Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Drama is the specific mode of Fiction represented in Performance. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturge, to adapt a work to the stage. A dramaturge or dramaturg is a position within a theatre that deals mainly with research and development

Dramaturgy can also be defined, more broadly, as shaping a story or like elements into a form that can be acted. Dramaturgy gives the work or the performance a structure. More than actual writing, a dramaturg's work can often be defined as designing.

History of dramaturgy

Greek Philosopher Aristotle

In western canon the seminal work is Poetics by Aristotle (written around 350 BC). Aristotle 's Poetics ( Greek: Ποιητικός, c 335 BCE aims to give an account of what he calls 'poetry' (for him the term includes the Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. In this work Aristotle observes tragedy and comedy. He draws his conclusions by observing the Greek writers of his own time. We only have the half of his work which concerns tragedy, and he considers Oedipus Rex as the quintessential dramatic work. Oedipus the King ( Ancient Greek: tyrannos Modern Greek: ( "Oedipus the Tyrant" also known as Oedipus Rex, is a

Aristotle regards drama as a subsection of poetry, but he does analyze also the relations between character and action, speech, plot and the story. He gives examples of good plots and examines the reactions the plays awake in the audience. Many of his "rules" are often associated with "aristotelian drama", where deus ex machina is a weakness and where the action is structured economically. A deus ex machina ( lat. ˈdeːus eks ˈmaːkʰina literally "god from a/the machine" is an improbable Many key concepts of drama, such as anagnorisis and katharsis, are discussed in Poetica. Anagnorisis (ˌænəgˈnɒrɨsɨs ἀναγνώρισις also known as discovery originally meant Recognition in its Greek context not only of a person but also Catharsis ( Κάθαρσις) is a Greek word meaning "purification" "cleansing" or "clarification Lately Aristotle has been applied in numerous tv- and filmwriting guides, and the courses of "basic dramaturgy" usually rely heavily on Aristotle's thoughts.

In modern times, latter drama, especially absurdism and several avant-garde movements, have tried to break away from the aristotelian perspective. Aristotle's teachings have often been oversimplified, but it is fair to say that Poetica is the first western work on drama theory. It is also one of the few "academic" works that many artists find still useful. Many directors and writers have since written about their own dramaturgical thinking, Brecht, Grotowski and David Mamet among others. (born; 10 February 1898&ndash14 August 1956 was a German Poet, Playwright, and Theatre director. Jerzy Grotowski (11 August 1933 Rzeszów, Poland - 14 January 1999 Pontedera, Italy) was a Polish theatre director who developed David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American Author, Essayist, Playwright, Screenwriter and

See also symbolic interactionism, dramaturgical perspective. Symbolic interactionism is a major sociological perspective that is influential in many areas of the discipline Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective stemming from Symbolic interactionism.

Copyright

Since dramaturgy is defined in a general way and the function of a dramaturg can change from production to production, the U. S. copyright issues have very vague borders.

In 2006, there was debate based on the question of the extent to which a dramaturg owns a production, such as the case of Larson and Thompson. Thompson, Jonathan Larson's dramaturg on the musical Rent, claims she was a co-author of the work and that she never assigned, licensed or otherwise transferred her rights. Jonathan Larson ( February 4, 1960 – January 25, 1996) was an American Tony Award -winning Composer and Rent is a Rock musical, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini 's Opera La Bohème She asks that the court declare her a co-author of Rent and grant her 16% of the author's share of the royalties. Although she made her claim only after the show became a big hit, the case is not without precedent, for 15% of the royalties of Angels in America go to the author's dramaturg. Angels in America A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a play in two parts by American Playwright Tony Kushner.

External links

• A Brief History of Hollywood Dramaturgy and Modern Screenplay Structure
• Dramaturgy Northwest
• Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
• Dramaturgs'network, dramaturgy in the UK