Performing Propaganda: The Congressladies and the Role of Dramaturgy in Political Theater

317 Pages·2015·6.09 MB·English

UC Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Performing Propaganda: The Congressladies and the Role of Dramaturgy in Political Theater
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https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4bg7k4fg
Author
Rossi, Richard Francis
Publication Date
2015
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PERFORMING PROPAGANDA:
The Congressladies and the Role of Dramaturgy in Political Theater
A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
in
THEATRE ARTS
by
Richard Rossi
June 2015
The thesis of Richard Rossi is approved:
__________________________________
Professor Michael Chemers, Chair

__________________________________
Professor Kate Edmunds

__________________________________
Professor David Cuthbert

__________________________________
Tyrus Miller
Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
Copyright © by
Richard F. Rossi
2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. iv
SECTION ONE: The Role of the Dramaturg ................................................................1
SECTION TWO: Political Theater, Then and Now ......................................................6
SECTION THREE: The Congressladies as Hegemonic Political Theater ..................11
SECTION FOUR: Personal Analysis, Propaganda, and its Limitations .....................19
SECTION FIVE: Conclusion ......................................................................................25
APPENDIXES
Appendix A: Congressladies Actors Packet ....................................................30
Appendix B: Congressladies First Draft .......................................................103
Appendix C: Congressladies Final Draft .......................................................128
Appendix D: Actors Script Comparison ........................................................199
Appendix E: Lobby Display Poster & Transcript ..........................................287
Appendix F: Designer Presentation Slides ....................................................295
Appendix G: Program Notes ..........................................................................306
Appendix H: Scene Breakdown .....................................................................308
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................310

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ABSTRACT: Performing Propaganda: The Role of Dramaturgy in Political Theater
Richard Rossi

This thesis examines the practical contributions of the dramaturg during the
collaborative process as well as the working relationships between the dramaturg and
the other members of the cast and technical crew. A major aim of the work is to
determine the role of a dramaturg in political drama, while also looking at the purpose
of such theater in a politically hegemonic area.
Partially a reflection on personal practice and experience working on heavily
politicized theater, it will also analyze the changing requirements of the dramaturg
based on the aims of the theatrical piece. Additionally, this thesis will look at the use
of historical research in political drama as a method of informing decisions and
adaptations as well as enforcing or eliminating political bias.
iv
SECTION ONE: The Role of the Dramaturg
What is a dramaturg, exactly? Compared to the well-known staples of the
theater, the dramaturg appears to occupy a rather tenuous position. Praised widely in
some theatrical circles and virtually unheard of in others, most people have a distinct
lack of understanding about what it is a dramaturg does, or does not, do. This is in
spite of the fact that dramaturgy, in one form or another, has existed since the second
millennia BCE, informing some of the most well respected playwrights, philosophers,
and historians known in theater.1
I believe the inherent difficulty in defining the role of the dramaturg stems
from the lack of a concrete understanding of the role of the modern dramaturg in the
same way that directors, designers, and technicians have concrete definitions of their
roles. Chemers asserts that:
A dramaturg is a member of the artistic team of a production who is a
specialist in the transformation of a dramatic script into a meaningful
living performance.2
While certainly true, this is not something anyone might call ‘concrete’, nor is that a
job description that is wholly owned by the dramaturg. Once could say that the
director holds a similar job description, yet there are few other satisfactory answers
regarding the job description of a dramaturg. Chemers goes on to assert that the
German model of dramaturgy, that of placing a work in a socio-political context, is
the correct path to travel for the American dramaturg. Nevertheless, consensus among

1 Chemers, Michael M. “Historicizing Dramaturgy.” in Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for
Dramaturgy. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010.
2 Ibid. 5.
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other professionals is not universal. The 2009 Australian Theatre Forum sparked a
heated debate on the definition of dramaturgy and reached a rather dispiriting non-
answer:
...people agreed that dramaturgy has been largely accepted as a
methodology in contemporary practice. In fact, one got the sense that
we are all dramaturgs now [sic]; what that means in practical terms,
however, is still being resolved.3
The authors of the chapter go on to put forth a definition in much the same vein as
Chemers:
A confluence of literary, spatial, kinaesthetic, and technical practices, worked
and woven in the matrix of aesthetic and ideological forces.4
This sort of non-answer peppers the books and papers that attempt to address the role
of the dramaturg in modern theater. However, dramaturgy in a more traditional role,
namely that of dealing with Shakespeare and his contemporaries, has an easier time
finding a defined place, mostly due to the “overwhelming cultural standing and the
primacy of a historically defined language”5 that can place the dramaturg on solid
ground in relation to the script. Hartley notes that a dramaturg must have a wide
variety of skills with which to accomplish the numerous and often wildly disparate
requirements for each production: he must be a textual and verbal specialist, a
historian and a theorist, a critic and a sounding board, and frequently the main
connection between the audience and the production itself. This goes much further in

