Newly updated for 2007-08!

LMDA/ATHE/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award

Click here to download application: Dramaturgy Application-1.doc
For more information, contact:  jdolph@ucok.edu

Information and Guidelines

The LMDA/ATHE/ KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award recognizes contributions by student dramaturgs to the conception, development and production of theater within their colleges and universities, or to educational projects in dramaturgy.  The philosophical foundation of this award – like that of dramaturgy itself – rests in the belief that art benefits from examination on the parts of both artist and audience, and that creative inspiration accompanied by analysis and reflection is most likely to lead to productions and projects that fulfill the spiritual, social and personal potential of the theatrical event.

Also inherent in the guidelines is the belief that the dramaturg should participate fully and uniquely in the collaborative act of making theater and in promoting social discourse around the theatrical event.  To validate the significance of the dramaturg’s contributions – and to raise awareness of dramaturgy in the academic field – we require a letter of nomination from a faculty member.

This award 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; the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) which promotes excellence in theatre education; 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.  Three judges, at least one professional dramaturg, along with active members of ATHE and KCACTF who live in each region will select the winner of that region’s Student Award in Dramaturgy. To be eligible, a student must be at a university who has entered at least one production as an associate entry.

What does the award entail?
The winner of the 2008 LMDA/ATHE KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award will receive a $100 cash prize and one year’s membership in LMDA.   

Who is eligible?
Undergraduate and graduate students who work specifically as the dramaturg on a production or workshop, or who submit work created for a dramaturgy class are eligible.  If the project is a workshop or production, the student must be credited as the dramaturg.  A student who also writes, directs, designs, performs in, or otherwise collaborates on a project will be responsible for articulating the boundaries of the dramaturgical work and speaking on its behalf.  The student need not be enrolled full-time to submit work for this award.  Projects must be completed (plays closed, workshops completed, projects turned in) by December 1, 2007 to be eligible.  Projects completed after December 1, 2007 may be submitted for this award the following year.
 
How to apply

• Fill out the downloadable application form, identifying the dramaturg and the project and including two statements written by the dramaturg: Dramaturgy Application.doc
• Enclose a letter of nomination from a faculty member.  If you wish, you may include more letters of support from persons directly related to the project – collaborating artists or audience members for a workshop or production, or fellow students/teachers in a classroom project.
• Submit three copies of the entire application packet to:        

• The postmark deadline is December 1, 2007.

Award Criteria:

• Distinctiveness: what is creative about the dramaturg’s approach and/or analysis?
• Contextualization:  how is the production or project enhanced by dramaturgical analysis or research; alternatively, how is the academic project in dramaturgy imaginatively projected into a larger social, political, academic or artistic setting?
• Impact: in what way are the audience, artists or institution enriched by dramaturgical ideas and execution?
• Ethics: how are issues that might be raised by the terms of the collaboration or changing responsibilities dealt with and/or resolved?
• Significance: how does this project inform, challenge or advance the field of dramaturgy, in general and/or within the student’s school? What have you learned from the experience?

Award Presentation: 
The 2008 LMDA/ATHE/KCACTF Student Award in Dramaturgy should be presented at the Regional Festival along with the other awards.  The awards will be presented on March 1, 2008,  in Huntsville, TX, at the 2008 regional festival.

What is dramaturgy?

(When you use these words, you’re doing dramaturgy)
Structure
Action
Beginning/middle/end
Conflict, Crisis, Climax, Catharsis
Continuity/Discontinuity
Diminishment
Emphasis
Episodic
Exposition/Foreshadowing
Form/Content
Fragmentation
Key information
Innovation/Convention/Cliché/Parody
Image
Linearity
Metaphor
Musicality
Pace
Part-to-Whole
Plot
Point of Attack/Denouement
Recognition (anagnorisis)
Repetition (pattern)/Reincorporation/Rhythm
Reversal (peripeteia)
Story
Tension

Character
Choice
Colors/Layers
Context
Empathy
Familiar faces: (hero, villain, braggart, parasite, seductress, dirty old man, young lover, etc.)
Journey/Arc
Honesty/Compassion
Impulse
Incongruity
Motivation
Passion/Pity/Fear
Point of view
Probability
Suffering/Pain
Transformation
Unity

Meaning
Contact, Relevancy
Idea/Concept

Language
Connotation, Denotation
Figures of Speech
Glossary
Innuendo
Sub-text

Genre
Comedy, Romance
Melodrama
Satire, Tragedy, etc.

Style
Expressionism
Realism, Surrealism
Epic Theater, Theatricalism, etc.

(When you do this work, you’re doing dramaturgy)
Research and Development
Help develop the mission
Help plan the season
Help look for scripts

New Plays
Solicit scripts from writers and agents
Read and evaluate new scripts
Track and file those scripts
Write kindly letters to writers whose script we won’t be producing
Negotiate with agents
Prepare adaptations and translations
Commission new work
Organize the in-house play reading program
Organize the new play reading program for subscribers
Help bring new plays into full production
Support those writers whose visions capture our minds and hearts

Production Dramaturgy
Locate drafts and versions
Collate, cut, track, edit, rewrite, construct, arrange
Secure permissions to use copyrighted material
Find songs, pictures, stories, videos
Help the designer do the research
Help the director do the casting
Help the marketers and developers
Seek and present pathways into the world of the play
Gather and present given circumstances for the company
Gather and arrange images, sounds and ideas for rehearsal
Explore and present the worlds of the play:
-the author of the script,
-the script’s history,
-the relevant criticism
Conceive the forms of the script as a script
Conceive the forms of the play as it grows
Stay on course when all goes well
Maintain some calm when all goes ill (as it will)
Create the lobby display
Love the work

Arts in Education
Establish relationships with local educators
Help them use theatre to support their curricula
Prepare study guides
Develop production web sites
Write and edit program materials
Organize and lead pre- and post-show discussions
Plan and lead seminars and symposia

Advocacy
Affirm the function
Explore the practice,
And promote the profession of dramaturgy and literary management;
Nourish the arts wherever we find them: in schools, in communities, and around the world