This Dramaturgy Database reflects our ongoing research of dramaturgy at Utrecht University. The database consists of (full text) interviews with Dutch and Flemish dramaturges, essays and reports on dramaturgy seminars and other documents that show how (Dutch) dramaturgy has developed in the past decennia.
A dramaturg at work (in orange boots).
Courtesy to dramaturgs Anna Wagner and Nele Beinborn (Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm), photo Gabriel Poblete
This picture perfectly captures the work of a dramaturg, which is strongly characterized by flexibility. As Bojana Kunst notes, ‘as a participant in the process, the dramaturg can occupy a variety of roles: those of practical dramaturg, producer, festival director, stage manager, writer, journalist, teacher, workshop leader, coach, lecturer, academic, artist, dancer, production network member, cultural politics advisor, mentor, friend, compass, memory, fellow traveller, mediator, psychologist. The complexity of the dramaturg’s profession – the affective ability to move between theoretical reflection and practical knowledge, to be an external eye and an involved participant at the same time – is often too hastily reduced to a sort of aesthetic elusiveness.’
Bojana Kunst, ‘The Economy of Proximity: Dramaturgical Work in Contemporary Dance.’ Performance Research 14.3 (September 2009): 81-88.
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Dramaturgy at the Eureka: An Interview with Oskar Eustis
An interview with director and dramaturg Oskar Eustis: Oskar Eustis was born and raised in Minnesota. He studied and worked in the New York avant-garde in the mid-70s, most notably with Mabou Mines, the Performance Group, Richard Foreman and the Iowa Theater Lab. In 1976 he founded Red Wing Theater Company, which performed in New York and across the country (including a residency at the Eureka in 1977). From 1978-1980 he co-founded and led the Laboratory Theater of the Schauspielhaus Zurich in Switzerland, as well as directed and taught throughout the German-speaking world. Since 1981 he has been a resident director and dramaturg at the Eureka. Recently he has directed *The Cherry Orchard* and *Husbandry* and co-directed *The Threepenny Opera* at the Eureka. He also co-directed *Execution of Justice* at Actors Theater of Louisville and in the Eureka/Berkeley Repertory/San Jose Repertory co-production.
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