Season Selection Midterm Project
The Goodman Theatre (Chicago, IL)
For the midterm project you will work to conceptualize and propose a season and convince the artistic director of your assigned theatre company to produce the season. You will submit a formal proposal consisting of the following:
1. What is the company’s identity? Research the mission, history, goals, values, past seasons, and programming of your assigned theatre company.
a. In no more than two paragraphs describe the identity of the company. Questions to consider: what are the mission/goals of the theatre? What are their aiming to do at this institution with their seasons? What is said about the company (reviews, articles, op-eds)? Do they include special guest artists or special themed seasons? In short, what is this company’s story (not history) told through their public persona (social media, websites, periodicals, interviews, etc.)?
2. Create a theme for the season that upholds the mission/identity of the company. No more than one paragraph describing the theme.
3. Develop a 5-show season that fulfills the season’s theme as well as supports the company’s identity. For each show, include the playwright’s name and write a summary of the play [no more than 3 sentences]. The summary should be in your own words and not pulled directly from your source[s]. Your season selection must include the following:
a. A classic drama
b. A contemporary drama
c. A play that highlights and supports diversity (broadly defined: I’m excited to see your
selection!)
d. A play from the artistic director’s list of favorites (research, be smart, be creative…)
e. A new work to be developed at the theatre – thus you must select an emerging/semi-
established playwright.
i. Since you cannot write a summary of the play, instead write 3 sentences on why
this playwright and how they/their work feeds the mission and theme.
4. Create a dossier for two of the plays (see “The Company,” by Mark Chemers)
a. Production history
b. An authorial biography
c. A formal letter to the artistic director
5. Write a 300-word press-release that summarizes the season
*Note: some of you may be assigned an age-/gender-/culture-/race-/ethnic- specific theatre company. This, however, does not mean you should not be creative with the season selection.
Questions to Consider:
A. Why should your company produce this season?
B. Will this project fit into the company’s standard production period? (Think about the time it will
take to build, rehearse, tech, etc.)
C. What are the design elements, and how large or small are they?
D. What special rehearsal requirements might be necessary?
THEA320: Dramaturgy
E. Does this season balance and flow equally?
F. Is the season’s artistic ambition balanced equally with the practical realities?’
G. Does our proposed season repeat previous seasons? Or, does our season challenge and shift from
previous seasons?
H. What are the demographics of the audience? How do we create a season to diversify the
audience?
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The Goodman Theatre (Chicago, IL)
For the midte appeared first on Essaybrook.
