A Dramaturg Speaks to Playwrights
Photo courtesy of Katie Gullickson.
In January 2020, I spoke to Margaret O’Donnell of The Salon about dramaturgy, working with playwrights, and my current projects.
Posted here are a few excerpts.
MOD: What’s the ideal a dramaturg can do for a playwright?
SK: The most fruitful dramaturg-playwright collaborations are going to be founded on trust. Same with dramaturg-director collaborations—probably the same as any artistic collaboration, come to think of it. It usually takes some time to develop that trust because it’s an intimate intellectual relationship.
MOD: What kinds of playwrights are your absolute favorites to work with?
SK: I like to work with playwrights that are hard-working, thoughtful, and generous. I am uninterested in working with playwrights whose ego eclipses their craft and playwrights who aren’t interested in expressing a point of view in their work.
MOD: When in the process of writing should a playwright begin work with a dramaturg?
SK: It totally depends on the play, the person, and their relationship with a dramaturg. Most often, I start to work with playwrights after they have completed a first draft, either in one-on-one meetings or in the context of a workshop.
There’s also a financial component to this question for me. You shouldn’t ask a dramaturg to read your play for free unless you already have a personal and/or collaborative relationship with that person. Think about it like a doctor: if your friend is an optometrist and you have an eye thing, you might ask them to look at your eye. But you wouldn’t Instagram DM your cousin’s optometrist and ask them for a free eye exam. So part of the answer to this question is that you should work with a dramaturg when you’re prepared to pay for it.
That said, it doesn’t have to be your money. If a theatre is producing your play or a workshop of your play, ask them to put a line item in the budget to pay a dramaturg. If you’re applying for grants, say you want to pay a dramaturg to support your work. I think few if any dramaturgs want to turn away collaborators because of money, but if you approach the conversations from a place of respect, like, okay, this is your job, that’s going to go a long way.
MOD: Your program notes and lobby displays for Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play at Seattle Public Theater this fall focused on current and historic US culture, history, and mythology, as well as a fascinating discussion of comedy and satire in theatre. While you directed these dramaturgical insights towards the audience, how can or should this broader context inform a playwright’s vision while writing a play? Is part of your work helping the playwright research and understand these underpinnings?
SK: Thanks for your kind words. I need to give props to Rachel Delmar, who runs marketing at Seattle Public Theater, for the lobby display and the post-show handout. Marketing is its own kind of dramaturgy and, in addition to being an accomplished theatre artist otherwise, Delmar is really good at it.
The plays I am most interested in right now are ones that are intentional about how they consider our current culture and sociopolitical climate, and for me, yeah, that’s going to require some understanding of history. A play is your chance to have people listen to you for over an hour and you’re not going to get political? That seems like a missed opportunity to me. The stakes are too high.