Resources
Simple Guidelines for Student Dramaturges
This document is a work in progress, designed for my students at the University of Central Florida. It will hopefully be helpful to other folks wanting to start working as dramaturges.
Die Hamletmaschine – Glossary by Line
This document was created for a dramaturgy course in late 2006. It has since been used by several different productions. It was not designed for production, however, but as a way to occupy my time while taking the course.
Rent – Glossary
This document was created for Florida State University’s production of the musical in early 2010. It was directed by my colleague Fred Chappell. The glossary has since been used by Jenna Tamisiea for a 2014 production at the Glow Lyric Theatre in Greenville, South Carolina and by Chari Arespacochaga for a 2022 production at Short North Stage in Columbus, Ohio.
My Way: a Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra – Notes
This was crafted as information for actors, designers, and the director of a production of My Way directed by Matt Silva, but the real virtue of a document like this, it seems to me, is that in discussions with theatre patrons, the entire team knows a ton about the music the performers are singing and playing. Patrons have their own Frank stories, their own associations with the songs. This allows the team to have those too.
World Theatre History TimeMap
This TimeMap is a long-time work in progress. It includes hundreds of entries of plays and performances located geographically at the place of their premiers. I created this map using TimeMapper software from Open Knowledge Foundation Labs. The exciting virtues of this map for me are the ability to visualize parallel developments in theatre globally as well as beginning to think of performance and theatre without nation. “Ancient Greek” theatre, for example, is mostly Athenian theatre, but the theatres of Classical India or the Italian Renaissance are not similarly restricted to a single city.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 – Glossary
This was crafted for Chari Arespacochaga’s production of Great Comet at Florida State University, which we did in the Spring of 2024. I worked as the production dramaturge for our show. The glossary here includes cross-references to War and Peace, but it was designed primarily with actors in mind, offering passages from the novel to help the performers have a richer understanding of their characters’ emotional lives.
Our Town – Selected Glossary
This was crafted mostly for my own amusement, but also for the cast and design team of a 2014 production of Our Town in Lynchburg’s Old City Cemetery. I co-directed with Geoffrey Kershner.
Alice in Wonderland – Glossary
This glossary was created for a production of Madge Miller’s adaptation of the novel directed by Susan Myburgh. Alice was staged in 2010 by Endstation Theatre Company; this was my first year working for them.