Letters to a professional turg (part 1)

One of the assignment I did in my dramaturgy class was to contact a professional dramagur and pick their brain. Well I'm an overacheiver, and I really wanted to get different perspectives so I asked four people. 


I loved this assignment because I to talk to different people and get an insight to the mystical field of dramaturgy. Everyone I spoke to was professional, enthusiastic and really nice. It's this kind of project that reinforces my love of dramaturgy.



The  emails are a bit long so I'm going to break them down into different posts.


The first email I sent was to Shelly Graham.


Shelley T. Graham graduated from BYU in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts Education and in 2004 with a master’s degree in Theatre and Media Arts.

In 2003, she was awarded an Oscarson Discovery Grant which enabled her to travel to New York to participate in a theatre panel at a national conference.

She currently teaches theatre part time at in Athens, GA, and works as a freelance dramaturg. Graham is also busy taking care of her four kids, and says that theatre has become her “free time” activity for now.

Sent to Shelley Graham

Dr. Graham,

I wanted to thank you so much for coming to our class today and sharing you knowledge and passion. I had the best time listening to you to talk, and your visit has only fueled the fire under me. I never got a chance to actually talk to you one on one, but I am very interested in opening my own theatre devoted to Theatre In Education. And I was so jazzed when we started talking about all the great ideas for outreach to TYA audiences. Again I can thank you enough for taking time out to speak to us.

I have one more question to ask, we have an interview assignment we need to do for our class, and I would absolutely love, if you have the time, if you could answer about five question I have. If you are not able to I completely understand, it was an honor just getting tips from a real professional dramaturg. Again thank you.

1. After reading the script how did you decide where to start your research? Did you come up with a process that you used for every script?

2. How did you interact with director, actors and designers?

3. What is good way to market yourself?

4. How do you convince a director that you are more useful then just being a "gopher"?

5. What would be the one piece of advice you would give to someone, like me, looking to be a professional dramatrug?

Thank you so much again. I'm super excited for next year because it will my be my first show and  I will be able to submit for ACTF. I have taken everything you said to heart and I am ready to run with it!.

Sincerely,

Amber N. Cummings

from: Shelley Graham

 to: Amber 

Amber,

I'm so sorry for the delayed response. I had an article deadline last week and that had to take top priority. But now I'm happy to answer your questions – and feel free to follow up on anything that needs more detail. I'm glad to hear that something I said was inspiring!

1. My process for starting research after reading a script. Well I'll give you my standard process, but also say that every time I do a show I do it a little differently. But here's what I do. First, I read the script all the way through and try to do nothing else but get a feel for the show. Then I do a second reading where I scribble all over the script with questions – I ask as many questions as I can about all kinds of things that might pertain to the production of the script. And because I love to look at things in an organized way, visually, I make a "map" of the questions. I divide a large poster (or a word doc on my computer) into category sections and I put all of those questions from the script into a category. Usually at this point I am bringing those questions into production meetings and I try to make sure that the questions or topics I choose to pursue a study of are based on solid conversations with the director and designers.
2. In the best situations, the director, designers, and I work together from the very beginning. I love sitting around the table with the entire production staff as we talk about the script and make artistic decisions. I think it's important, especially if I've come to the table with lots of research done, that I balance participation in the discussion with observation of the process. It's tricky, like I said in the guest lecture, because lots of times I have done tons of cool research that I want to share, but it's also important that I listen to the director and designers, that I make sure I know what their approach is. I want to continually ask myself if what I'm doing is supporting the production as a whole. It's best when the directors an designers feel that you are there to support each other. Where those relationships run into problems is where a dramaturg feels the need to defend the text from the production team, or where a dramaturg asserts a kind of scholastic authority over the artistic process.
3. Marketing yourself really depends on your community. In Athens GA, where I lived recently, I marketed myself as a teacher and an editor, because the local community theatre was small and we were further away from larger theatre institutions. But there were several small community colleges and so I highlighted my teaching experience on my resume and began contacting and building relationships with professors at those colleges. The great thing about dramaturgy is that you'll build a more diverse resume as you grow in your career, and you can highlight the portions of your resume that are pertinent to each specific job you apply for. And I'll also say that it's common for community and small theatres to have a complete staff that doesn't include a dramaturg, so it's great to attend productions at a theatre you're interested in working with, get to know the personnel there, get a sense for who they are as a theatre, what their goals in the community might be, and find a way that the inclusion of dramaturgy might add value to that institution. And craft your resume well, and approach the institution with your ideas. (And you can do the same kind of thing for a magazine or journal you want to write for, or a school for whom you want to teach.)
4. The best, absolute best, thing you can do in those kinds of situations is just to be a good dramaturg. Get the information that's requested, sure. But *do something with it. Share your ideas at the appropriate times for educational outreach or workshops or presentations in rehearsal – show that you are as much an artist as you are a scholar and directors and designers will recognize and appreciate your creativity. Usually. :)
5. My best piece of advice is to get as much experience as you can. In all different kinds of places. Volunteer for small shows, big shows, dance shows, university shows, community shows. Volunteer gigs can turn into paying gigs. Just make sure that whatever jobs you have, you do them well. So much happens in the theatre world based on word of mouth.

Hope that's helpful. Let me know if you have any more questions. A little passion goes a long way in the theatre world – don't lose that fire for what you love!

Best,

Shelley