I love New Year’s. I love the possibility of closure for last year, and a blank page for the next chapter. Maybe that’s just a lot of metaphorical crap we tell ourselves, but I love the symbolism. It forces me to self-reflect and take actions toward making my future a reality. And for a night, we can exist in an infinite moment of liminality, where we stand in a doorway, a threshold, two places at once. I was taught that as a dramaturg, that should be our favorite place to be, because that’s where magic and metamorphosis takes place.
2013 was a big one for me as a dramaturg. After several years of exploring my craft, incubated by mentors and like-minded people in my major, it was time to leave the nest of Carnegie Mellon and apply what I had learned. Here are my highlights from a year of thrilling, terrifying, and ultimately transformative dramaturgy:
1) Questing for Employment
Trying to fill out job apps while balancing coursework, clubs, and (multiple) campus jobs is like playing a video game where your ultimate goal is to kill a big Boss, but hordes of smaller minions stand in the way, preventing you from getting to the real point of your mission. Fortunately, CMU had hardened my will power and time management. I sent out a lot of applications, and received a lot of disappointments. I graduated without any promise of a job, but with the belief that I had the skills and determination to make that happen.
2) The Real World
I had the privilege of being a student of professional dramaturg Heather Helinsky this spring. As an active production dramaturg and coordinator for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, she had a lot of connections, and she was extremely generous in introducing me to other artists and making recommendations on my behalf. Networking was still stressful, but I began to see the beauty of a career in the arts as well. Part of a dramaturg’s job is making connections with other theatre artists and staying up-to-date on cool new work popping up from creative minds all of the country. The Real World was still kind of scary, but there was a lot of joy out there as well.
3) From Coast to Coast
This small-town Central-PA girl made it California! School of Drama sends the seniors to a Showcase in LA every May. I was fortunate enough to meet many people in the industry, reconnect with alumni old and new, tour studios, and taste the wonders of West Coast sushi and margaritas. It was fast, furious, and fun, but I realized I probably wouldn’t be heading to the movies. You have to have guts of steel to survive out there, and I tend to have the heart of a hobbit. But I admire my friends who are daring that crazy place: I hope you make it, and I can’t wait to read your name in the credits someday!
We also got invitations to the Magic Castle. No big deal.
4) “I do Believe I have been Changed for the Better”
The ceremony was hot, crowded, and I was running on almost no sleep (perhaps the most accurate depiction of my time at CMU haha), but I admit I was pleased. I kind of like the theatricality of ceremonies, particularly when I’ve been expecting them for a while. I was proud of that over-sized piece of paper that said officially: Kelley Harrington, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy. But I also knew that celebrations that meant the most to happened when I wasn’t wearing the tassle: raising a glass with close friends over the summer, singing with my a cappella group for the last time in 4 years, and taking a trip with my boyfriend to New York. And my time at CMU was not measured by hours of sleep I lost or that shiny diploma. I will always remember it for the incredible people, teachers, and skills I picked up while listening to the bagpipes playing in the background.
I think Malcom Reynolds would agree: This degree was very shiny.
5) A New City & My First Job
When I heard about the internship position with Tony-Award-Winning Signature Theatre in Washington, DC, I knew it was a great match. They needed someone who could work with kids, research a new play, and develop a resource guide, all areas into which I had poured many hours of my life already. Several months of research with Signature culminated in a 100-page mini-textbook for high schoolers about D-Day. My greatest challenge was sifting through this material and figuring out how to present it in a way our teenage students would want to read it. Years of formatting actor’s packets came in very handy here. I’ll continue my partnership with Signature for another few months, but I’ll always be grateful to them for opening the door to DC for me.
6) Getting my Hands Inky
Thanks to the generous, delightful folks of Inkwell Theatre here in DC, I got to dabble in new play development this year too! Inkwell’s core purpose is to unite dramaturgs, playwrights, and directors to make work that creates “impossible worlds” and poignant pieces that also shed a profound light on the human experience. Their enthusiasm for new stories is contagious, and I was particularly touched by the true consideration with which they approach the dramaturg-playwright relationship. Inkwell recognizes that baby plays are delicate things that need time, care, and fertile conditions to grow. In Inkwell’s workshops, dramaturgs learn how to best serve their playwright’s precious, valuable ideas. Likewise, the playwright learns to trust the dramaturg. Inkwell’s program helps different members of the creative team work together, and reminds us that we share a common goal: making new, bold, beautiful art.
In conclusion, I’ve been a dramaturg by choice for years, but in 2013, I became a dramaturg by trade. It was a momentous year. However, like Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History, I’m being blown into the future even as I contemplate the past. So onward to 2014! Anyway, I should get some sleep.
I have rehearsal tomorrow.
Capital Dramaturgy 