Examples of What Dramaturgs Do - Part 3 - Actor Packets

Hopefully the actors in a play want to learn and study up about their roles at least a little bit about the play by themselves. It certainly helps if they try to learn something, especially if the director likes to consider the actors' interpretations, infections, and movements.

However, it is likely that actors don't have the time to go into deep research when preparing for a role. After all, they have to work on memorizing lines and blocking. When a dramaturg makes an actor packet, information to learn about the play is put into a short concise packet for the actors.

In a way, an actor packet may seem similar to an educational packet. However, an educational packet is geared more towards K through 12 students and the type of packet made will depend on the grade level of the students. However, an actor packet will be the same for all of the actors.

An actor will obviously know what the play is, but an actor's packet will have a quick summary of the play. If it is an adaptation or a related to another play in a significant way, that information will also be included. The main information given will be about the themes in the play. While a dramaturg may start with one of the simple sites such as Sparknotes or Schmoop to get a jump into things, this is not where a dramaturg actually finds the information given other than perhaps a significant sentence or two. Those sites should not be treated like a main point of research, but rather a starting point to find research if, for some reason, it is difficult to figure out where to start with research about a play.

A dramaturg will do deeper research about the play from scholastic sources. These sources will be cited in the text and listed on a works cited page. That way other members of the theatre production can read the documents if they want. If the play is Waiting for Godot, it is likely that a dramaturg will do deeper research into the themes of waiting, choices, truth, time, religion, friendship, and more. These themes will be researched in context of the play and specific occurrences in the play with these themes will be mentioned. Actors can then read the information and try to use it in their interpretations of the lines.

If there is something significant about the type or types of theatre in which the play falls, some information about that will also be given. A little bit about absurdism and how absurdism might be used or understood in Waiting for Godot are used will probably be in an actor's packet, too. There will also be a short bit about the history of significant past productions of the play along with why they were significant.

Examples of What Dramaturgs Do - Part 2 - Educational Packets

Theatres often engage in educational activities. They will bring shows to schools and will provide educational packets to the schools for use with the students who are going to see the play. A dramaturg may be in charge of handing making the educational packets. At the least, the dramaturg would be involved in helping a team to create the packets.

Perhaps a theatre is going to stage a production of West Side Story. Most theatre artists know that this musical is basically an adaptation or a spin off of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. However, this is not a fact that is known by tons of people. It is definitely something that can be taught in a classroom.

A dramaturg would most likely start a worksheet or a presentation that begins with this fact. Then there would likely be an overview of the characters in West Side Story and an overview of the character in Romeo and Juliet. After that, there would probably be comparing and contrasting the characters in the two plays.

Other things covered in an education packet would be themes, language comparison between the current work and the source material, important facts to know about the type(s) of theatre for the play and the source material, and information about the author(s) of the play.

Examples of What Dramaturgs Do - Part 1 - Counter Text

Dramaturgs basically need to know everything about theatre. They have to be obsessed with it. One easy explanation that people give is that dramaturgs are the glue between everybody in the theatre. They know at least a little about everything or are willing to research it.

One thing a dramaturg may do is find counter text. Counter text is information that can parallel a play. A director may want to produce a play in such a way that he can make it relevant to the time, place, and/or culture where the performance will take place - depending on if doing such a thing is legal (copyright law, following contracts, etc.)

There are translations of the play Lysistrata that are in the public domain. A director may have a concept that the dramaturg researches or the dramaturg may research concepts and bring them to the director to then find out which concept to continue researching. Either way, let's assume that somehow the director and dramaturg have figured out that while the play is about women withholding sex from their husbands so they won't go off to war, they want to make it so it seems like it is about the culture of sit-ins and the authorities that deal with that. The dramaturg is then tasked with finding what is called counter text.

The dramaturg is going to look for both text about the play and text about sit-ins. She is going to write notes and show where parallels occur. She is going to work with the director and the costume designer to figure out of costumes can be updated to fit the concept. What did students who did sit-ins wear? What were the teachers wearing?

She is going to work with the director and the set designer to see if they want to make the set look like a school or a classroom - or something else. Maybe the protest is outside on a street. Or perhaps it is on a stairway in front of a building. She is going to help them figure out how to make the stage look like they want it.

All of the things she is going to do are going to originate from what is found in the text about the play and the counter text.

