Jan 30-Feb 5: Heather Helinsky

Jan 30-Feb 5: Heather Helinsky  

Focus: "This is my first year as a guest dramaturg for KCACTF---and I give credit to that to the amazing Julie Felise Dubiner! My first thought was that I was grateful to the LMDA dramaturgs who have pushed to create the KCACTF dramaturgy awards, so going in I have a responsibility to champion our field. Since LMDA has been collaborating with KCACTF, I felt that it was a natural next step to bring the LMDA Twitter project to the festival. I hope, as I am working with the students in Region IV, that while sharing our experiences at KCACTF, we can pose questions to the wider LMDA Twitter universe. From looking at the materials the students sent me to evaluate, this is a talented group of aspiring dramaturgs. Perhaps even some students will introduce themselves via this LMDA Twitter project. I think it will be exciting to have a conversation with LMDA during the Festival so please, tweet back!"

Bio: Heather Helinsky received her MFA in Dramaturgy from the American Repertory Theatre/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. At the American Repertory Theatre, she dramaturged for directors Robert Woodruff, Krystian Lupa, Scott Zigler, Marcus Stern, and Sasha Marin. In season 2008-2009, she worked as Resident Dramaturg at Pittsburgh Public Theatre, where she organized events for the celebration of the final play of the August Wilson Cycle as well as the premiere of Edgerton grant play Harry's Friendly Service. In season 2009-2010, she worked with director Austin Pendleton on Terrence McNally's Golden Age at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Heather is dedicated to developing new American plays and reads for organizations like Sundance Theatre Lab, Great Plains Theatre Conference, PlayPenn and many others. As a freelance dramaturg, she has been developing new plays with Constance Congdon, Caridad Svich, Tom Gibbons, Toni Press-Coffman, Rob Zellers, Ellen Struve, Elaine Jarvik, and Matthew Ivan Bennett. She has been a member of LMDA since 2006. Website: www.helinskydramaturgy.com

Questions from LMDA

What is your definition of dramaturgy:

"Whenever I have to give my “elevator speech” for ‘what is a dramaturg?’, I break it down into three categories: 1. Pre-production dramaturgy (which covers everything from season planning, working with playwrights in the early phases of development, and sitting in on production meetings to understand the artistic choices being made)---to 2. Rehearsal Dramaturgy (which, of course, is constantly changing as you are supporting the research and artistic needs of the production)---to 3. Audience Engagement (which, for me, in addition to providing post-show discussions and panels, means inventing new ways for a play to reach new audiences). All these three phases overlap and personally I often need that three-tiered structure to help manage my time well on any given project. So, you can say I define dramaturgy by Time---and dramaturgy is certainly Time well spent!" 

What is your dream project?

"I think, in this economy, anyone who is determined to pursue a career in dramaturgy is living their dream. I like the challenge to use my imagination and creativity to find ways to make art and support the visions of fellow artists in less-than-perfect circumstances. As my life has taken many turns, I have been fortunate to work on productions and collaborate with innovative artists that I never would have dreamed was within my reach. My time in Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre School now has me wishing that I could one day return to the Moscow Art Theatre stage. Yet if I learned my lessons from Chekhov, dreaming of going back to Moscow perhaps isn’t the best dream to have! At the same time, with so many friends and neighbors without jobs or currently in the process of losing their jobs, my ideal project involves making theatre that speaks to them. There are a lot of people who could use the cathartic process that theatre provides in their lives right now! As someone who really enjoys the audience engagement part of the job, I believe dramaturgs are the type of leaders and well-read collaborators perfectly suited to make this happen if we are given the green light to reach out to audiences that are facing a lot of uncertainty and frustrated dreams."