“I’ve realised that giving feedback is just as much an art as receiving it”
Somebody is the Associate Dramaturg at Mrs C's Collective and the Programme Dramaturg for our 12-month writer development programme, The Writers' Collective. A year on from our most recent programme, we joined Somebody for a moment of reflection on the art of Dramaturgy.
“Since my time with the four fabulous Mrs C’s Collective Writers came to an end last September, I’ve been reflecting on what makes a good dramaturg.
If I were to condense it to one sentence, I’d say:
Someone who treats dramaturgy like a conversation, rather than a debate.
Of course, there are many other things involved, like kindness, firmness, and someone with a keen eye for typos and opportunities to make your writing even stronger. But at the end of the day, as a writer, I want someone who’s a collaborator. Someone who’s going to encourage and support me and help me push my creative limits.
Not that every dramaturg needs to be a writer, but being a playwright has definitely informed my dramaturgy. I’ve realised that giving feedback is just as much an art as receiving it, and the more you do both, the better you’ll become at them.
So whether you’re a dramaturg who wants to get better at giving good feedback, or a writer to want to recognise what good feedback looks like, here are my top dramaturgy tips:
Read the play twice
As a writer, I can really tell when a dramaturg has only read my play once! The biggest tell is when the dramaturg essentially spends our entire session asking me to recount the full story of my play. And not in a, “Let’s fix some consistency issues here,” way but in a, “I totally forgot what happens, so can you tell me?” kind of way.
So I try to never be that kind of dramaturg. I also think it takes two reads for the material to really sink in. You need one initial read just to get a handle on the story, and on your second read, you can see what sticks out (positively or negatively) and then you’re really able to make comprehensive notes.
Frame critiques as questions
This is my favourite dramaturgical advice. It feels very basic, but it’s a good one! On one hand, it helps the writer really think about what choices they made. And on the other, it’s good to ask questions, because you could be wrong. What do I mean by this? Here’s an example:
I was recently reading a play where a character was supposed to be vegan, but she ate cheese. Initially, I thought this was a consistency issue, but then I decided to instead frame it as a question to the writer. Because if the character was sneaking cheese on the side, all while forcing her daughter to be vegan, this could be an interesting character trait.
In the end, it was a consistency issue, but you never know! And the writer and I got to have a great conversation about the character’s flaws because of it.
Help identify the stakes
This is my biggest piece of feedback for writers going from draft #1 to draft #2. For draft #1, writers just throw everything at the page to see what sticks. But for draft #2, it’s important to see what’s sticking well and how it creates a story. And a lot of the time, writers aren’t really sure what the stakes are, but it’s important as it’s the driving force from scene to scene. So the more you can help writers figure this out, the stronger and clearer their next draft will be. But how exactly can you do this?
David Lane, dramaturg/writer/theatre maker, once told me that creating stakes is like putting your character in a tree, knocking down the ladder, setting the tree on fire, then seeing what your character does. So scene one is putting the character in the tree (setting the stakes), scene two is knocking down the ladder (building on the stakes), etc.
Call out the typos
I know this seems like an easy one, but not all dramaturgs do it! And as writers, especially those of us who are submitting our plays to competitions and theatres, we need it!
I swear no matter how many times I ask Word to check my spelling and grammar, it just lies to me. So having a dramaturg be my extra set of eyes, especially when they’ve seen me spell “becuase” the wrong way in four separate drafts, really helps!
Give the feedback you’d want
This works for positive and more critical feedback. For those who struggle to give critical feedback, just think about the feedback you’d want. Only positive notes won’t help you sharpen your critical eye nor will it help the playwright strengthen their writing.
And for those who are already naturally a bit firmer (this is me), I recommend reading the more critical notes out loud. If you can’t imagine saying it to someone’s face, especially if they’re a writer you don’t know, it’s probably best to soften your tone a bit, but without sacrificing the importance of your note.”
