Laura Simmons – Film & TV production Joint Honour student. Make-up artist and Woyzeck script writer. Playing the roles of the Doctor and Carnival Announcer inWoyzeck, Robespierre in Danton’s Death, and Buchner’s friend Karl.
Seeing as this a Dramaturgy module it wouldn’t hurt to take some time out and explain what a Dramaturg is and how we applied the knowledge of practices of the Dramaturg to our piece.
The definition of the Dramaturg’s role depends on where the theatre company is. Originally developed in Germany, the appointment of a Dramaturg is of greater importance in Europe as it is supported ‘by an ethos that criticism and research are an integral part of artistic creation’ (Luckhurst, 2006, p.263) while in the west, specifically England and the US, the role leans towards a type of literary manager, concerning the finding and developing of scripts. The role of the Dramaturgy, for want of a more formal term, is to be a ‘jack of all trades’ in the theatre company bar acting in the production (though we made an exception for this module). They can be involved in selecting the play, refining and editing the text, researching the social and historical context of the piece, managing the finances and promotion, acting as the director’s assistant, and, if not taken an overly active part in rehearsal, can act as a proxy audience to look at the play with a fresh pair of eyes and suggest changes or improvements to the piece.
A key choice usually made by the Dramaturg is what play to put on. That decision is made with specific factors in mind i.e. the quality of the text, ability of the company, and the popularity or critical significance of the play or style. The selection of play, as I’m sure you’re probably aware, were three works of Buchner (someone I had never heard of until now) – Danton’s Death, Leonce & Lena and Woyzeck. Being such a small group the prospect of doing any of them was daunting – the problem of a small cast and many roles confusing the audience flashed in my mind instantly in big shiny letters. Thankfully, Mark suggested that we could do a piece on Buchner’s life using scenes from each of his plays. Realising that this option would allow us to explore all of the plays and learn a little about this unknown playwright we were quick to agree on it. After some discussion we also saw the possibility to incorporate elements from our individual joint courses, such as the dance in the Leonce and Lena dream or the use of multimedia throughout the play. The next challenge for the Dramaturg, us, was to select which parts of the plays were vital and would be able to be condensed into a two-three minute segment without losing poignancy.
Having agreed on a general form, that the three plays would be shown through dream sequences between biopic scenes, we split to tackle the content. This brings me on the next role of the Dramaturg within script development, what Mary Luckhurst defines as making the text ‘stage worthy by cutting and/or rewriting’ (2006, p.11). Given the size of our group and the limited amount of time to develop a script, we decided to spilt the three plays and Buchner’s biopic between us. Recognising the comedic and romantic elements of Leonce and Lena our Dance students quickly snapped it up and Sylvia, with new found interest in Buchner, took the task of writing original material. I chose Woyzeck.
As with any production I began the development process with research both historical and an examination of sorts of the play. After reading the play through I went back and identified what I thought were the key themes of the play; poverty, madness, jealously and animal nature vs. humanity. In some respect Woyzeck was the easiest to adapt as it was never finished and never put in an order by Buchnerleaving the narrative open to interpretation. As Woyzeck first suspects the affair between Marie and the Drum Major after a trip to a carnival I thought this would be an appropriate place for the nightmare to occur. There is also something nightmarish, almost sinister, about the carnival or maybe I’ve just seen Stephen King’s It too many times. This decision was supported by the lines of the Barker, or Carnival Announcer, whose lines, ‘See there the little love birds’, ‘The monkey’s a soldier’, once taken out of context can be applied to Woyzeck and other characters. The carnival theme also provided a method of transition between each scene as they could be presented like exhibits at the freak show with the Barker to guide the audience along the way. The carnival theme also allowed me to embrace my interest in the Grand Guingol, a French horror theatre company, as the style of the text fitted well with early expressionism rather than naturalism. There was some doubling up of parts but hopefully we made the character changes obvious enough to avoid confusion in the audience. Aside from Woyzeck and the Carnival Announcer I included the Captain, Doctor, Marie and the Drum Major. I chose these characters as they each portray the human vs. animal element. Marie and the Drum Major, the main instigators of Woyzeck’s madness as it seems it’s the paranoia over the affair that tips his mental balance, depict the animal-ness of sexuality something we as a society, especially during the Victorian era when Buchner was writing, repress and censor. The Captain lectures Woyzeckon decency but really the issue boils down to money; we often associate crime and antisocial behaviour with the lower classes or those in a lower income bracket. Money, a very human invention, or more so the lack of it, requires the impoverished to rely on the animal to survive; nothing can be so animal as violence suggesting that Woyzeck’s career as a soldier is a descent into the primitive. Lastly, the Doctor although he argues that it is a question of will, humanity controlling animalism, however, he subject’s Woyzeck to experiments and showcases him in front of medical students, or in this case the audience, making Woyzeck little more than a human guinea pig. Obviously since this nightmare would be part of a greater whole following the animal theme too closely would cause difficulties and clashes with the others pieces so I settled to include the character defining speeches or individual lines that summarised the play while fitting the carnival/ freak-show exhibit style yet still leave a little to the audience’s imagination.
On a broader scale the use of dreams to show the separate plays allowed us to keep the staging relatively the same, only bringing on specific stage pieces, such as the prison bars in Danton’s Death, when required. Our set, Buchner’s home and bedroom, and the costumes were part of the realism of the staging whilst makeup would apply more to the dream sequences. For this I, as makeup designer, opted for a mime-like style which would emphasise our expressions and add elements of the grotesque to our performance. For more about makeup click on the link in the menu bar.
The Dramaturg as a role is somewhat confusing because there is no one rule for what they do. In some cases they are little more than a producer who dabbles with the scrip prior to rehearsals or they have a more visible effect as they can be in more creative control than the director. However, I think Turner and Behrndt s it best – the Dramaturg ‘is someone who ‘keeps the whole in mind’(2008, pg 103). The glue that holds the piece together, the spider at the centre of the web, use whatever analogy you like, the Dramaturg though may not be directly in charge of a specific element of a production is always there, looming in the wings like LeRoux’s Phantom, to maintain unity within the piece.
Bibliography
Luckhurst, M. (2006) Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Turner, C. and Behrndt, S. (2008) Dramaturgy and Performance, London: Palgrave Macmillian