play, The Day Nothing Happened, is about a real event when Stratford Junior High School desegregated, right here in Arlington. It was important that the people who wrote and performed the play knew the slang and fashion from 1959 so that the characters they portrayed really seemed like they belonged in that moment in history.
Other times, a play is set in a fictional place, but it is the dramaturg’s job to find out what the customs and norms of this fictional land might be. If snowmen talk, does that mean reindeer do, too? Is magic accepted or do people fear it?
In the upcoming weeks, you can look forward to more of Parker’s Performance Playbook as I dive into some interesting details around our upcoming mainstage show, The Lion King! Tickets for the show and pre show experiences are available now.
Performance photos by Cindy Kane Photography.
About the Author: Parker Nelson