Other Library guides to aid your research
Welcome!
This guide was created as a point of reference for students, researchers, and practitioners of dramaturgy. While exploring, please keep in mind that your topic of research may fall under more than one discipline of study.
This dramaturgy page was originally curated in 2024-2025 by UCLA Arts Library Reference Assistant Lorell Peillat, an MLIS student in UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
What is Dramaturgy?
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The First Dramaturg
Gotthold-Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) is credited as being the world's first Dramaturg for his role at the Hamburg National Theater. Lessing served as an in house critic, offering advice on play selection, as well as reviewing the theater's own productions. Lessing wrote and published a journal titled Hamburg Dramaturgy, thus popularizing the use of the word dramaturgy in relation to this way of thinking about a play. (Dramaturgy; The Basics by Hamilton, A & Chon, W.B.).
How Do We Define Dramaturgy?
The definition of dramaturgy in the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it to be "[t]he art or technique of dramatic composition and theatrical representation." This is perhaps closer to the original Greek use of the word, but modern understanding of dramaturgy, and dramaturgs is not so easily defined.
Dramaturgs are practitioners of dramaturgy. However, other theater artists also utilize dramaturgical skills in their work. Dramaturgy is rather unique in that there is not an agreed upon definition of what it is, nor is there an established primary function of a dramaturg. As described by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas LMDA, the role of a Dramaturg can entail the following tasks "...contextualize the world of the play; establish connections among the text, actors, & audience; offer opportunities for playwrights; generate projects and programs; and create conversations about plays in their communities" (LMDA What is Dramaturgy? n.d). While these are just some of the tasks that can be related to dramaturgy, it can also include things more specific to the unique needs of the production.
Essential to the dramaturgical mindset, "Questioning is fundamental to dramaturgy: asking good questions, asking them well, asking them at the right time. Dramaturgy relates parts to a whole. Dramaturgy is a multidimensional process. Dramaturgy is the underpinning to the why and how and to what end. It is filtering text through one's own experience, processing it, and giving a response" (Hamilton & Chon, p.5).
As described by LMDA (Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas), production dramaturgy can take on a number of different tasks depending on the unique needs of each production. Dramaturgs may attends production meetings, rehearsals ad desired by the director or playwright. Production dramaturgy can also include any/all of the following
- Locate drafts and versions
- Collate, cut, track, edit, rewrite, construct, and arrange
- Secure permissions to use copyrighted materials
- Find songs, pictures, stories, videos
- Help the designer do research
- Assist the Director with casting
- Assist Marketeers and developers
- Seek and present pathways into the world of the play
- Gather and arrange images, sounds, and ideas for rehearsal
- Explore and present; the world of the play, the author of the play, the script's production history and relevant criticism
- Enhance audience experience of the play via lobby display, program notes, and online content
Many production dramaturgs will put together a dramaturigcal packet for actors and creative team members to connect with the play. Packets can include the following, and any additional interests of the director.
- Production History (Including where else it has been performed, and how those productions were received by the public and critics)
- Information about the playwright
- Other relevant works of the playwright
- Historical information relating to the time period of the play
- Cultural Influences on the play
- Breakdown of characters & their defining qualities
- Trace themes and research relevant to the themes of the play
- Glossary of uncommon or unfamiliar words or terms
- Document and explain cultural references (to literary works, movies, music, or cultural concepts) that may be unfamiliar
In the following boxes within this lib guide is a series of sources, databases, books and much more to assist your research as you compile a dramaturgical packet.
