Dramaturgy, as I am fond of saying in my classes, is difficult to define, looks different for every project, and makes every process better. I often think of utilizing a dramaturg as adding time to a theatrical production process. I come to theatre from a directing and producing background, I often have so many ideas (that are often dramaturgical in focus) that there simply isn't enough time to accommodate them. Deep thinking requires time. I approach dramaturgy as a person who can add thinking and time to do these ideas that communicate to audiences, actors, playwrights, directors, designers, and marketing teams to help everyone engage more deeply with research, themes, and what a play means for the people it is produced for in that moment in time.
NEW WORKS: I am particularly invested in working on New Works and I've worked as a new work dramaturg with America-In-Play in New York, MATC's new play workshop, and at Miami and EIU- (you can see more of my work on new works in the New Work Development). I worked on developing Echoes of Miami with my colleague Saffron Henke as the lead dramaturgy, although I had a team of 8 students working with me on the project. Echoes of Miami was a processional student-written performance that charted the ghosts and unspoken history on Miami's Campus. I received a KCACTF certificate of merit for dramaturgy on this play. It was covered in the Cincinnati Enquirer and enjoyed a sold-out run before opening night. What was most meaningful to me in this process was the work I did with the Myaamia Center with student playwright Anthony Thompson to develop a script that honored the story that the Myaamia center wanted to tell about the Myaamia people as part of the history of our campus. You can see the curriculum guide from this production below.
BUILDING A PROGRAM While I was at Miami University of Ohio I was tasked with developing the Dramaturgy program. In my 3 years we went from having two students who had expressed some interest in working on a play in the season, to in 2019-2020 season having two students working as a team of dramaturgs on every show in the season. I worked closely with these students to help them communicate their ideas, create readable research packets for actors and turn them into educator oriented curriculum guides in order to engage more deeply with our audience of students. Below you'll find our curriculum guides and some documentation from the student dramaturgs I worked with at Miami.