The act of making theatre can be a miracle. Bringing our stories, our communities, our collaborators and our imaginations into one small space for a finite time before it vanishes into memory and the ephemeral seems an impossible task. How do we manage it? That’s rhetorical, so please quell the urge to reply. The point is, and it’s a point we all know, that this form of creation can be an amazing thing.
So what is the adjective we use when a dramaturg goes through this process once and then does it again with the same play and the same playwright a second time? A third time? A fourth time? Now what about when you do all of four of them in the span of a year? Well, I don’t think there is one word for it. However, in the words of Bob White, Emma Mackenzie Hillier and Jules Odendahl James, who formed this year’s Grants and Awards committee with me, the following phrases were the descriptions they provided in their assessments for the dramaturg and for this work:
- Trailblazing
- Filled with grace under pressure
- Beyond the traditional definition of dramaturgical work
- Pioneering a new model of play development that other dramaturgs could
replicate
- Central to the success of this project
- And the phrase that was mentioned most often - unique in the field.
But perhaps I’m a bit ahead of myself. Let’s learn a little about this project.
The Lark Play Development Center has a program called Launching New Plays into the Repertoire Initiative. It is a five-year experiment focused on “creating a movement” around selected plays by bringing together theatre producers to launch new plays into national prominence across the United States by creating an arc of at least four productions of each play.
The nationwide pilot program for this initiative started with three play cycles, but only one of them had a dramaturg and that dramaturg is our recipient tonight.
Through the course of this project, the one playwright and one dramaturg collaborated with 62 actors, 18 designers, 6 choreographers and fight directors, 4 directors, 4 stage management teams, 3 composers and countless crew members, technicians and artisans. The playwright/dramaturg team engaged with 8 university classes, 3 universities, 3 high schools, 2 communities of writers, 3 public panel events, 10 community partner groups across 3 cities and 6 audience discussions. The four productions of this play – at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau Alaska, at the Pilsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis Minnesota, at The Latino Theatre Company of the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and at the University of South Florida’s School of Theatre & Dance – had a dramaturg who covered roles as vast and diverse as the geography over which these plays took place. Our recipient facilitated design, assisted in music direction and engaged in copious amounts of research that began with the first production and continued to accrue and grow in each iteration. This dramaturg also functioned as a Native language teacher and coach, a Native customs and choreography consultant, and a Native props and costumes consultant. This individual also promoted the work and the field of dramaturgy through work with university and high school students while also managing a deep and diverse engagement with the different communities that were part of these four productions. Finally, and most importantly, this dramaturg maintained and grew a relationship of trust with the playwright throughout this entire process of creating this work: the road weeps, the well runs dry. In the words of playwright Marcus Gardley…well, maybe it’s easier if he talks about this himself. Marcus?