SOMEWHERE  dramaturgy 

I started off my Sophomore year of college working as the Dramaturg on the play Somewhere by Marisela Treviño Orta. This was my first encounter with the dramaturg role and going into it I did not have any idea what I was doing or what I should expect. To my surprise my expectations were exceeded, I learned so much and truly enjoyed working on this play.

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When I started the Somewhere process, my goals were to learn how to advocate for myself and communicate effectively with all the different stakeholders involved in the theatre-making process. I strongly believe I accomplished these goals. I got to talk to people working from all sides of this show and communicate tons of information to the cast, crew, and audience. I learned how to make this information engaging and impactful through website making, another new skill, and through written pieces, working to improve my writing skills. I also learned how to advocate for help when I need it and how to take advantage of the resources around me. My second main goal was to gain a better understanding of the dramaturg role as a whole, no better way to do that than experiencing it firsthand. I learned how to digest and take apart a script dramaturgically, how to dig for research and references, and how to put together the playwright’s thought process with the clues left behind in the script and the production history. I also learned a lot about the expectations of a dramaturg and how flexible this role is depending on the director and the show. Near the end of this journey and especially while watching the runs I’ve started to outline goals for the next time I’m a dramaturg. I want to figure out how to engage in discussion with the cast and the audience. Making more engaging lobby displays and taking the time to engage with actors, making the dramaturg a more active and effective voice in the rehearsal room. Also through watching the audience engage with the text, I got a better feel for what they need to support their understanding of the play, which will help me alter my future dramaturg notes and lobby displays. 

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Beyond an accumulation of skills, working on Somewhere helped me connect with the mission of my university, Loyola University Chicago. Specifically the second half of the mission statement, which states that as a university we are “working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.” At its core, theatre is about expanding knowledge, often didactically seeking to be a source of learning and more recently it has become a source of justice. Dramaturgy takes the idea of expanding knowledge a bit deeper as it concentrates on digesting and interpreting the wealth of knowledge within a script. It seeks to expand the reach of this knowledge amongst the cast, crew, designers, and audience. Furthermore, Somewhere is a justice-based play, it seeks climate justice. With this in mind, my work on Somewhere allowed me to live out Loyola’s mission. 

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Somewhere also pushed me to develop personally, intellectually, and professionally. On a personal level, it helped me realize that dramaturgy is an art form I enjoy and am interested in practicing. Intellectually it challenged and honed my writing and research skills. Lastly, professionally it exposed me to what a real theatre profession is like. It allowed me to accumulate various skills that will help prepare me for a career in the theater industry.