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I read an, a huge number of scripts as part of my job.
I open a script, really hoping to find a new voice.
Hi, I'm Anne Cattaneo, I'm the dramaturg at Lincoln Center Theater.
[MUSIC] The closest definition of a dramaturg is an editor in a publishing
house, or specifically an acquisitions editor in a publishing house.
Our primary responsibility, of course, is to read plays that are submitted to the
theater, like an editor would read plays and make recommendations based on that.
We also work on productions that, new plays, we work, an editor would work with
a writer on suggesting thoughts and rewrites, changes, cuts, when we work on
classical plays we do, you know, prepare a text, we may make changes or cuts.
It's a job that, that requires a knowledge of theater history, a knowledge
of languages, a knowledge of literature and it also requires a great working
knowledge of theater, of actors, of directing, how plays are put together and
plays are built. I come from a family of scientists, my
father was a scientist, my mother studied chemistry, my brother went to MIT.
And I was actually a physics major in college.
And I got interested in theater just because I loved the theater that I was
seeing at that time. I was living in the Bay Area and I was
fortunate enough to make some connections and get involved with the American
Conservatory Theater during it's glory days under Bill Ball.
And I worked as the assistant to Edward Hastings, who was the associate artistic
director and that was really a connection and a relationship that changed my life.
He was the one who said to me you should go to graduate school in theater.
He wrote me a letter and I was accepted at the Yale School of Drama in criticism.
And then I was fortunate enough to actually get a job in the theater, and
that was the literary manager of the Phoenix.
And I came into my first day of work to the second day of rehearsal to Uncommon
Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein. Who turned to me and said, thank god you
are here and no one has ever had a happier introduction to their
professional life than I have, courtesy of Wendy and I have worked at the
Phoenix, at the acting company at second stage.
I came here and I've been called the dormitory literary manager.
So as far as my experience goes literary managers and the dormitory are the same
job. I've always liked the word dramaturgue
because nobody knew what it meant. For me it also implies co-editing as I do
with John [UNKNOWN] the Lincoln City Theater Review, which is a literary
review that we produce three times a year that is a sort of added conversation to
the plays we present with our audiences. I also run the Lincoln Center Director's
Lab, which is a large scale project that the theater does for emerging stage
directors. When needed I do sometimes small,
sometimes very massive research for actors in productions if that's called
for. So it's a kind of job that can be
whatever you make it to be depending on the needs of your theater and your own
interests. I guess we had an extraordinary time here
on The Coast of Utopia, hiding behind my door.
I've capped off a long four page sheet of paper that I put together to really
understand all the chronological specifics of that very complex play.
Everything in that production with very few exceptions is true.
I had the kind of wonderful task of seeing which scene belonged when.
So everything that was needed by the, by the company is on this, rather long
sheet. That was an exciting thing to, to find
that kind of research, because that company was so in love with the play.
They knew everything, so they didn't have to take rehearsal time asking questions,
like when did [UNKNOWN] meets [UNKNOWN] . They knew that, they could tell him not
only when they knew it, but how, and you know was all done.
When you're a dramaturg you, you work with the director, Mark Lamos, our
director, who's working right now on the Grand Manor.
The director's in charge of the interpretation, the director's in charge
of the room. You're never doing anything the director
doesn't know about. What I did for this was to use the great
resources upstairs of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.
They actually have you know, correspondence between Katherine Cornell
and her husband, Guthrie McClintock. Boyd Gaines plays Guthrie McClintock and
Kate Burton plays Katherine Cornell. So, we arranged for the company to go
upstairs and see this material. The play is by, of course, by Pete
Garney. And he did meet Katharine Cornell when he
was a young man. And he sets out very charmingly at the
beginning of the play the actual meeting. It's the standard lovely stage door
encounter, then the rest of the play is his imagined encounter.
He's invited backstage and they have a whole, you know, scene long play
together. And we're now at the beginning of a tech
rehearsal, which is traditionally the time that the dramaturg goes away or sits
at the back of the house, and all of these people who are passing behind us
have very important things to ask for and my job is done.
Basically, each production is totally different and that's one of the great
things about being a dramaturg. if you, if you look around my office
you'll see piles of books, books about spirit rituals that I worked on when we
did Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Along with books about ***, which I
used for In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl. Every 6 months it's something radically
different, this is the ideal job for people who love literature, who speak
languages, who understand and love actors.
When I go onto a stage and I see a ghost light, I am a happy person and that is
never ceased. It's a funny combination of
characteristics and, and having people recognize me on the street is not
something that I enjoy. if I did, I wouldn't be happy in the job.
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