Dramaturgy is Everywhere, According to Meropi Peponides

Theatre alum Meropi Peponides ’13 sees dramaturgy everywhere: Netflix specials, budgets for stage productions, political campaigns, venues in Staten Island and the Bronx. “It’s just the way I think,” she said. “It’s not like I can turn off the dramaturgy brain.” 

Dramaturgy is often defined or described as the study of dramatic composition—the exploration and understanding of all the elements that bring a theatre production to life, including historical context, characters, setting, language, and even the structure of the play. For Peponides, the definition of dramaturgy is both more simple and more expansive than that. “I had a mentor who would talk about the dramaturgy of budget," said Peponides. "What’s the dramaturgy of these numbers? How does our allocation of resources tell this story?” 

For Peponides, questions like these go beyond an individual production. Choosing what stories we tell and how we tell them is one of the important tools theatre can use to combat and undermine oppressive narratives, and the practice of dramaturgy is all about thinking critically about how to use those tools.

"[Dramaturgy] not only applies to the systems and structures on the stage, but also in the audience, and then also in the world beyond the audience. Another way that I see dramaturgy being used a lot is in storytelling in our social world, in our politics, in the way that we relate to one another and what narratives are out there about which groups of people. It's like these concentric circles: on the stage, and then in the audience, and then in the world at large."

Peponides's interest in dramaturgy was originally born out of her work as an independent theatre producer before her time at Columbia. "I found my passion as a producer," she said, "and I came to dramaturgy because I wanted to strengthen my set of artistic tools to shepherd the work of various artists from inception to production. I see dramaturgy as a component of my producing practice, and I went to Columbia specifically to study and strengthen that component of my practice." 

"Dramaturgy not only applies to the systems and structures on the stage, but also in the audience, and then also in the world beyond the audience...It's like these concentric circles: on the stage, and then in the audience, and then in the world at large."

Peponides is currently applying this holistic thinking to her new role as Co-Creative Director and Producer in Residence of the iconic Under the Radar Festival. Launched in Saint Ann’s Warehouse in 2005, the festival is known as a platform for emerging and international artists to get the attention of the New York theatre scene.

In 2023, the festival's former sponsor, The Public Theater, announced that they would stop producing the festival due to financial concerns. This devastated theatre-makers and -goers alike. UTR was such a beloved part of the NYC theatre scene that a memorial of notes and flowers appeared on the steps of the Public, mourning the festival's loss. Fueled by the outpouring of public support, the festival was almost immediately revived in January 2024 through the efforts of festival founder and Adjunct Assistant Professor Mark Russell, Theatre Management and Producing alum Sami Pyne ’20, and Thomas O. Kriegsmann, in collaboration with NYC production company ArKtype. Now the festival will return for its 20th edition January 4–19, 2025. Peponides was appointed for a two-year term, during which time she will work alongside Russell, and her co-creative director and artist-in-residence, Kaneza Schaal.

“It’s a festival of ambition and abundance,” Peponides said. “It’s the biggest Under the Radar Festival ever, which is an accomplishment during this time when so many organizations are scaling back.” 

Peponides is largely tasked with considering what’s to come. Her roots in dramaturgy particularly help her to consider how the collection of artists they bring to the festival could create or subvert existing narratives in the theatre industry. To this end, for the 2026 festival, Peponides wants to bring in more artists from the Global South.

"That comes with a host of challenges with regard to infrastructure and funds and all of that kind of thing," said Peponides, "but it's something that I'm really thinking a lot about. Countries that have never been represented at Under the Radar before. How are we attempting to open those doors and really include other perspectives?"

“It’s a festival of ambition and abundance. It’s the biggest Under the Radar Festival ever, which is an accomplishment during this time when so many organizations are scaling back.” 

Peponides is largely tasked with considering what’s to come. Her roots in dramaturgy particularly help her to consider how the collection of artists they bring to the festival could create or subvert existing narratives in the theatre industry. To this end, for the 2026 festival, Peponides wants to bring in more artists from the Global South.

"That comes with a host of challenges with regard to infrastructure and funds and all of that kind of thing," said Peponides, "but it's something that I'm really thinking a lot about. Countries that have never been represented at Under the Radar before. How are we attempting to open those doors and really include other perspectives?"

In addition to bringing in these global perspectives, Peponides and the rest of the team are hoping to scale up the 2026 festival so that productions are staged in all five boroughs, including Staten Island and the Bronx, to underscore that invention happens across the city. 

Peponides's "dramaturgy brain" is involved in all of the thematic and logistical decisions for the festival. "I'll be looking at questions like, what is the story we're telling by grouping all of these pieces together under this particular umbrella? What does it mean to have this particular artist performing in this particular venue? What does it mean that this is our slate of venues that we're working with? We've been talking a lot at Under the Radar about becoming a citywide festival. That means we have to be really intentional about where the work is showing up. I'm using dramaturgy in every single one of those questions and beyond. Some shows are gonna need a lot more resources than others—how are we thinking about the systems that influence those shows? How are we attempting to be as equitable as possible in the way that we use our resources toward different pieces in the festival?"

This is full-circle work for Peponides, who first started working at the festival as an intern while studying at Columbia. "I was an intern one year and then I went back and did part-time gig work with them; so I knew the festival and I love the festival, and I've been following the work for many, many years." Her path between graduation and working as Co-Creative Director of UTR has been filled with impressive theatre creds, including working as a producer then co-director of Soho Rep, producing 18 off-Broadway productions—mostly world premieres—making podcasts, and helping to run her own production company, Radical Evolution, with co-founder Beto O'Byrne.

“Dramaturgy students go on to be in all kinds of industries,” Peponides said. “Even if they're studying dramaturgy in the Theatre Program, a lot of them can leave to apply their skills elsewhere. I talked to someone a while ago who was working on political campaigns, who was applying their skills in that way. There’s all kinds of pathways for it.

"More than anything, I feel like dramaturgy is a set of tools for understanding structures and systems," Peponides continued. "I think everyone finds their own way into dramaturgy, but I'm a big systems nerd, that's just the way I find my way into a lot of different things. Dramaturgy is such a flexible and amorphous practice to me; and I think that the more different ways it is applied, the more exciting it is. I use it in every form of storytelling that I do." 

Meropi Peponides is a theater maker, dramaturg, podcast producer, writer and co-founder of Radical Evolution Performance Collective. She has been co-creating and producing theatre for the past 18 years with a focus on devised ensemble work, new plays, site-specific work, and community-based performance. Her work explores cross-cultural affinity and seeks to disrupt cultural hierarchies by drawing inspiration from and lifting up BIPOC and nonwestern traditions. From 2014–2023 she was the producer and then co-director of Soho Rep. While there, she produced 18 off-Broadway productions, most world premieres, that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel Award, and numerous OBIE Awards, among others. Upcoming with Radical Evolution: National tour of Canciones, an immersive, site-specific play with music and The Hunger Project (working title, commission from Soho Rep). Other organizations with which she has collaborated include The Foundry Theatre, The Movement Theatre Company, and The Public Theater. She also organizes with Artists Co-Creating Real Equity (ACRE), Justice Committee, and Artists Against Apartheid.

Originally published on Columbia University’s website and reposted here with permission of the author: https://arts.columbia.edu/news/dramaturgy-everywhere-according-meropi-peponides-13