Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy

by Michael Mark Chemers

Overview

Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy offers useful and entertaining answers to the confounding questions: “What, exactly, is dramaturgy, and what does a dramaturg do?” According to Michael Mark Chemers, dramaturgs are the scientists of the theater world—their primary responsibility is to query the creative possibilities in every step of the production process, from play selection to costume design, and then research the various options and find ways to transform that knowledge into useful ideas. To say that dramaturgs are well-rounded is an understatement: those who choose this profession must possess an acute aesthetic sensibility in combination with an extensive knowledge of theater history and practice, world history, and critical theory, and they must be able to collaborate with every member of the creative team and theater administration.

Ghost Light is divided into three sections. Part 1, “Philosophy,” describes what dramturgs do, presents a detailed history of dramaturgy, and summarizes many of the critical theories needed to analyze and understand dramatic texts. “Analysis” teaches the two essential skills of a dramaturg: reading and writing. It includes a “12-step program for script analysis” along with suggestions about how to approach various genres and play structures. “Practice,” the third part, delves into the relationships that dramaturgs forge and offers useful advice about collaborating with other artists. It also includes ideas for audience outreach initiatives such as marketing and publicity plans, educational programs, talkbacks, blogs, and program notes and lobby displays, all of which are often the responsibility of the dramaturg.

Ghost Light was written with undergraduate students in mind and is perfectly suited for the classroom (each chapter concludes with a series of practical exercises that can be used as course assignments). However, dramaturgy is a skill that is essential to all theater practitioners, not just professional or aspiring dramaturgs, making Ghost Light a valuable addition to all theater libraries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809385713
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	03/16/2010
Series:	Theater in the Americas
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	993 KB

About the Author

Michael M. Chemers founded and directs the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Dramaturgy Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. He is the author of Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show.

Read an Excerpt

Asking Questions

The history of dramaturgy since the 1800’s is a tumultuous one. The act of dramaturgy (getting to grips with the deeply transformative power of performance) has become increasingly important to theatres worldwide, particularly since the reconstruction of Europe after World War II (a process in which theatre played a significant role). But the question of who exactly carries that work out, and in what capacity and to what extent, has manifested in many ways in different regions around the world. The proliferation of regional theatres in the United States in the 1960’s fostered a generation of great American playwrights and required a specialist on staff charged with developing new writing. Prestigious universities began to instruct dramaturgs and the international society known as the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) was formed in the 1985. Nevertheless, although individual dramaturgs like Mark Bly gained great prominence, dramaturgy as a profession was too often considered an over-specialization, a luxury pursuit, or even a second prize for intellectually-inclined theatre artists who couldn’t make their way as directors or playwrights.

Since the late 1990s, when I was pursuing my own training in this discipline, the artistic centrality of dramaturgy has become far better understood, thanks to the diligence of dramaturgs at all levels. Dramaturgs were increasingly enlisted to work with some of the nation’s top directors, designers, actors, and producers. Less commonly did we find we had to answer the question “What is a dramaturg?” and the more often we found ourselves engaged in serious discussions of history, theory, practice, and aesthetic philosophy. The dramaturg began to get a reputation as the go-to when a play is in trouble. Dramaturgy training expanded explosively in universities, and books on dramaturgy began to proliferate as well, not only new books in English but translations, so that English-speaking dramaturgs could pursue their growing curiosity about what was happening outside their borders.

The first edition of Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy was one of those books, and it became an early part of a wave of deeply-considered and hugely useful volumes for the phronetic student of performance. These books covered meditations on the practice of dramaturgy itself, studied the effects of dramaturgs on companies, surveyed world historical trends in theatre and performance, and reached out to create new dramaturgies for digital worlds, dance, and the “postdramatic”. Ghost Light was translated into Korean and Farsí, and even appeared as an audiobook.