Dramaturgy - What is it?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines dramaturgy as a noun that means "Dramatic composition, the dramatic art" or "Dramatic of theatrical acting." Merriam-Webster defines dramaturgy as "the art or technique of dramatic composition and theatrical representation." The best small definition given by a dictionary is probably found at Dictionary.com which defines dramaturgy as "the craft or the techniques of dramatic composition." Jokingly, TDF Theatre Dictionary defines dramaturgy as theatre's most misunderstood field in terms of what we do and how we do it." While the definition is a joke, it is completely true.

Many people, including many directors, think that dramaturgy is only looking into the history of performances of the play. They will ask about ones that are significant and why. While this can be a small part of what a dramaturg (or dramaturge) does, it is not the only part.

Dramaturgs research plays. They look into many different aspects and report on many different things to the theatrical cast and crew, usually first to the director, but a dramaturg may report to others if that is the way a theatre has the organization set up. A dramaturg can help with many things such as lesson plans, play announcements, set design, costume design, and more. What is odd is that the more anybody tries to pin down a definition of dramaturgy, the more wide it becomes as one definition cannot encapsulate everything.

A dry and boring overview of dramaturgy is found in the following video (it is reading the wikipedia article).



I have been busy all day long, so this post does count as my Sunday, February 25 post.

Scoring a Monologue, Part 4 - Putting It All Together

Now that I have covered objectives, stressing words, and beats, it is time to put scoring a monologue all together. If you haven't already gathered, Julie's objective here is to get Alice to understand that she is having a difficult time and that her way of coping with it is by getting drunk. What you don't see in this monologue is the other part of the play. Alice could be anybody. It so happens that in the play, Alice is Julie's roommate who copes with things by eating and overeating, too. However, in general, for a performance of just the monologue, that does not matter. Julie wants Alice, w whoever she is, to understand.

So, now that the objective is clear, it would be time to put emotions into the monologue as well as mark the stressed words and beats. When I started marking my monologue, it was actually a huge mess because I had a copy and just printed it and was writing in pencil all over my paper. Eventually I decided I needed it typed it up with spacing. What I am showing you now is a way I've made my markings much neater by typing what I had marked. However, to give you an idea of how a completely scored monologue may look, this is an idea. (And sorry about the last "Matter-of-factly," being selected. I just didn't get it unselected before taking my screen shot. It doesn't mean anything).

Remember, though, that everybody is going to score monologues differently. There is no right or wrong. Scoring a monologue is not something that is for grading (hopefully not, anyway), but for personal use to understand better how you would perform a monologue.

Scoring a Monologue, Part 3 - Beats

Today I promised to cover beats in a monologue. The thing is that there is no one specific definition to a beat. Different theatre artists may use the word differently. Just know that in general, a beat means a unit of action. It is thought that Stanislavsky actually said,"bit," but with his Russian accent, it was understood as "beat."

If we take a look at Hamlet, one person might define all of this action as a single beat.

BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
BERNARDO
Long live the king!
FRANCISCO
Bernardo?
BERNARDO
He.

The unit of action the person would be describing is the entrance to where the characters are certain they recognize each other. I personally feel that it is long for a beat, but it is possible.

I would personally define the first beat of Hamlet as

BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.

This is because it is one interaction of Bernardo asking a question and Francisco answering it.

However, another definition of beat, especially for a monologue, is where a mood change happens in the dialogue. While my video may not exactly match my markings in my monologue, the markings helped me perform my monologue. For this post, I am only going to separate beats with slashes, but in reality, my monologue had the underlined stressed words and the slashes for the beats.

Here is what it looks like with just the beats separated:

I'm doing fine, thank you. Today's an off day. / Usually I do fine./ I get numb. I wander through supermarkets and life like a zombie. Never getting upset. Never getting angry . . . / I did go shopping today. but / I had to leave. I stood in the jams and jellies for /fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes, Alice. I couldn't decide . . ./ Mint Jelly or Orange Marmalade. I didn't know what I wanted . . . And for the first time in my life it / pissed me off. (She takes a drink) . . . I wanted to smash every jar on the shelf. Run through every aisle and knock everything to the floor. I wanted to / explode! . . . / But, I didn't. I was a good girl. / I went home and started drinking. (She sips at her drink)./ And I will continue to drink. Until the zombie returns. Until everything gets numb again.

If I needed it, I would double space the monologue and write the emotion that Julie is feeling above the part of the monologue in which she is feeling that emotion.

One more thing about beats is that some people definite a beat as the smallest portion of a script. So, if a character picks up a telephone receiver, that is one beat. If the character then places the receiver on his ear, that's another beat. If the character says, "Hello," that's a third beat.

