External and Internal Dramaturgies: The French Context1

What do ?dramaturgy? and ?dramaturg? mean in a French context? To explore these questions, I interviewed French theatre-makers who, between them, have practised dramaturgy since the 1960s. Jean Jourdheuil worked as dramaturg with Jean-Pierre Vincent in the late 1960s and early 1970s.2 For a more contemporary perspective, I approached Bruno Tackels, who has worked as dramaturg with two highly experimental French contemporary playwright-directors, Didier Georges Gabily and Fran�ois Tanguy.3 Whilst Tackels has worked essentially with and on contemporary artists, Anne-Fran�oise Benhamou serves as dramaturg, primarily on classic texts, for director St�phane Braunschweig.4 In 2000, she also helped to found the dramaturgy section of the �cole sup�rieure d'Art Dramatique at the Th��tre National de Strasbourg (TNS), which established France's first dramaturgy degree scheme. Ad�le Chaniolleau, whom I also interview, graduated from this course in 2007. Joseph Danan, practising dramaturg and academic at the University of Paris III, offers a definition of dramaturgy with respect to contemporary French playwriting. I therefore also invite a contemporary French playwright to respond. No�lle Renaude thus completes my panel. Owing to the vast array of artistic and intellectual pursuits to which my interviewees dedicate themselves, it was impossible to bring them all together. Instead of including each of their interviews intact, I permit myself to juxtapose, or ?dramaturgically stage?, their varied responses to my questions. In this way, I enable tendencies and consistencies on the one hand, and conflicts and contradictions on the other, to emerge. This tension reflects the diverse and unresolved definitions of dramaturgy present in French theatre.