Addresses the following censorship issues: (1) whether a group has the right to impose its world view on another group; (2) whether artistic visions which attack any group's values should be permitted; and (3) the limits of artistic freedom and who defines those limits. Cites examples from various plays through the years. (PA)

Explains that "counter-text" describes the results of a period of independent dramaturgical research and development and the contribution this makes to a theatrical production. Contends that the counter-text presents an alternative site of authority in performance. Describes the uses of research on a production of Iizuka's…

Notes that in rehearsals and performances, a jumble of silences are encountered. Discusses silence in the following situations: as frustration; as imposition; as invisibility; as power; as pleasure; as safety; as humility; as necessity; and as potential. Contends that when dramaturgs enter into conversation and break silence, they must carefully…

Outlines a dramaturg's process when working on three different plays. Contends that the myriad variations on the question "what will happen next?" serve as the basic architecture on which the dynamic relationship between the story/storytellers and the audience is built. Observes that the continual planning and answering of questions is…

Focuses on the practice of having students "perform scholarship" in the classroom. Offers a model for student in-class performances of scholarly texts and their responses to those texts. Proposes that a student's performance serves less as a singular response to an assignment and more as evidence of the student's active process of sense making.…

Proposes that a crucial task facing a theater professor teaching an undergraduate dramaturgy class is to force the students to stop thinking like students. Notes that the tendency of students to assume that the professor knows more than they do poses a particular problem in teaching dramaturgy. Suggests that one of the central tools for teaching…

Notes the discrepancy between students' use of the Alexander Technique in class and on stage. Discusses three fundamental self-use objectives of the Alexander Technique: the reduction of excess physical compression and muscularity; the unification of body/voice and thought; and the expansion of the field of attention. Demonstrates how each…

Discusses some of the problems the author encountered in staging a production of Marsha Norman's "'night, Mother" in Moscow. States that the area of largest concern was cultural variables, and whether a Russian audience would be able to understand some of the references. Concludes that, despite cultural differences, the audience was…