Dramaturgy and History: Staging the Archive (Focus on Dramaturgy)

Dramaturgy and History provides a practical account of an aspect of dramaturgical practice that is often taken for granted: dramaturgs’ engagements with history and historiography. Dramaturgs play a vital role in amplifying and activating theatre’s unique potential to contribute to the pressing public discourse around the uses and legacies of history.This collection challenges the notion of history as an unassailable or settled set of facts, offering readers a glimpse into the processes and methods of eighteen dramaturgs working in a variety of settings, including professional theatres, universities, museums, and archives.The dramaturgs featured use history to a variety of ends: they reframe classical texts for contemporary audiences; advocate for the production of lesser-known writers and the expansion of the canon; create new works that bring women’s, LGBTQIA+, and Global Majority histories to life; and establish new and necessary archives by/of/for minoritarian artists.Collectively,