Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy

Welcome!

For a document friendly version of the following information, click here: KCACTF Region 7 Dramaturgy Area Participation Guide. This document will be updated as new programming opportunities are added.

We welcome any and all students, staff, and faculty to participate in the programming in the dramaturgy area during the Festival in February 2024 in Spokane, Washington. Participants can elect to participate in the regional programming in one or more of the following ways:

  • Share works-in-progress to get feedback at the regional level by attending the Dramaturgy Works-in-Progress Session (session time TBA). 
  • Submit completed dramaturgical work for the LMDA/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award (one person from each region will be selected for this honor).
  • Participate in dramaturgy workshops at the festival in Spokane, WA. A full list of workshop titles and descriptions can be found below and will be updated as more information is available.

Questions on how to participate? Reach out to Dramaturgy Area Coordinator, Sarah Campbell at sarahcampbell@uidaho.edu.

Celebrating In-Progress Works

A new event this year at the festival is our Dramaturgy Works-in-Progress Session. This session is designed for students who are currently working as a dramaturg on a project or who might be starting a project soon. The goals for the session are to provide:

  • an opportunity to reflect on practice,
  • information on preparing the project for submission for the KCACTF/LMDA Student Dramaturgy Award next festival year,
  • a space to learn from other student dramaturgs,
  • a space to share strategies and experiences with others,
  • and time to ask questions about an upcoming or ongoing project.

Dramaturgy Area Coordinator Sarah Campbell will lead the session. Anyone is welcome to attend (even if they don’t have something they are actively working on). Faculty and staff might find the session valuable in hearing what kinds of challenges come up for student dramaturgs. Faculty directors and designers are encouraged to participate alongside their student dramaturgs whenever possible.

KCACTF/LMDA Student Dramaturgy Award & Regional Recognition

The LMDA/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award is designed to recognize student dramaturgs who show promise as participants in the diverse landscape of professional dramaturgy. Because dramaturgical work is so often intangible, the application process aims to create space for students to demonstrate how they have tuned their contributions to the needs of a college- or university-sponsored workshop, production, or dramaturgy course. The philosophical foundation of this program rests in the belief that the most effective professional dramaturgs develop an ever-evolving sensibility rather than a rigid set of practices. Such dramaturgs embrace the importance of self-reflection and learning in ways that allow them to tailor their creative work to the needs of each play, production team, and/or audience.

This initiative is the result of a unique collaboration between Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), the professional association of dramaturgs and literary managers working in North America, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), a national program dedicated to improving the quality of college and university theater in the United States. Additional support is provided by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).

About the Award

Students from each region will be nominated for this award. Regional fellowship recipients will receive membership in LMDA (Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas).

Each of the eight regional award recipients will have their project reviewed by a National Selection Panel, convened by the Kennedy Center, who will choose the most promising four student dramaturgs to receive an all-expense paid residency at the National Festival at the Kennedy Center in mid-April, and multi-day workshops with leading artists in both production and new play dramaturgy.

The recipients of the National LMDA/KCACTF Fellowships will receive a one-year membership in ATHE (Association for Theatre in Higher Education), and a one-year membership in LMDA. Students will also be considered for such learning opportunities as fellowships at the O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and the Kennedy Center/National New Play Network MFA Playwrights’ Workshop.

If you are selected as the Region 7 winner of the Student Dramaturgy award, your submission will be forwarded to the National Festival organizers. This information is up-to-date as of November 16, 2023, but is subject to change. For the most recent information, please visit the National page. 

Philosophy of the Recognition and Awards

We are interested in cultivating student interest in the field of dramaturgy and we encourage students to submit any and all projects – whether those were part of coursework or part of a production. We recognize that students at institutions across our region have unequal access to mentors in the field of dramaturgy and thus we do not privilege applications consisting of full dramaturgical casebooks over materials that focus on one space of intervention like program essays, websites, packets, etc. 

We value divergent dramaturgical thinking and methods and encourage students to submit projects that challenge and expand the field of dramaturgy. Applications are evaluated according to their own standards, i.e., how the student describes their goals and process of working on the production and the way that they evaluate their own process and method of working. More information on the criteria for evaluation can be found below.

Awards and Recognition

There are two types of awards or recognition that we give in this region:

  1. LMDA/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award (students receiving this award have the opportunity to participate in national level programming), for more information, see below. 
  2. Other region-level recognition, as determined each year by the respondents.

If you would like to submit an application to be considered for the LMDA/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award or other regional-level recognition, you will need to apply at the following link: https://kcactf.submittable.com/submit/274623/lmda-kcactf-student-dramaturgy-award. Complete this form by January 15, 2024*.

*Note: the only way to be considered for the National KCACTF/LMDA Student Dramaturgy Award is by completing the application on Submittable. Students may opt to share their dramaturgy work at the regional level through other dramaturgy programming. Further information on this programming will be available very soon!

Program Participation Eligibility

All undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to participate, as long as they have completed one of the following at a college or university during the calendar year prior to the Regional Festival:

  • Work as a credited dramaturg on a full production or new-play workshop
  • A class assignment with an explicitly dramaturgical focus

The Application Form

The application form is hosted on a platform called Submittable, where you will be able to easily upload all necessary components of the application. The application will ask you to:

  • Provide contact and eligibility details.
  • Send a Reference Form to a faculty member or other professional collaborator who has agreed to speak about your work on the project.
  • Write short reflective statements (150-250 words) addressing three of the following questions:
    • How did you approach the work of researching and analyzing the play?
    • What moments of joy did you experience during this process?
    • How did you adjust your goals in response to project needs?
    • How did you overcome challenges that arose during the process?
    • How did you navigate the relationship between your individual work and that of the rehearsals and/or design conferences?
  • Select, organize, and upload the materials that best represent your process and/or dramaturgical sensibility. These items may include emails, pictures of your display, screenshots of webpages, presentations, content shared with project participants or instructor, and/or videos.
    • Please Note: Although we have set a limit of 100 pages for these uploaded documents, we encourage you to focus on the quality and not quantity of the materials you select.
  • Write an introduction to the materials you have uploaded, briefly explaining why you created them for this project (150-250 words).
  • Write a brief statement (150-250 words) answering one of the following questions:
    • Takeaways: How has this project helped you understand how to improve your dramaturgical work? What aspects of your work will you bring into your next project?
    • Uniqueness: Where are you in this work? If someone else had dramaturged this production, how would it have been different?
    • Impact: How did your individual participation affect the whole? (To address this aspect of your work, we encourage you to invite statements from collaborators who can speak to your intangible contributions.)
    • Dramaturgical Vision: How does this project fit into your overall creative work and plans for the future?
  • Confirm your intent to attend your Regional Festival, where you will display, present, and receive feedback about your work.
  • If applicable, briefly tell us about an aspect of your work that you haven’t yet explained in your previous answers.

Application Materials are due February 5, 2024. For more information on the student dramaturgy award, visit the KCACTF National Dramaturgy page.

Feedback Process

At the Regional 7 Festival, students will participate in conversations with professional dramaturgs, members of LMDA who live in each region, and other qualified Respondents about the following elements of their work:

  1. Creativity: What is unique or innovative about your approach to the work? Where is your dramaturgical sensibility visible?
  2. Collaboration: How did the perspectives of your collaborators affect the choices you made throughout the process?
  3. Contextualization: How did the play itself guide your research and analysis?
  4. Self-Awareness: How does your ability to self-reflect help position you for continued dramaturgical work?

Apply for the Dramaturgy program in Region 7