The Shakespearean Dramaturg: A Theoretical and Practical Guide (review)

In writing The Shakespearean Dramaturg, Andrew James Hartley sets himself a double challenge: to address the vast and shifting landscape of Shakespeare studies, and to contribute to the notoriously definition-resistant practice of the dramaturg. Hartley's book rises to this challenge, offering a historically aware, theoretically sensitive perspective on Shakespeare while contributing to the discourses of dramaturgy in ways that demonstrate the savvy of an artist comfortable in the rehearsal room. The strength of the book lies in Hartley's ability to synthesize these two discourses, to present a praxis for which intellectual approaches to Shakespeare are not separate from but integral to the activities of the theatre.

The work of the dramaturg is an inherently interdisciplinary activity, one that offers at its best an opportunity to creatively integrate theory and practice, theatre scholarship, and theatrical performance. Over the last three decades, numerous essays have offered a multitude of conceptions of dramaturgical activity, along with many examples of how one might practice dramaturgy. However, book-length studies of the field have been rare. As a result, the critical history of dramaturgy offers a kaleidoscopic perspective: brief, discrete pieces compose a mosaic view of a field increasingly given to discussing the pressing, daily concerns of practitioners in an unusually insecure branch of theatre.

Over roughly the same period of time, a change in the field of Shakespeare studies has seen concepts of theatre and performance gain significant status in a discipline that once enshrined its object of study as exclusive to the domain of literature. In the wake of this disciplinary shift, studies of Shakespeare in theatrical production have become widespread. But such studies rarely offer insights that are immediately accessible to those who might stage Shakespeare's work.

Hartley's book consciously sets out to provide "a theoretical and practical guide"— as the subtitle informs the reader— to working with Shakespeare's plays. Hartley himself has worked for years as the resident dramaturg for the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, in addition to being a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The book is free of oversimplifications while being full of theoretically informed insights phrased in language that should be accessible to even a modestly informed reader.

The Shakespearean Dramaturg is unevenly divided into two sections: Hartley addresses "Principles" first, before turning to "Practice." Much of the first section reflects the importance the author assigns to the work of W. B. Worthen. Hartley defends the independent validity of the theatrical event, perhaps providing ammunition for readers who must defend production choices when confronted by co-workers who have outdated conceptions of the relationship between text and performance. In witty language, he argues that theatrical performance is not merely the equivalent of a radio broadcast of written text. In conjunction with such not unfamiliar criticism of text-centered approaches to drama and performance, Hartley asserts what he terms the "self-authenticating nature of theatre" (214); in his view, theatre is always a local event and each performance determines its own conditions of reception, regardless of the texts with which it is associated.

Among other strong points in the book is Hartley's argument for the importance of script-editing to the role of the Shakespearean dramaturg. A considerable amount of The Shakespearean Dramaturg is devoted to editing, including excerpts from Hartley's own editorial work, accompanied by production photographs from the Georgia Shakespeare Festival. Hartley claims that editing is "possibly the most important work the dramaturg can do" (88). This claim gains substance from the status that the editorial role provides the dramaturg: a measure of the "I made this" status held by designers and others who can more easily display the material products of their efforts. Moreover, Hartley argues that a working edition of a text prepared for rehearsal by a specialist is an invaluable contribution to the company and the performance.

Early in the book, the author claims that he will strike a course of...