Today, dramaturgy is enjoying a Golden Age around the world, although dramaturgs operate in many different ways and in many different contexts. In places like South America, Australia, and South Africa, dramaturgs struggle with the horrific legacies of colonialism. In Eastern Europe, dramaturgs guide an already-robust theatre culture into a period of post-Soviet depoliticization, while in more repressive countries dramaturgs find themselves working to navigate (or subvert) state censorship. India and Japan have studied theatre seriously for centuries but only recently have begun to foster specialist “dramaturgs,” while in Latin America the position is often indistinguishable from the playwright.

So, whereas in my own living memory dramaturgy was barely understood, it is becoming a necessary component of the work of theater artists around the world. That Ghost Light is able to come out in a second edition says a lot about the impact dramaturgs have made. We are not yet as completely indispensable as directors (another new-ish tradition in the long history of theatre), but dramaturgy is increasingly recognized worldwide as a vital, and artistically fulfilling, specialization in the modern theatre.

[end of excerpt]

Table of Contents

Cover Book Title Copyright Contents Preface Acknowledgments Part One: Philosophy 1. What the #$%@ Is a Dramaturg? 2. Historicizing Dramaturgy 3. Power Plays Part Two: Analysis 4. The Twelve-Step Program for Script Analysts 5. Form Follows Function 6. Why This Play Now? Part Three: Practice 7. New Plays 8. The Company 9. Audiences Appendix A: The Casebook Appendix B: The Dramaturg’s Library Appendix C: Societies of Interest to Dramaturgs Appendix D: Journals, Periodicals, and Online Databases Appendix E: Accessing Original Texts Online Appendix F: Recommended Play Anthologies Notes Index Author Bio Series Statement Series Titles Back Cover

Editorial Reviews

With wit, intelligence, and generosity, Michael Mark Chemers offers students a wide range of concrete, practical, and immediate entry points to the work of the dramaturg from classics to new plays, devised theatre, adaptations, and more. Grounded in history, theory, and textual analysis, this comprehensive handbook underscores with great effect the centrality of curiosity, questioning, creativity, collaboration, and expertise to dramaturgy and theatre making as a whole.”—Geoff Proehl, author of Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility

“The first edition of Ghost Light carefully broke down the role of the dramaturg and provided an intelligent and accessible perspective on the underpinnings of dramaturgy. Chemers now gifts us with a revised and updated text that carefully considers radical changes of the past decade and blind spots that can come up when writing. Particularly, this new edition addresses societal strife and the pervasive systems of oppression that have informed the recent past that theatre studies must address.”—Analola Santana, coeditor of Theatre and Cartographies of Power: Repositioning the Latina/o Americas

“Ghost Light is the best book I can recommend to someone looking for a book that covers the history, theory, and practice of dramaturgy in one place. I never teach a Dramaturgy class without it! I appreciate Chemers updating this important contribution to the field to wrestle with and open up an academic and practical discussion about how cultural competency and identity play an ever-changing role in the way dramaturgy functions in art-making.”—Martine Kei Green-Rogers, past president of LMDA
 
“This second edition of Ghost Light offers welcome updates to what has become a trusted introductory textbook for the study of dramaturgy in the United States. Featuring additions to his “theory capsules” as well as new approaches to the “Twelve Steps,” the insight Chemers offers in Ghost Light is both practical and aspirational, a feat he accomplishes without losing his engaging, lively style of writing that at once demonstrates dramaturgy while explaining the long history and crucial role of the dramaturg in theatre.”—Jane Barnette, author of Adapturgy: The Dramaturg’s Art and Theatrical Adaptation
 
“For over a decade, Ghost Light has welcomed newcomers with open arms to the rigorous building blocks that constitute contemporary dramaturgical practice. With this second edition, Chemers embraces the latest developments in an ever-diversifying field with his trademark humor, humility, and abiding love for this vocation we share. This book has earned an essential place in every dramaturg's library.”—Ken Cerniglia, editor of  Newsies: Stories of the Unlikely Broadway Hit

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