dramaturgy and dramaturgical research, and how they influence production work and the interpretation a company develops

What this dot point is asking

Dramaturgy is the part of the work an audience never sees directly but feels in every choice. A production that has done its dramaturgical homework feels coherent and rooted; one that has not feels arbitrary. This dot point underpins how you justify the choices you make in your two roles.

What dramaturgy means

Some companies employ a dramaturg whose job is exactly this: to research the play, advise the director, and keep the production honest to the text and its world. In a student production you will not have a separate dramaturg, but you still do dramaturgical work yourself. Every role draws on it: the costume designer needs to know the period, the actor needs to know the character's world, the director needs to know what the play meant when it was written and what it can mean now.

What dramaturgical research investigates

Dramaturgical research is broad and specific at once. It typically covers:

• The playwright. Their background, body of work, beliefs and the conditions in which they wrote, which can illuminate intention and recurring concerns.
• The historical and cultural context of the script. When and where it is set and was written, the social structures, values and events that shaped it.
• The world of the play. The internal logic, relationships, locations and rules of the fictional world the characters inhabit.
• The performance context. Where, when and for whom this production will be staged, including the theatre space, the audience and the company mounting it.

Research draws on the text itself, on secondary sources about the period and playwright, and on the production history of the play where relevant.

How research influences production work

Research does not sit in a folder; it changes decisions. A period revealed in research shapes costume and set. A social value uncovered in the context shapes how an actor plays status. A detail of the playwright's intention shapes the director's concept. Crucially, research can also reveal where a modern production wants to depart from the original context, and a deliberate departure is only strong if you understand what you are departing from.

Dramaturgy across the production process

Dramaturgical work is heaviest in planning, where the interpretation is formed, but it continues. In development, rehearsal questions send the company back to research: what would this character actually do, what did this object mean then. In presentation, the research shows up as the consistency and depth audiences sense even when they cannot name it.

Treat dramaturgical research as the evidence base for your whole interpretation. Investigate the playwright, the context and the world of the play, then carry that research forward into concrete choices in your two roles, so that every decision can be defended from what you found rather than from taste alone.