Welcome. Check back soon, as this site is a work in progress.
Through scholarly research, teaching, and theatrical practice, I approach the performing arts as a means through which greater social, political, and cultural insight can be perceived, expressed, debated, and enacted.
Because theatre at its best is the creative action that results from intellectual and artistic engagement, I challenge those around me to think deeply, to create theoretically complex and aesthetically rich theatrical events, to perform with commitment and creative abandon achieved through the confidence of intellectual rigor, and to emerge from the experience of academic challenge and artistic creation as engaged thinkers and citizens in the local, national, and international community.
What is Dramaturgy? Dramaturgy is a field in which practice and theory meld together, as does the opportunity to create art and to teach others about it. I have worked as a dramaturg for over nine years in a variety of situations, having created shows at high schools, universities, and with professional theatres in both the United States and in Mexico and have developed a unique understanding of what dramaturgy is and what it is not.
Production dramaturgy is an involved process in which the dramaturg inhabits shifting stages of advocacy. In the pre-production stage, the dramaturg should work closely with the director and serve as an advocate for the text, helping the director to imagine and clarify the production concept by looking intensely within the script as the director’s view expands outward. It is the dramaturg’s duty to critically aid and even constructively challenge the director when necessary so that together they can create a strong work that is in conversation with contemporary issues while still being rooted in the text.
Once the production concept has been formed and rehearsals begin, the dramaturg then becomes its advocate, compiling extensive research and leading discussions and conversations with the cast and the artistic staff to help them fully understand and embrace the ideas being examined through production. Finally, as the show opens, the dramaturg becomes an advocate for the audience, working to build a bridge of understanding by creating engaging lobby displays and leading talk back sessions so that the audience is better able to engage with the theatrical event.
Dramaturgy is not an isolated, stilted position; it is highly creative, intellectually rigorous, and exceedingly collaborative.
