What is Dramaturgy? Some Answers From Our Members:

"As a dramaturg, I act as a chameleon; I research, edit, soundboard, educate, ask questions and encourage communication. In my opinion, being a dramaturg is being the outside eye, looking with distance and detail at a work, keeping a fresh outlook. "

-- Ellen Joffred, MFA Student at at Columbia University

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History of LMDA

Milestone #1

On the occasion of our 25^th anniversary, Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas devoted 2010 to remembering. And commemorating. And visioning. Over the past several months, we posted online a series of recollections about our history, our founding artists, and our accomplishments in that quarter of a century—reiterated in the narrative below. We hope that these posts have shed some light and have stirred some fond memories.

And so we begin.

The year was 1984. In January, Apple introduced its Macintosh personal computer. In October, Bishop Desmond Tutu’s Nobel Peace Prize was announced. In November, “Band-Aid” recorded its first charitable hit.

History of LMDA

Milestone #2

LMDA in the late 1980s was fueled by the passions of many people who worked collectively to move the organization forward through organizational leadership and conference hosting: Alexis Greene, Cynthia Jenner, David Copelin, Rick Davis, Steven Hart, Lynn M. Thomson, Mark Bly, Morgan Jenness, Susan Jonas, and a host of others.

The third annual conference, in June of 1988, was titled “Dramaturgy and the Creative Process” and was held at the O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Joe Chaikin gave a reading of his play Struck Dumb, co-authored with Jean-Claude van Itallie and commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum. At this conference, James Leverett was given an award for “Excellence in Dramaturgy.” Here is Leverett writing in the mid-80s in an article entitled “After the Revolution.”

History of LMDA

Milestone #3

Among LMDA‘s notable achievements over the past 25 years are these services to the profession.

The LMDA Review, currently an online, peer reviewed journal serving as the organization‘s voice of dramaturgy and, under the editorship of D. J. Hopkins, in the process of achieving MLA accreditation. Generations of editorial and other leadership include Rick Davis, Steven Hart, Carey Perloff, Anne Cattaneo, Geoff Proehl, and Shelley Orr.

The LMDA Script Exchange, founded by Lynn M. Thomson and Anne Cattaneo to establish national networking about new plays and to build a community of new play dramaturgs; in its first eight years alone, the Script Exchange published 35 issues that included reviews of more than 1,000 new plays.

History of LMDA