I’m often asked what a dramaturg does – in fact, this piece grew out of a Q&A I gave at ArtsEd Sixth Form a couple of weeks ago (Hello Year Twelve, and I hope your New British Musicals Project is going well!) It’s a fair question. Dramaturgy is one of those theatre jobs that sounds intellectual and slightly mysterious. People also argue about whether to pronounce the G, which tells you something about how fond theatre people are of debatingRead more
Posts tagged: #storytelling
What Three Words (and four entertainment concepts)
Picture the scene. I’ve just wrapped a brutal 70-hour rehearsal week for Lightning Boy. I’m finally heading home for a grand total of twelve hours – to unpack one suitcase, repack another, and get me and my seven-year-old ready to go abroad for four nights to Efteling, the most incredible theme park in Holland, for his birthday weekend. The job was done. I’d clocked off. And then the phone rang. Could I turn around four high-level creative concepts for CirqueRead more
On Resilience – and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
It’s Christmas show season again. My feed is full of rehearsal shots, first-day selfies, opening-week buzz. New beginnings everywhere you look. But not me. Not this year. This year, I went up for five Christmas shows and I didn’t get any of them. One, I met every single criteria in the job description – but I didn’t even get an interview. One went to a local artist – fair enough but there ARE no local producing theatre opportunities where IRead more
What Is Dramaturgy? (And Why No One Can Quite Define It)
Ask anyone to define dramaturgy, and you’ll get a lot of very different answers. It’s notoriously hard to pin down, mostly because it shifts depending on the project and the combination of people you have in the room. But since receiving the very welcome news that I was shortlisted for the 2024 Dramaturg’s Network Fellowship, I thought it was about time I was able to define what it is I actually do – after all – it’s a pretty poorRead more