Dramaturgy

Dramaturgs are directly involved in every stage of the production, from initial proposals for a play or project to the choice of director and management team, the conceptual spadework and the casting, and they will continue to provide support until well after the first night. They need the skills to coordinate production processes and calculate costs, they will forge contacts and networks, and they must prove their mettle as production managers but also as psychologists, with an understanding ear and solid advice for all the problems and difficulties which inevitably arise. In a nutshell, overload is routine for a dramaturg.

Wanted are young people eager to tackle everything at once and yet happy to keep modestly behind the scenes. Dramaturgs are not essentially performers with a sense of self. They are primarily facilitators, enablers, advisers and at best the midwives at the theatrical event – the applause will be for the others.

And yet dramaturg is one of the most varied, demanding and worthwhile professions of all, for the dramaturg deals constantly with very different people, tasks and topics.

Dramaturgs can chart the course, enabling a team to surmount a social or artistic boundary. To meet all these demands, dramaturgs need not only specialist knowledge, but above all the basic virtues of any artist: they must possess the skills to explore, read, look, think, listen, speak and write, the courage to draw on their common sense and the ability to work in and with teams.

3. A future-oriented, interdisciplinary training: the Master of Arts degree in Dramaturgy reflects the radical changes underway in the field of dramaturgy and the theatre in general. The course seeks through practical exercises to introduce students to and equip them for the broadest variety of requirement profiles. Upon graduation, the budding dramaturg should know how to translate relevant themes, aesthetics and structures from the world around us into artistic productions, should have acquired basic knowledge and insights of opportunities and constraints in theatre management, and should be able, ideally, not only to reflect but also to project a model. Most of all, dramaturgs must look beyond the narrow garden fence of the genre. Rather than learning what is impossible, they should come up with ideas for making things possible. That is why the course at Ludwigsburg not only imparts knowledge needed to work in the present theatre environment, but also prepares graduates for an as yet unmapped future in the profession. Apart from providing insights into theatre life, we seek to foster a political sense of responsibility and a social imagination, to build familiarity with other artistic options, to sharpen awareness of the unconventional and the unknown, to cultivate an ability to express these in concepts and a willingness to prevail against commercial and political hurdles in the company and in society at large.

4. Links with practice: Knowing the theory is only half the story. To deepen these theoretical insights, the main focus of training at ADK lies with applying what has been learned and linking it with practical experience and work processes. In other words, students are involved as early as possible in artistic projects at the Academy or at theatres and other arts institutions outside. What makes our training opportunities so special are close, direct collaboration with the Academy’s own courses in Directing and Acting, courses at the Film Academy of Baden-Württemberg (e.g. Introduction to Scripts, Adaptations) and the Stage & Costume Design course run by ABK Stuttgart. Joint artistic projects and productions are regularly designed and implemented on the Academy site together with the students on these courses, so training provides an excellent early opportunity to form powerful artistic teams for the future. There are also cooperation agreements with theatres and arts institutions in the region willing to work partially and temporarily with the Academy’s students. Moreover, almost all the course tutors have a professional career at various theatres where placements can be made for work experience or subsequent employment.

5. The two-year M.A. course breaks down into ten focal themes or modules:

1. Theory and history of theatre
2. Culture theories
3. Text analysis, production analysis
4. Dramaturgical methods
5. Dramaturgical practice
6. Essentials of directing and acting
7. Production dramaturgy
8. Media dramaturgy, media theory
9. Dramaturgical activities in other areas, e.g. independent theatre, festivals, cinema, television and radio etc.
10. Theatre in the light of day: managing productions and theatres, planning budgets, fund-raising, contract law, stage rights, insurance, press and publicity, etc.

6. These modules entail different teaching events designed to ensure a balanced mix between the theoretical academic foundations and an applied practical training. The external tutors include both lecturers from other academic institutions and experienced teachers engaged in artistic practice at various theatres, including the independent community.
This approach is complemented by modules where students take part together in projects and workshops. Here the students take a thematic focus as their starting point to develop their own creative models. The aim is to form teams drawn from different courses and academies who can work independently.

To complete the course, students will work on their own as dramaturgs in a practical professional context (at a theatre such as Schauspiel Stuttgart or in their own projects or bigger productions either at the Academy or in an independent ensemble) and will produce a written dissertation (which can, but need not necessarily, relate to the practical project).
Our vision is to train students who work together to confront the new demands made by the theatre and who take pleasure in discovering and inventing new, contemporary theatre formats.

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