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Dramaturgy Database

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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.

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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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European Dramaturgy in the 21st Century: a Constant Movement

Deze tekst is de openingstoespraak die Marianne van Kerkhoven hield op de conferentie ‘European Dramaturgy in the 21st Century’, die in september 2007 in Frankfurt am Main werd gehouden. In de toespraak gaat van Kerkhoven in op de manier waarop de wereld in de eenentwintigste eeuw veranderd is, wat de consequenties hiervan zijn en wat voor uitdagingen dit met zich mee brengt voor dramaturgen.

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