Dramaturgy and Playwriting

Recommended Prerequisites

Knowledge of Portuguese and English.

Teaching Methods

Theoretical and practical methodologies will be adopted. Course work will include a writing project through the individual production of a short text/monodrama. Students will also do course-readings on theoretical texts that are foundational for the topic of thus curricular unit. Throughout the semester, students will have direct contact with playwriters, who will be invited to share their practice and relation with writing for theatre.

Learning Outcomes

Taking as starting point the concept of drama in modernity, this curricular unit offers an introduction to the more recent problems in theater writing, with respect to its protagonists, dominant concepts and implications for contemporary theatre. At the end of the semester, students will be able to identify the main textual formations that pervade the european dramaturgy, show an awareness of the the debate about the post-dramatic, and understand the new relation that is emerging between different arts, such as theatre, dance and performance. Within this context, the main goal will be to  allow students to experience theater writing through practical exercices.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

I) Concepts:

1) Literature, theatre, drama, text, dramaturgy, dramaturg ;

2) Definitions of “dramaturgy”;

3) What is a text? Performative text, director text and literary text.

II) Writing and textual aesthetics:

1) The origin of fissures in modern drama based on Tchékov, Ibsen and Strindberg.

2) From the Absolute Drama by Hegel to the Epic Drama by Piscator and Brecht; in dialogue with Peter Szondi;

3) Writing for the stage: producing meaning through literature. The demarcation of the scenic space as a condition for na “applied literature”; in dialogue with Bruno Tackels and Hans-Thies Lehmann;

4) The mutant form of drama, rhapsodic text as persistence of the dramatic form; in dialogue with Jean-Pierre Sarrazac and Hans-Thies Lehmann;

III. Pratical exercise: writing for the theatre.

Head Lecturer(s)

Carlos Manuel de Matos Moura da Costa

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 50.0%
Project: 50.0%

Bibliography

CHABOT, Clyde  (2007) «Un Panorama des Écritures Théâtrales Contemporaines». Théâtre contemporain: écritures textuelle, écriture scénique, nº 184. Gennevilliers: Théâtre Public

DANAN, Joseph. (2005) «Action(s)», Lexique du drame moderne et contemporain. Paris: Circé

DANAN, Joseph (2010) O que é a Dramaturgia?. Évora: Editora Licorne.

GEORGELOU, Konstantina (2017) The Practice of Dramaturgy: Working on Actions in Performance (Antennae: Arts in Society, Valiz/Antennae Series.

LEHMANN, Hans-Thies (2002) Le Théâtre postdramatique. Paris: L’Arche.

LEPECKY, André (2021) “The Dramaturgs’s Work”, in Sound Stage Screen, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (Spring 2021), pp. 193–242.

RYNGAERT, Jean-Pierre e SERMON, Julie (2006)  Le personnage Théâtral contemporain: décomposition, recomposition. Paris: éditions théâtrales.