Since beat is not clearly defined, it has taken me a long time to understand what the word means. It takes time to understand these concepts.

Scoring a Monologue, Part 2 - Stressing Words and a Little Bit About Beats

When it comes to scoring a monologue, it is important for you to know which words you are going to stress. A monologue may already have some clues in it. For example, the monologue that I perform from Pizza Man from Darlene Craviotto already has the word "Usually" in italics. I know that this means it is stressed. The way the punctuation is also makes it obvious when sentences aren't quite whole and when Julie (that's the character who says these lines) pauses in odd places. However, not everything is marked.

I'm doing fine, thank you. Today's an off day. Usually I do fine. I get numb. I wander through supermarkets and life like a zombie. Never getting upset. Never getting angry . . . I did go shopping today. but I had to leave. I stood in the jams and jellies for fifteen minutes. Fiften minutes, Alice. I coldn't decide . . . Mint Jelly or Orange Marmalde. I didn't know what I wanted . . . And for the first time in my life it pissed me off. (She takes a drink) . . . I wanted to smash every jar on the shelf. Run through every aisle and knock everything to the floor. I wanted to explode! . . . But, I didn't. I was a good girl. I went home and started drinking. (She sips at her drink). And I will continue to drink. Until the zombie returns. Until everything gets numb again.

Everybody scores their monologues in different ways. There is no one right way to do this. What matters is that it works for you. However, what my teacher did when I was working on this monologue was to have me underline the words that I would stress. This worked well for me.

It may not be the exact way it seems I perform the monologue, but I try to stick to what I decided. So, when marking words for emphasis, my monologue looked something like this:

I'm doing fine, thank you. Today's an off day. Usually I do fine. I get numb. I wander through supermarkets and life like a zombie. Never getting upset. Never getting angry . . . I did go shopping today. but I had to leave. I stood in the jams and jellies for fifteen minutes. Fiften minutes, Alice. I coldn't decide . . . Mint Jelly or Orange Marmalde. I didn't know what I wanted . . . And for the first time in my life it pissed me off. (She takes a drink) . . . I wanted to smash every jar on the shelf. Run through every aisle and knock everything to the floor. I wanted to explode! . . . But, I didn't. I was a good girl. I went home and started drinking. (She sips at her drink). And I will continue to drink. Until the zombie returns. Until everything gets numb again.

These are my choices for this monologue. You may have different choices for it.

As for beats, while sometimes the word beat is used for a short pause, that's not what it means. A beat is a unit of action. It can mean a unit of action between two characters or a unit of action for when a mood changes with one character. There are many beats for when Julie's mood changes in this piece.

I'll address more about the beats in this piece tomorrow.

Scoring a Monologue - Part 1, Objectives

When it comes to scoring a monologue, there is no one "right way" to accomplish this. Scoring a monologue means that you are marking it to help you understand that choices that you and the character are making.

There are questions that you should ask yourself.

What is the character's objective? Why is the character saying these things now and at this time?

What is the character feeling?

When does the mood change in the dialogue?

This is just a beginning to scoring a monologue. Objectives are extremely important in acting. What does a character want? Is this want something that can be attained without talking to other people? Is this only an internal want? Is what is wanted only attainable through another character? What is the character going to do or say in order to get the other character to help them achieve getting what they want? Is the character going to get what is wanted or is it going to fail? How is the character going to react to whatever happens?

All of it matters. All of it is made in choices in how a monologue is delivered.

Tomorrow, I'll address more of this with dealing with choices and beats.

Shrek comes to Lake Charles

"Once upon a time, there was a little ogre named Shrek...." And thus begins the tale of an unlikely hero who finds himself on a life-changing journey alongside a wisecracking Donkey and a feisty princess who resists her rescue. Throw in a short-tempered bad guy, a cookie with an attitude and over a dozen other fairy tale misfits, and you've got the kind of mess that calls for a real hero. Luckily, there's one on hand... and his name is Shrek." - Music Theatre International

This magical once upon a time is going to be happening in Lake Charles, LA! That's right, Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey, and a whole host of other fairy tale creatures will be in Lake Charles, LA at ACTS Theatre at 1 Reid St.

This is an amazing cast and crew and an amazing director.

I don't know all of the magic that is yet to come, but I do know that this show is definitely going to be magical.

Don't miss Casey Doucet as Shrek, Kristen Harrell as Princess Fiona, Julian Quebedeaux as Donkey, and Damien Thibodeaux as Lord Farquaad.

It is said that it is difficult to work with children. You won't be able to tell because the children in this show know exactly what they are supposed to do and they are always on cue.

