Dramatic Theory?

What do we mean by "dramatic theory" today? If the response to the call for this special section indicates anything, it is that there is significant work to be done under the auspices of dramatic theory, even as we redefine what we consider to be dramatic theory. In proposing this subject through a special section, I was surprised by how significantly, for many theatre scholars, "theory" indexes ideas often far removed from "theatre" or "drama." For many, it seems, the phrase "dramatic theory" sounds as antiquated as the origins of the practice it describes—we might have issued a call for papers on "poetics."

Indeed, there is a certain irony to offering a "special section" on dramatic theory in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. (Someone might consider a special section on "criticism" for an upcoming issue.) However, given the ways that theories of performance, in the full breadth of its spectrum, seem to loom over the stage, it is pertinent to ask how we might define or distinguish dramatic theory. As I hope will be evident in these contributions, it is worth rehearsing (to deploy the theatrical term) the possibilities that emerge as and for theory through attention to theatre itself, in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Such inquiries have been with JDTC since the journal's first years. In an interview to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the journal, JDTC founder John Gronbeck-Tedesco describes JDTC's approach to "theory" when the journal was founded:

What we meant by theory in those days—and maybe it still works—was the explanation of a methodology. So we conceived of a methodology as a system of assumptions that were used in some way to produce any number of kinds of discourse including history, criticism, or related endeavors. We figured, if one wished to explain one's methodological assumptions, that would be theory.¹

This notion of theory, as an explanation of methodology, which is itself regarded as systemic assumptions generating discourse, is critical for theatre, a form deeply indebted to conventions and technique and repetition. While we may quibble with the idea that theory simply or merely explains anything, the explanation provided by theory is intricately connected to practice and its social, cultural, and historical implications. There is no theory without methodology, itself shaped by and emerging from history, criticism, and other discursive fields. For theatre studies, this offers a number of constellations that must always refer back to the material practices of theatre itself. So, rather than "applying" theory or fitting theatre into existing theoretical frameworks, this special section examines the ways that theory arises from and explains theatre as a cultural practice.

Charlotte Canning provides the special section with its lead article, "Dramatic Criticism's Imperial Ambitions: Brander Matthews and the Establishment of Theatre in US Higher Education." Canning's careful historiography returns us to the opening scenes of theatre history scholarship, replaying and critiquing the unsettling foundation of the field of theatre studies. The article acts historically as it theorizes one of the first figures of theatre history, asking us to do the same today for our own work. Canning's critique demands new methodologies and discourse in our roles as pedagogues, theatre-makers, and critics. Without being hyperbolic, we cannot read this article and proceed as if we had not.

Paired closely with Canning's archival study, Donatella Galella's "Feeling Yellow: Responding to Contemporary Yellowface in Musical Performance" opens vital matters of representation and spectatorship in contemporary theatrical production. Galella offers a theory of "feeling yellow" that is both particular to the theatrical and dramatic subjects she takes up and highly portable to many other venues and cultural artifacts. The article queries the ways the archive is deployed in the theatre in light of expectations of viewing and experiencing theatre and the racist representations that haunt the form.

Harvey Young and Bethany Hughes center matters of representation and the unique work that the stage does to reveal and distort lived lives. Examining the stage as an important site of witnessing, their article, "Reaffirmation of Life: Dramatic Theory and Race," probes theatre-making as a representational practice...