"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!" 

-- Heather Helinsky, Freelance Dramaturg