2014 Theses Master's

Meditations on Politics and Art: Towards Aesthetic and Critical Dramaturgy

Silver, Adrian

Beginning with the philosophical underpinnings of politics and aesthetics, I proceed to centrally locate dramaturgy as a political practice/process that unites artistic production and consumption. By discussing some of the major tenets of narrative-based, or poetic dramaturgy, through this lens, I attempt to unearth its more fundamental constitutive relationships and redirect current discourse and pedagogy. Distinct from its particular expressions within specific regimes of the arts, it can be inclusively defined as the act of uniting contradictory elements in the processes of creation and spectatorship: unconscious/conscious, and active/passive. I then address alternative dramaturgical presences of composition in Martha Clarke's Threepenny Opera at the Atlantic Theater Company, and her dance theater piece Chéri at the Signature Theater, allowing for a more complete read of the pieces. Ultimately, I hope to begin a discussion of Aesthetic and Critical Dramaturgy that does not reject Poetic Dramaturgy, but expands upon it, inviting new forms of exchange and collaboration among artists.