3 Trencsényi, Katalin, and Bernadette Cochrane, eds. New Dramaturgy: International Perspectives on
Theory and Practice. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. 18-19.
4 Ibid, 19.
5 Hartley, Andrew James. The Shakespearean Dramaturg: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. New
York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 17.
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defining the role of a dramaturg than the previous non-answers inasmuch as their
duties are solidified as concrete tasks rather than abstract ideas.
Nevertheless, we are left with a fairly daunting list of responsibilities; does
being a dramaturg simply mean being the theaters’ general jack-of-all-trades and
master of none? How does a beginning dramaturg, or even an experienced dramaturg,
balance such a disparate array of tasks in order to meet the requirements of the
performance? The director or playwright, either of which may exercise ultimate
control over the end product, may have very well-defined expectations for the
dramaturg that limit their scope, but that focus is often a rarity. More often than not,
the role of the dramaturg is not understood well enough to take advantage of his
capabilities. This is especially true among college-level theater, which may not have
specific classes for dramaturgy as it would for other positions. Without such
guidelines, the role of the dramaturg is frequently self-defined, as it was for myself,
with tasks assigned in order to take full advantage of personal intellectual strong
points rather than weak points. The lack of integration, not to mention understanding,
is one of the most unfortunate aspects of working as a dramaturg in college or
community theater.
Is there an easy way to define the position of a dramaturg in theater? The
answer for now appears to be no. When asked what a dramaturg is, which is a
question that only very rarely follows the usual blank stares, I have begun to call
myself a theatrical research historian. This is clearly not what any of the above
definitions allude to, nor is it a complete listing of what a dramaturg does. However,
3
it is a perfectly suitable definition, not only for myself and my strengths, but for the
layperson and their understanding of theater. Given that the position itself is still
relatively unknown, there is no reason to complicate the issue with a confusing and
overly pedantic definition. This short description hits the most salient points of being
a dramaturg quite nicely; it emphasizes the intellectual nature of the work in a context
that makes sense to everyone, namely that of a historian. While not always true, the
majority of theatrical work is at least somewhat historical and can be informed by
research in that area. And of course, it is simple; there is a tendency within theater to
clutter thoughts and actions with post-modernist ideas on a multiplicity of labels and
‘what it means to be a _____.’ While not necessarily an inevitable response to post-
modern thought, it is a reasonable progression within the theater community, but only
within the theater community. As it was mentioned earlier, one purpose of the
dramaturg is to be the link between the production and the audience/public, and I
believe that job has to start with the dramaturg himself.
An individual of particular interest to me when trying to define my role as a
dramaturg was the dramatist John Arden, who pioneered a method of dramaturgy
based on ‘moral ambivalence’. While a strongly Marxist playwright, his
dramaturgical approach allowed him to be “less influenced by moral preconception
than any other writer in British theatre”.6 This type of dramaturgy, which grants no
special bias to either side of the argument, seems to fit nicely with the idea of creating
a dialectic. If it is true that a dramaturg must bring meaning to a script, to be one-

6 Malick, Javed. "The Political Dramaturgy of John Arden." In The Politics of Theatre and Drama,
edited by Graham Holderness, 134-153. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.
4
sided is a failure to fully explore all the possible inherent meanings that reside within.
Such an action is a deficiency on the part of the dramaturg and shows disregard for
the socio-political contexts in which any show must be produced. Through clarity of
communication, whatever the medium, a dramaturg may create understanding where
there would not normally be any. In a way, simplicity can be the best method of
making theater (normally so exclusionary through language, cost, and understanding),
more inclusive for the general public. At the end of the day, a dramaturg must work
for the production, in any capacity he is capable. To work for the betterment of
theater, then, is to work toward the education of every party involved, from cast, to
crew, to public. And what better educator than the one individual whose very job it is
to bring meaning to theater?

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