What is Dramaturgy?

1.Online Definition: Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturge, to adapt a work to the stage.
Dramaturgy can also be defined, more broadly, as shaping a story or like elements into a form that can be acted. Dramaturgy gives the work or the performance a structure. More than actual writing, a dramaturg's work can often be defined as designing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy
2.Dictionary Definition: The art of the theater, especially the writing of plays.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy

3.Unusual Definition: Dramaturgy refers to a set of activities which are considered to be necessary to the theatre-making process, and the functions of dramaturgy are carried out by the person known as the 'Dramaturg'.
http://www.artsonthemove.co.uk/resources/dramaturgy.html

4.Historical Content:the art or technique of dramatic composition or theatrical representation. In this sense English dramaturgy and French dramaturgie are both borrowed from German Dramaturgie, a word used by the German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing in an influential series of essays entitled Hamburgische Dramaturgie (“The Hamburg Dramaturgy”), published from 1767 to 1769. The word is from the Greek dramatourgía, “a dramatic composition” or “action of a play.”

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171026/dramaturgy#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=dramaturgy%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia

5.Job Description

A thorough text/story analysis.
Research into the prior productions of the text as needed.
Historical research of various sorts.
Attendance at at least one quarter of the rehearsals, the first read-through, and as many run-throughs as possible.
Oral or written notes for the director.
Attendance at some preproduction meetings.
A loyalty to the basic mission and ideas of the production and the text. Maintaining that loyalty in the midst of technical difficulties.
Program contributions.
Flexibility.


Other supplementary jobs for the dramaturg, especially in an institution.
Advising the marketing team.
Working with the education staff.
Participation in post-play discussions.
Input on press releases.
Text work -- ranging from true adaptation to suggesting cuts. Keeping a copy of the script as performed (working with the stage manager).
Historical research in conversation with the sound, light and set designers.
Text work with the actors - especially on poetic drama.
Active collaboration with the director during the rehearsal process -- A vocal presence in rehearsals.
Play selection.
Organizing readings of new plays.
Rooting and keeping logs of collaborative writing/performances.
Keeping track of research materials -- both those provided by the dramaturg and those brought in by other people.

http://www.dramaturgy.net/dramaturgy/what/Job.html



6. My on Definition: When a play or drama has been shaped, I see this as an editor of a play that sees something for the better. For example if I am writing a paper and I take it to the writing center they edit and change because they see something that will enhance the paper. Dramaturgy, shaping of written plays that is for the better.