Shrek: The Musical is directed by Walt Kiser.

Head over to the ACTS website to buy tickets - $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $15 for students.

You can see Shrek on these dates.

• February 24, 7:30pm
• February 25, 3:00pm
• March 3, 7:30pm
• March 4, 3:00pm
• March 9, 7:30pm
• March 10, 7:30pm
• March 11, 3pm

***NOTE*** Caution for those with sensory issues. There will be strobe lighting, a fog machine, and a few loud dragon roars.

Emotions in Acting - Part 3

I promised that I would tell how the emotions for that piece came. My teacher worked with me on this. I didn't focus on a person for this monologue. He had me pick a certain object and he had me imagine it was somebody to whom I might say these types of things. I don't drink (that wasn't real alcohol in my cup). I don't know that sensation. However, I do know what it is like to get angry at somebody for accusing me of something I did or didn't do. I do know what it is like to get angry at somebody for accusing me of a personality characteristic of mine that the person wants to change.

I ended up picking my sister.

Of course, before this, it was memorization work on the monologue. That is pretty much something that is done on your own. I may have not had the monologue perfectly down, but it was close. My teacher then had me not recite the monologue at all. Instead, I was talking to the person I imagined when picking the object on which to focus (it was a ladder that happened to be in the house of the theatre at that point - but it could have been any spot or object).

I could imagine being angry at my sister for a number of reasons. There have been many like I've not cleaned something when I've cleaned an area many times, but she thinks I've not because it is a mess because of either herself or her dogs constantly messing it up. Perhaps she thinks I don't try to find work to be able to provide when I try to find jobs and my schooling is also to help so I can find work with that.

He had me talk or yell, just off the top of my head, to these scenarios. After that, I he told me to remember those emotions, but then to go back to the monologue and use them in it. Where did the same emotions fit? Was I able to calm down after being angry? How did I sound when I did that? Where would I apply that in the monologue?

After working on that monologue, it is still one of my favorites, if not my favorite, that I know to this day.

Emotions in Acting - Part 2

When I was taking theatre classes at McNeese State University in order to earn my undergraduate degree in theatre, I had to work on different monologues for the degree. One of the ones I found was a monologue from the play Pizza Man by Darlene Craviotto.

I have seen other people perform this monologue on YouTube videos. However, what I find is that all of them seem to be extremely bland when I hear them.

This is the least numb of them that I've found. She obviously made a lot of different choices than I made. However, to me, it still seems like it is almost just one mood throughout the whole monologue, almost just racing through it.



Sorry that I don't have any professional video equipment and that my sister is not a very good videographer. However, neither of those are the point of this blog. The point of this blog is to focus on theatrical things. It is to focus on live theatre, the shows, the actors, techniques, etcetera. So, here is how I perform the monologue:



You can hear that I go from being calm to being annoyed. Then I'm not only annoyed, I'm angry. However, once I'm angry, I don't want to be angry, so I calm myself down - acting as Julie - who uses alcohol to solve her problems. So, I act as if that is what I am doing. I'm Julie and I'm using valid emotions to perform this monologue.

In my next post, I'll continue with emotions in acting and how performing this monologue in this manner came to be.

Emotions in Acting

When it comes to dialog in theatre, emotions are extremely important. I wanted to address this a little bit. I don't have much ready for it right now, but it is important. Obviously, it is also important in movie and television acting. They say (and it can be seen), that people with theatre training are also the best actors in movies and in television. There are differences, but this is not about that.

There is a monologue that I found in a play. I love the monologue. The play is fairly good, but it is the monologue that I truly love. I have found others performing the same monologue and I am always shocked at how mundane it seems when they perform the monologue.

I understand that the character says, "I get numb," but I don't interpret that as she has a flat mood. It has made her feel numb, but she still has extremely strong emotions.

I will write more about this monologue and emotions later, but that is where I wanted to start.

Crowns at Lake Charles Little Theatre

Lake Charles Little Theatre is currently showing their production of Crowns by Regina Taylor.

The description of the play from Dramatists.com is "A moving and celebratory musical play in which hats become a springboard for an exploration of black history and identity as seen through the eyes of a young black woman who has come down South to stay with her aunt after her brother is killed in Brooklyn. Hats are everywhere, in exquisite variety, and the characters use the hats to tell tales concerning everything from the etiquette of hats to their historical and contemporary social functioning. There is a hat for every occasion, from flirting to churchgoing to funerals to baptisms, and the tradition of hats is traced back to African rituals and slavery and forward to the New Testament and current fashion. Some rap but predominantly gospel music and dance underscore and support the narratives. The conclusion finds the standoffish young woman, whose cultural identity as a young black Brooklyn woman has been so at odds with the more traditional and older Southern blacks, embracing hats and their cultural significance as a part of her own fiercely independent identity."

