Doing Dramaturgy

On the 21st and 22nd April, I had the pleasure of spending two days in the company of dramaturg, Lou Cope at the ‘Doing Dramaturgy’ workshop. An inspiring group of choreographers, dramaturg’s, writers and creative professionals were taking part in the workshop, which took place at South East Dance Studio’s in Hextable.

Over the course of two days, Lou introduced us to the role of a dramaturg and what they can bring to a creative process. She also offered tools and methodologies that could be used to take a dramaturgical approach to making work that we could apply to our own practice. Lou lead the group through the processes of PREPARE, MAKE and PRESENT, explaining how a dramaturg can be involved in every stage of the creative journey.

This was a inspirational for me. The discussion brought my creativity to the forefront of my thinking and I was reminded how important artistry is when developing new work. As many people know, creating work can often become all about creating partnerships, sourcing funding and the logistics of the project; it seems the artistic exploration takes a back seat at times. This workshop re-energised my excitement for DFDC’s new work (The Princess Alice project) and sparked new inspiration. Listening to Lou speak about her work made me realised that the skills of a dramaturg would be hugely beneficial to my next creative process! I have also left with skills that I can apply for myself when researching, developing and presenting work.

It was also a wonderful opportunity to meet such a fantastic group of people. Each and every person had a different professional background and a wealth of knowledge to share with the group. Across two days, a sense of community was developed and I hope that this is allowed to flourish into future working relationships.

A Dramaturg-