June 29, 2001

A Good Director Doesn't Need a Dramaturg

By TERRY MCCABE

A generation or so ago, the dramaturg had virtually no place in the American theater. Nowadays it seems you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one. The dramaturg's emergence has been contemporaneous with -- and, I submit, caused by -- the growing decadence of the director's art.

Dramaturgy is an unappealing word but a vital idea. Its general definition encompasses almost the whole of theatrical activity, but in the context of what dramaturgs do, dramaturgy is a comprehensive

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