I often don't go to a play on opening night. If I can, I often try to find a time I can go to one of the performances of a play between opening and closing to give the cast and crew the time to get used to performing the play and then to not have those last performance blues of knowing this is the last time that they are going to be in that exact play with that exact cast. However, sometimes due to my schedule, going to an opening night performance can't be avoided and that was the case this time.

As to the play, I found the beginning a little bit confusing at first. It almost seemed more like a fashion show interspersed with stories. Which, if that's how fashion shows worked, they would become much more interesting.

However, as the play moved on, I understood what was happening. From the description from Dramatists, I would say that there really isn't any rap in the play, but some rhythmical poetry and dance. At times, it seemed a little heavy on the gospel, but the majority of the play happens inside of a church, so that's how it is going to be. It also seems light on the history of the culture of hats in mainland Africa. However, it is educational and informative. I did not know why so many blacks tend to wear fancy hats to worship services and gatherings. I now understand more of the significance even if I don't agree with all of the interpretation that is put to some of the Biblical passages.

The young girl is Yolanda and the part near the end where she is baptized into the church is a metaphor for her understanding the significance of hats for her culture. She's come from completely disagreeing with her culture to accepting it.

As for Lake Charles Little Theatre, the cast is amazing. The preacher (who also takes on multiple other roles throughout the play) is played by Lake Charles veteran actor Michael Davis. If you haven't seen him in a Lake Charles theatre production, you need to see a production with him in it.

Yolanda is played by a young upcoming actress named Madline Breauchelle Smith. She has been an actress in school plays and Louisiana Baptist Youth Encampment in New Orleans. This is her second play in Lake Charles. Her first was Elf, Jr. with Lake Charles Christian Youth Theatre.

Other cast members include Rev. Mary Guidry-Ringo as Mother Shaw, Martha Reynolds as Wanda, Connie Major as Mabel, Mildred Linvgston-Smith as Velma, and Linda Staves as Jeanette. The play is directed by Dan Sadler.

The costuming is bright and colorful, definitely a treat for the eyes. Yet, it is not garish to where it is distracting.

If you like to learn and you aren't afraid of possibly crying at some sad stories as told in the little vignettes that hold the play together (teaching Yolanda), this play is one that you need to go see.

The production is being held at 7:30pm on February 17, 23, 24, March 2, 3 and 3pm on February 18, 25, and March 4.

52 Plays in 52 Weeks

This reading plays challenge to read 52 plays in a year, is something that I want to do. However, I would want to replace the plays that I've read or seen with other plays so that it would be a good challenge for me. Right now, I'm currently reading three books at once (because I keep sa saying that I won't read more than one book at a time, but then I keep ending up reading more than one book at a time because of different reasons - I may forget to bring a book somewhere, so I pick up a different one if it is available or something interesting catches my eye, so then I pick up that book instead of continuing to read the book I'm reading . . . )

Edit: Actually, I need to read (or see) M. Butterfly. If I end up seeing the play, I'd count it, too.

Anyway, it has a good list, but there are a few I'd have to replace.

• Our Town by Thornton Wilder
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• Noises Off by Michael Frayn
• Doubt by John Patrick Shanley
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
• A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
• A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
• Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner
• for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange (not yet, but perhaps soon)
• The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco
• Fences by August Wilson
• Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
• M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang
• The Odd Couple by Neil Simon
• The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? by Edward Albee

I've surprised myself. I didn't realize that I knew that many plays. Obviously, these aren't even all of the plays that I know. I'm glad that there's also, this list of 32 plays you need to read. There are some there that could replace the listed ones above, although some of them are the ones listed above and some I still know.

Once I get into the challenge, I will update on how it is going.

Theatre Lessons and More!

I've always been a theatre geek, so coming "clean" in the last post was fun. I've gotten caught up in many things. I've taken my theatre geekery and I've turned that into a graduate school career. I hoping to teach at the university or community college level. I would be fine working at the high school or middle school level, though. Theatre Geeks like me probably teach and are involved in theatre, too. So, be on the lookout for lessons and information about shows that I know about, mostly in Lake Charles, LA, but I may know of more, too. This blog will become much more informative (here's hoping) rather than that first post and this post. - Theatre Geek