John Wells sits down with Dramaturgy Students

John Wells, perhaps the most famous and successful alum of Carnegie Mellon, has for the past five years been a staunch supporter of our fledgling dramaturgy program. He sat down with our majors on a visit Thursday, before a ceremony celebrating his transformational gift to the School. He answered our questions about the centrality of dramaturgy to the creative process of performance in not only theatre, but television and film as well, as the basis for solid storytelling, even as he lamented the rash of writers he encounters who are adept at mimicking successful pop-culture products but have no idea how to generate katharsis or pathos. That's where dramaturgy comes in, he explained.

Not only is John the most prolific giver to the School of all time, not only is he deeply knowledgeable about every aspect of performance storytelling from electronics to carpentry to lighting to costumes to dramaturgy to scriptwriting, but he is also a genuine human being, accessible, kind, funny, and tirelessly curious about the pedagogy and life of the School. It was a pleasure to have him. On behalf of our program, thanks, John!

LULU 'turgy

Ghostlighters,

The latest feed uplink is to Kendra Lee's digital casebook for LULU, by Wedekind, upcoming in the Rauh theatre, directed by Josh Gelb. As I've said before, I am a huge fan of Wedekind but it's so rare to see him done well (if at all). Kendra's casebook proves what a dramaturg can do when she combines rigorous scholarly discipline and deep understanding of theoretical approaches to a passionate and critical engagement to a text.

-Doc

Visit from Jack DePalma

The Collective was honored to host Jack DePalma this week as a distinguished guest. Jack is the Creative Director for the National Arts Management Company. Jack has been a major force in the development of some of the US's most well-known productions, including Chicago, Annie Get Your Gun, Seussical, Wonderful Town, Sweet Charity and This is Our Youth to fruition from the initial developmental phases through to opening nights. He has supervised the translation of the Chicago script into various languages for production around the world. Jack also was Play Development Director at the Old Globe in San Diego (one of America's flagship regional theatres) where he worked closely with the executive producer, Lou Spisto in planning their seasons. Among the productions were Duncan Sheik’s Whisper House, Leslie Bricusse’s Sammy and the Broadway bound musicals The First Wives Club and Robin and the 7 Hoods. Jack was also the casting associate for the feature films Nighthawks, King of Comedy, Author! Author!, Yentl, Once Upon a Time in America and The Last Temptation of Christ.

Jack spent Thursday with us and ran the Carnegie Mellon gamut, providing a Q&A for the After Lab crew of directors and playwrights to answer questions about production in the big leagues. He then conducted a detailed script coverage workshop with the dramaturgy majors. Afterwards, he sat in on Showcase rehearsals and met with a group of students interested in pursuing the Creative Director career track, an exciting field of opportunity for people with 'turgical skills.

We thank Jack for taking the time to share his experience with us!

-Doc

Spelling Bee Controversy!

Follow this growing discussion about the role of dramaturgs, critics, and program notes. Who says musicals can't provoke thoughtful discussions?

http://gordonspencerwrct.blogspot.com/2011/02/theatre-review-25th-annual-putnam.html?showComment=1298465082162#c6953101023567668401

Disney "Magic"

Crazytown is another theatre blog that I follow which covers a wide range of topics as seen by an equally wide range of theatre artists. This post provides a brief consideration of some of the subverted themes in a variety of Disney movies, from feminism to racism and quite a few things in between. Although these specific examples do not go into much detail, they provide a good starting point for a theoretical critique of these movies.

http://www.crazytownblog.com/crazytown/2011/02/disney-movie-say-what.html#more

Letters to Santa from Shakespeare Characters

Ghostlighters,

Michelle Ephraim is a Shakespearean scholar who has done some admirable work, particularly on the role of women in the Elizabethan theatre culture. I just found this from her on McSweeny's:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/12/17bicks.html

Enjoy!

A NUMBER

Posted: Nicole Ogurek's online casebook for the School's upcoming production of Caryl Churchill's A NUMBER. Enjoy!