A Research and Development dramaturg's responsibilities are mostly in relation to season selection, working with new playwrights, and maintaining/curating the theater's play collection. This role may also be called a Literary Manager. Their tasks include but are not limited to:
- Assist with season development
- Assist with selecting cohesive through line for plays within the season
- Seek, read, and reccommend new scripts
- Curate theater's script collection
For additional information see the following resources:
A New Play dramaturg can collaborate directly with playwrights and assist with the writing, research, and workshop process. New Play dramaturgs may also assist theater companies with new play development workshops. Their tasks can include:
- Working one on one with the playwright to provide feedback during the revision process
- Provide workshop feedback for playwright and creative team
- Assist with new play festivals
- Prepare adaptions, translations, or cuttings
For more information on new play dramaturgy in a playwriting workshop setting, please see these resources :
Selected Readings
The Art of Dramaturgy by ISBN: 9780300233698Date: 2021-09-21An introduction to the mysterious theater role of a dramaturg by a legend in the field "This book is marvelous. . . . Fascinating. . . . An absolute joy to read."--Gil Roth, Virtual Memories podcast Anne Cattaneo was among the first Americans to fill the role of dramaturg, one of theater's best kept secrets. A combination of theater artist, scholar, researcher, play advocate, editor, and writer's friend, it is the job of a dramaturg to "reflect light back on the elements that are already in play," while bringing a work of theater to life.
Curating Dramaturgies: How Dramaturgy and Curating are Intersecting in the Contemporary Arts by ISBN: 9780367487560Date: 2021-04-01Curating Dramaturgies investigates the transformation of art and performance and its impact on dramaturgy and curatorship. Addressing contexts and processes of the performing arts as interconnecting with visual arts, this book features interviews with leading curators, dramaturgs and programmers who are at the forefront of working in, with, and negotiating the daily practice of interdisciplinary live arts.
Dance Dramaturgy: Modes of Agency, Awareness and Engagement by ISBN: 9781137373212Date: 2015-08-27Ten international dramaturg-scholars advance proposals that reset notions of agency in contemporary dance creation. Dramaturgy becomes driven by artistic inquiry, distributed among collaborating artists, embedded in improvisation tasks, or weaved through audience engagement, and the dramaturg becomes a facilitator of dramaturgical awareness.
Dramaturgy: the Basics by ISBN: 9780367253752Date: 2022-12-30Dramaturgy: The Basics introduces the art of dramaturgy, explaining how dramaturgy works, what a dramaturg is, and how to appreciate their unique contribution to theatre-making. A wide-ranging account of the role of this vital element of theatre helps students and aspiring performance makers to apply dramaturgy to a full spectrum of theatrical disciplines.
Essential Dramaturgy by ISBN: 1317450345Date: 2017-02-03Essential Dramaturgy: The Mindset and Skillset provides a concrete way to approach the work of a dramaturg. It explores ways to refine the process of defining, evaluating, and communicating that is essential to effective dramaturgical work. It then looks at how this outlook enhances the practical skills of production and new play dramaturgy. The book explains what a dramaturg does, what the role can be, and how best to refine and teach the skillset and mindset.
Queer Dramaturgies: International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer by ISBN: 9781137411839Date: 2015-11-09This international collection of essays forms a vibrant picture of the scope and diversity of contemporary queer performance. Ranging across cabaret, performance art, the performativity of film, drag and script-based theatre it unravels the dynamic relationship performance has with queerness as it is presented in local and transnational contexts.
Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility by ISBN: 9780838641125Date: 2008-10-01This study - aimed at students, teachers, and theater artists - argues the centrality of this question to dramaturges, dramaturgy, and a dramaturgical sensibility. It suggests - from two perspectives, Landscape and Journey - that the attempt to know the dramaturgy of a play is little different from the attempt to know another person for whom we care.
What Is Dramaturgy? by ISBN: 0820421774Date: 2004-12-23What Is Dramaturgy?attempts to document, by way of articles, statements, and bibliographies, the dramaturg's profession, which began with Lessing in Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century and was instituted in the United States two hundred years later during the rise of the regional theatre movement.
- Introduction: Repertory, Dramaturgy, and EmbodimentThis introduction outlines the essays in the Early Theatre Issues in Review forum 'Playing in Repertory', placing them in the context of new movements in the study of early modern English repertories for contemporaneous and contemporary performance.
