Dramaturgy. A little known or understood job that involves a lot of hours in the library, and a very large knowledge of somewhat random facts about the life and staging of a play. I sometimes think of the dramaturg as the hired brain, your head and research skills are the important thing for you to bring to the table. You're there in case the director says, "Hey Charlotte, when were shoelaces invented?" or "Hey Charlotte, what were the most popular venereal diseases of Shakespeare's time?" Because believe it or not, people care about these things. As you stand there with your notepad, ready to block anachronisms from the stage, confident in your ability to understand obscure portions of text, you start to care about these things too, and often your research can lead to imaginative additions to the production. That's plenty to make your close and personal relationship with the research librarian worth it. Now, poring over journal articles may not be the average bear's (or theatre major's) cup of tea, but this up close and personal view of a play's history in production can provide for some illuminating experiences with text and performance. My recent experience as Measure for Measure's dramaturg was no exception. [Read More]

New Voices 2004 is an interesting mix of farce and seriousness that sometimes comes a little too close to reality. The piece is composed of five student written one-acts woven together with theatrical panache that create a meta-narrative that continues throughout the piece. The five plays being presented are "Beyond Our Control" by Phil Haas '05 and directed by Abby Mahone '03; "The Journal" by Adam D. Pinti '06 and directed by Troy Dwyer; "What's the Story?" by M.E. Lerman '04 and directed by Amanda Ellison '04; "Holidaze" by Kevin McKeon '03 and directed by Lydia Brubaker '05; and "Stained" by Danielle Tolles '05 and directed by Rachel Roccoberton '04. [Read More]

When Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull premiered at the Moscow Arts Theater in December of 1898, the way people lived was much different from the way we live today. As Charles Richter, our director, made clear at one of the initial rehearsals, he didn't expect his actors to understand a lot of the emotions their characters were portraying because he figured they had never experienced the same situations before. Although this may be partly true, the cast still handles the complex network of themes and sentiments that this play explores. Among these are unrequited love, fame, the act of writing, and even acting itself. [Read More]