Tag Archives: Canon

Adapting the Canon.

Before I begin to explore the world of adapting canonical texts, I must first define what is actually meant by “the canon”.
The canon refers those texts, (typically of an era before our own – although some can be contemporary) that are defintive or stand out in some way – the “game changers”, if you will. These texts (be it a playtext or novel) can be innovative in their language, style or content; they remain, over decades and centuries, influential to the writers that follow and as a result of their consistent praise are now considered to be superior or exceptional than any others. They are, in essence, the prevailing literary deities that are the figureheads of the well written text.

Many writers from within the canon; Shakespeare, Chekov or Brecht for example, have had their works adapted and recreated over the years – often succesfully. However there are still some critics and members of the theatre family that are not advocates of adapting these “classics” and in fact believe very much the opposite.

The opinion is; these play have stood the test of time. They were so ahead of their time at the point of the creation, that they are still as poignant and important today.

Take the work of Shakespeare, for example. Due to the broad spectrum of topics and themes within his body of work, it is possible to find a Shakespeare play that has similarities and links to any great story throughout history – right up to the modern day. This means his work always remains “relevant” (I hate to use the term, relevant as, ultimately, what one person finds important and meaningful is entirely dependant on the individual not on a generic level) to changes in most political, historical or social contexts.

It’s very much a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. A belief that these texts are so well written and important that, to change them in any way would be sacrilege.

However, I personally believe that this is not the case. If anything I think it is paying a great compliment to a writers wor to say that it is so influential people want to replicate and build upon the source text’s success.

Playwrights and theatre practitioners do not always set out to adapt the canon because they dislike the plays. Often it is because there is a specific theme, character or other element of the text that particularly resonates with them and that they would like to pay  more care and attention to those ideas.

The plays of the literaray canon were placed upon that pedastle for a reason – to praise and acknowledge them. Many of the playwrights that go on to adapt these works simply wanting to do just that.

What does a dramaturg actually do?

The dramaturg goes by many names and undertakes many tasks in the name of creating theatre. So many tasks, in fact, that if you were to ask a group of dramaturgs what exactly it is that they do, you’re bound to recieve several acceptable answers.

Here is something of a basic breakdown ofsome of the more obvious roles a dramaturg may cover. The roles themselves can be grouped and divided depending on what type of production is being created or what part of the theatrical production is being focused on.

These groups are as follows:

RESEARCH
A dramaturg is a vital member of the directors team. In terms of research they provide the director with information – be it historical, contextual, regarding costumes or setting – with which the director can increase the authenticity and believability of the production. This research can be provided as a precurser to the rehearsal process beginning or throughout the development – possibly when a director has a query or issue.
However the real skill lies in choosing what information is actually relevant to the production and discerning how much the director already knows on the topic.

Cary .M.Mazer states in Dramaturgy in the Classroom: Teaching undergraduate students not to be students:
If the director already knows more about a particular subject than does the dramaturg, then the director wouldn’t waste the dramaturg’s time asking about it; there are countless other better uses to which the dramaturg’s time and energies can be put.

NEW PLAYS
In terms of new plays and playwrights a dramaturg can firstly  take part in the reading and evaluating of new scripts, before contacting those whose scripts they wont be using and speaking with the agents of those they will.  They sometimes provide roles in the creation of in-house reading event. As mentioned before they can provide any background information necessary reagarding the writer and the play that will help see the play through to a complete production.

PRODUCTION DRAMATURGY
Before work on a production can begin a dramaturg may set out to secure permissions to use copyrighted material. Some provide help for the director during the casting. Often it can be useful to collate the script’s production history as a means to explore the plays previous incarnations and even take a look at we (or not) recieved they were. Also prior to beginning the rehearsal processfor the dramaturg to compile any and all research in order to explore and present the world of the play for the directors, techincal crews and cast. This would enable a shared and clear vision for the production from the outset.