about me
Hi everyone! I'm Theresa, I am a senior studying art history, museum studies, and theatre, and I am the production dramaturg for Big Fish! While I have worked as an assistant stage manager, actor, director, and designer here, I am primarily a dramaturg and this is my fourth time working as one at jmu (my senior show ðŸ˜). You may have seen me for the first behind the table at auditions and callbacks or have worked with me before, but either way, i'm thrilled to be working with you all this semester.
You'll hear more about me and my role as the process continues, but please know that I am here as a resource to you all. I am here to answer your questions, chat with you, or even just to do a quick google search. Here's the info about how to best contact me!
about dramaturgy
If you aren't sure what a dramaturg is or what their purpose is, you are not alone! The role of the dramaturg is very fluid and can change depending on what the production needs. The dramaturgy (as a noun) is the dramatic structure, language, theme, music, and characters of a play, and how those elements work together to make meaning. According to Beehive Dramaturgy Studio, a dramaturg is someone "on the creative team whose primary task is to support the play's development by asking key questions, starting conversations, researching, providing context, and helping the artists as they work together to tell the intended story."
Think of me as the mediator between the play, the team, and the audience. I am a resource for asking and facilitating questions and conversations about our show; this can be through research, historical context, questions, a removed point of view, a helper for the director/artistic team, and more depending on the needs of the production. Exploring the dramaturgy of a musical is a collaborative effort that every person on the team is participating in.
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If you'd like some examples, check here for the full Beehive article or here for an article from Dramatics Magazine.