I Can't Believe It's Not Shakespeare

This is the second picture that resulted when I searched "dramaturge." The first was two naked dudes in kneepads. Seriously, google image it.

As mentioned, this weekend we had a table reading of When you Die you Go to Target, over which I presided with both dignity and poise as dramaturge. This was my first experience in this role which can sometimes be a bit nebulous, and it struck me how similar a position it was to a constitutional monarch. Roll with me here. The power is all in the hands of the playwright, director and actors (as it would be with parliament, prime minister and the voters), while the dramaturge’s role is reserved for ensuring that the directive of the play (or a nation’s integrity) is honored all while wearing wonderful clothes and drinking. Like the constitutional monarch, the dramaturge must also make sure to never overstep his boundaries. Especially as a writer, I have to remember to keep my hand out of the pot, but make sure that the ingredients are all available for the chefs. I guess in that sense a dramaturge is more like a restaurateur. No, wait. Okay, the PERFECT analog for a dramaturge is

Tim Gunn’s role on Project Runway. He’s there (still dressed awesomely and drinking, only classily) for the designers encouraging them, but never wan to say, “I don’t know about this.” Keeping one eye on the vision of the designer, one eye on the expectations of the judges, and a third magical eye on the product itself, demanding quality in is fabrication. The dramaturge has to be similarly trinocular to the playwright, the audience and the play itself. The integrity of the play itself being king. Like Gunn the dramaturge must ask questions, endless questions in an attempt to be the most informed person around and serve as a resource to all involved while carrying himself with honesty and diligence to bring about the best play the writer can write. Oh, and also a lot of saying, “Make it work!”

To sum up my experience I have taken it upon myself to compose an acrostic poem in the great tradition of my third grade writings:

Dramaturgy is

Reading a play

And thinking about

Making it

Awesomer

Than it was

Uh, before I

Read it by

Guiding the writer

Yes.