"Brian Quirt, a former president of LMDA, defined it as “the exploration of stories and how they are told in the theater.” I truly like that definition. So I would like to add to it.

Dramaturgy is the exploration of stories and how they are told in the theater, and a dramaturg does this in a number of ways

1)   A dramaturg can introduce the story to an audience

    a.     As a Literary Manager discovering new plays for a theater

    b.     As a translator

    c.      As an adaptor

    d.     As an aid to a playwright who is constructing a new story for the stage

2)   A dramaturg can explore the story

    a.     In rehearsal as a production dramaturg

    b.     By writing scholarly essays on the story

    c.      By writing criticism

    d.     As a teacher helping students discover these stories

A dramaturg has the opportunity (and the absolute pleasure) of looking at a story for the theater from conception, through production, and even reflect upon it after the production is done, and present all those facets to the world. How cool is that?"

-- Debra Cardona-DePeahul, Dramaturg at Classical Theatre of Harlem