What is dramaturgy? (LMDA’s definition)

Defining what dramaturgy is, is the first step to understand what the dramaturg is focussing on during the production process.
The list below compiled by the LMDA (the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas) is a very comprehensive list of the elements of the performance text. The dramaturg staying on the outside of the process is supporting the choices taken by director, actors and stage designers which make up the unique production

What is dramaturgy?

(when you use these words, you’re committing dramaturgy)

Structure
Action
Accretion
Beginning/Middle/End
Conflict/Crisis/Climax/Catharsis
Continuity/Discontinuity
Diminishment/Emphasis
Episodic
Exposition/Foreshadowing
Form/Content
Fragmentation
Key Information
Innovation/Convention/Cliché/Parody
Image
Imminence/Closure/Openness
Linearity
Metaphor
Musicality/Pace
Part-to-Whole
Plot
Point of Attack/Denouement
Recognition/Reversal
Repetition/Pattern/Reincorporation
Rhythm
Story
Tension

Character
Choice
Colors/Layers
Context
Empathy
Familiar Faces
(Hero/Villain/Braggart/Parasite/Seductress/ Dirty Old Man/Young Lover, etc.)
Journey/Arc
Honesty/Compassion
Impulse/Incongruity
Motivation
Passion/Pity/Fear
Probability
Suffering/Pain
Transformation

Meaning
Contact/Relevancy
Idea/Concept

Language
Connotation/Denotation
Figures of Speech
Innuendo/Sub-text

Production Elements
Locale/Time
Light/Color/Darkness
Song/Music/Sound
Costumes/Props/Space
Slides/Film/Video

Genre and Style
Comedy/Romance
Melodrama,
Satire/Tragedy, etc.
Expressionism
Realism/Surrealism
Epic Theater/Theatricalism, etc.

Literary Managers and
Dramaturgs of the Americas
©2004

Posted by David S at 05:26 PM in Dramaturgy | Email this entry

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