- Investigating Early Dramaturgy and Theatre Directing in the Shabih'khani of the Qajar EraScholarly research on shabih’khani, the Iranian traditional performance generally known as ta’ziyeh, has frequently portrayed creators of this theatrical form as religious devotees with little or no theatrical knowledge and expertise.
- The theatre of development: dramaturgy, actors and performances in the 'workshop space'This article explores performance within development spaces. Dramaturgy, a concept deriving from theatre studies, can be understood as an analytical lens that examines the various roles and performances of different 'actors' in particular social spaces. While there is literature exploring the use of the arts, such as applied theatre and dance, in development interventions, this article looks at the roles, performances and actors in development spaces. By analysing the subtle yet explicit composites of workshop spaces in development, in particular those engaging with arts-based methodologies, we can see how multiple and simultaneous performances converge. These performances are insightful in their own right and represent and enact a theatre of their own.
- Thinking Matter(s) in Theatre Practice: A Dramaturgy of AssemblagesThis article discusses a materialist approach to dramaturgy framed as a dramaturgy of assemblage. It is inspired by posthuman thinking and draws on theory from new materialism (Rosi Braidotti, Jane Bennett, Elaine Gan, and Anna Tsing). The dramaturgical approach is developed through artistic research, and the article refers to the performances Childism (2015) and Jeg vill høre havet (2017), which serve as examples of this practice.
- Dance Dramaturgy in Theory and PracticeThe 2011 annual meeting of the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) was dedicated to "Dance Dramaturgy: Catalyst, Perspective, and Memory," and degree programs in dance and devised dramaturgy are being introduced by institutions around the world, evidence of the necessity of understanding the history, theory, and practices of this growing field inside and outside of the academy
- Self, Society, and the Passions: Reading Late Eighteenth-Century British Women’s PlaysThis thesis argues for a connection between later eighteenth-century women’s literary dramaturgy and medical and philosophical writing on the topics of self and sociality, in ways that have yet to receive sufficient critical attention. This thesis features close readings of eight play texts written by four female playwrights of the eighteenth century: Joanna Baillie, Elizabeth Griffith, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Hannah More.
- Alternative Dramaturgies in Contemporary Western European Theatre for Young AudiencesThis dissertation will examine how current alternative dramaturgies developed by theatres for young audiences in Western Europe are the direct result of the experimentations of the late twentieth century and, as such, are at the forefront of alternative dramaturgical experimentation and postdramatic theatre practices
- From Stereotype to Stewardship: How the Enneagram Encourages Responsible Representation of Marginalized Stories on the Academic Institution's StageThis thesis addresses how many predominantly white institutions have few endeavors attempting to integrate playwrights and stories from marginalized communities. While Patricia Ybarra’s anti-racist approach, coalitional casting in an academic institutional setting, advocates for the allyship of privileged student performers becoming visual place-holders to share these marginalized works, there is still a glaring question: How do student performers represent characters culturally different from themselves without employing stereotypes or turning to racial mimicry?
Contextual Research
See also: Dialect Resources
Green's Dictionary of Slang (multi-Volume Set) by ISBN: 9780550104403Date: 2011-02-14The three volumes of Green's Dictionary of Slang demonstrate the sheer scope of a lifetime of research by Jonathon Green, the leading slang lexicographer of our time. A remarkable collection of this often reviled but endlessly fascinating area of the English language, it covers slang from the past five centuries right up to the present day, from all the different English-speaking countries and regions. Totaling 10.3 million words and over 53,000 entries, the collection provides the definitions of 100,000 words and over 413,000 citations. Every word and phrase is authenticated by genuine and fully-referenced citations of its use, giving the work a level of authority and scholarship unmatched by any other publication in this field.
Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang by ISBN: 9780670852642Date: 1994-02-01"Since the days of slavery, when the conversations of black slaves served as the classic example of a secret tongue, a kind of "home talk" in the sense that it was not meant for listeners beyond the nest, to the 1980s and '90s and the expressions of rap and hip-hop, the evolution of African-American slang from private to public language has irrevocably influenced American culture and speech. Illuminating this vibrant language, Juba to Jive offers a comprehensive collection of terms, from the oldest to the most modern, as well as clear straightforward definitions of words, phrases, and expressions, with many examples in context; approximate date of each term's arrival into the language; modifications of meanings as the terms entered the mainstream; cross-references to similar terms; linguistic roots, from onomatopoetic sources to rhyming jargon; and shifts in word forms and grammatical usage."
Mountain Range: A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks by ISBN: 9780816021130Date: 1997-01-01Introduces readers to the vernacular of the Eastern U.S. mountain regions.
Stone the Crows: Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang by ISBN: 9780199543700Date: 2008-09-11Drawing on the unique resources of the Oxford English Dictionary and offering coverage of over 6,000 slang words and expressions from the Cockney 'abaht' to the American term 'zowie', this is the most authoritative dictionary of slang from the 20th and 21st centuries. Stone the Crows: Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang is a fascinating and entertaining collection, packed with illustrative quotations and providing full details of origins and dates of first printed use.
- Fashion and Costume GuideFor more Fashion and Costume Research strategies see the UCLA Fashion and Costume Lib Guide
- Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new windowOnline portal with access to e-books, reference works, images, and more on world dress and fashion throughout history. UCLA subscribes to this one module of Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
- Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library This link opens in a new window
Online collection for the study of dress and costume history, film and theatre costume, and costume design and construction. Contains e-books, reference works, and more. Includes The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design. Part of Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
- Vogue Archive This link opens in a new windowContains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present day.
- Women's Wear Daily Archive This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive archive of the fashion trade magazine Women's Wear Daily, from the first issue in 1910 to material from within the last twelve months. Contains all content, including covers and advertisements.
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
Features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans published between 1825-1995.
- Early American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2 (America's Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Thousands of fully searchable historical newspapers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., chronicling the evolution of American culture and daily life from 1690 to 1922. Series One covers 1690-1876, and Series Two includes 1690-1900.
- J. Walter Thompson: Advertising America This link opens in a new windowDigitized primary source documents that explore how advertising works, company culture, how decisions are made, the effect that the industry may have had over wider culture, and how culture interacts with advertising.
- London Low Life This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source materials on Victorian street culture, including ephemera, penny fiction, cartoons, chapbooks, reform literature, and guides to prostitution.
- Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas This link opens in a new windowOverview articles on American and world popular culture, past and present, are arranged by decade, beginning with 1900, and accompanied by supporting reference articles and media and documents.
- ProQuest Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searches all ProQuest newspapers to which UCLA subscribes, both current and historical newspapers from major U.S. cities (Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal), international news sources, and alternative press.
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new windowResearch portal for the study of popular entertainment in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Segments include: Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic.
- Media History Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFreely available online portal, featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new windowDigitized primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues concerning gender and sexuality, and impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Includes newsletters and newspapers, government documents, manuscripts, pamphlets, and more. Contributing repositories include: Kinsey Institute, British Library, Lesbian Herstory, Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, National Library of Medicine, and more. UCLA provides access to Parts I and II (LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940), Part III (Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century), Part IV (International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture), and Part VI (Community and Identity in North America).
- Bloomsbury Cultural History This link opens in a new windowCovers culture throughout the ages from antiquity to modernity. Includes Bloomsbury’s Cultural Histories Series, ebooks, image collections, research and learning tools, and an interactive timeline. UCLA provides access to the 2021-2022 annual collection.
- Daily Life through History (Academic) This link opens in a new windowIncludes reference books, images, time lines and primary documents on a range of topics related to world history, folklore, and culture depicting essential activities of daily life across the globe and throughout history.
- Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new windowFrom feast to famine, explore five centuries of primary source material documenting the story of food and drink throughout history. The materials in this collection illustrate the deep links between food and identity, politics and power, gender, race and socio-economic status, as well as charting key issues around agriculture, nutrition and food production.
- Food Studies Online This link opens in a new windowProvides interdisciplinary archival content, visual ephemera, monographs, and videos that explore how food shapes the world around us. Includes cookbooks, menus, documentaries, vintage commercials, diet trends, and more.
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950 This link opens in a new windowCollection of letters and diaries of women of varied age groups, ethnicities, and geographical regions, spanning more than 300 years. Includes both published and previously unpublished materials.
- Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History This link opens in a new windowHundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century. Sources cover topics including the arts, the British Empire, exploration, race, and more. Contents also include manuscripts, diaries and correspondence, drawings, guidebooks and photographs.
- ProQuest Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searches all ProQuest newspapers to which UCLA subscribes, both current and historical newspapers from major U.S. cities (Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal), international news sources, and alternative press.
Production History
- American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Facsimiles of broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900, as well as ephemera printed between 1749 and 1900. Includes sailing cards, confessions, playbills, menus, music programs, and more. Based on the American Antiquarian Society's collection.
- Billy Rose Theatre Collection Program File (New York Public Library Digital Collections)Multiple digitized historical theater programs from NYPL.
- Black Drama: Second Edition This link opens in a new windowContains approximately 1600 plays by 200 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
- HIV, AIDS & the Arts This link opens in a new window
This digital collection is dedicated to exploring how art has served as a form of activism, seeking to document ways in which groups and institutions, both within and outside of formal art worlds, have worked to support artists impacted by HIV/AIDS. The collection will preserve approximately 75,000 pages and items of primary sources, including, but not limited to, sheet music, manuscripts, playbills, production notes, visual art, and personal papers.
- Theatre in Context Collection This link opens in a new windowA reference source that covers multiple aspects of the international theater, including full text of major reference materials and records for individual plays, people, theaters, productions, and production companies. Also includes images, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks and other ephemera. Formerly titled North American Theatre Online.
- Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains plays by hundreds of playwrights, together with detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs, and other ephemera related to the plays.
- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowArticles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowPublished between 1741 and 1900, these periodicals include special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children and women magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowFacsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries.
- Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive, 1902-2019 (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new windowSince 1902, the TLS has scrutinized, applauded and dissected the work of leading writers and thinkers, offering comprehensive coverage of publications in every subject, in several languages, as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions.
- World Shakespeare Bibliography Online This link opens in a new windowRecord of Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions published or produced worldwide between 1960 and 2009. Contains over 122,867 annotated entries.
- Collection of California Theater Playbills, 1869-2004Located in UCLA Library Special Collections. Collection consists of playbills predominantly from Los Angeles, California. Inbcludes playbills for live drama, musicals, and variety theater productions. Also includes material from other California cities. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1940s on.
- The Playbill Broadway Yearbook: Inaugural Edition 2004-2005 / edited by Robert Viagas.This inaugural volume of the yearbook profiles the shows, actors, and other theater professionals who worked on Broadway in New York City from June 1st, 2004, to May 31st, 2005.
- University of California, Los Angeles Department of Theater Arts collection of production material for theater performances, 1947-1993Collection consists of production material for theater performances staged by Univ. of CA, Los Angeles Theater Arts Dept. faculty and students. Includes photographs, list of cast and company members, playbills and promotional items, casting information, annotated scripts, set and costume designs, blocking diagrams, lighting schemes, and prop lists.
- Valley Music Theatre Scrapbooks, ca. 1964-ca. 1966.Located in UCLA Library Special Collections. Collection consists of two scrapbooks related to productions staged at the Valley Music Theatre. Included are playbills and cast (group) photographs representing 40 productions staged at the theater and publicity photographs documenting what appears to be the ground breaking for construction of the playhouse