What does a dramaturg do?

I chase cliches with a baseball bat.

I also stare bemusedly at Judy while she pitches her hare-brained schemes. Last night, I dreamed that our auditions were reduced to some sort of shady dance-off competition and no one did a monologue...man was I pissed. Too many gyrating bodies. But where was the content? This is the painful panic of my life.

I also think about various shoes. How can I acquire a pair of Louboutins? What about the mary jane Manolos? Do I love or hate espadrilles?

In a Hostile Takeover situation, we collaborate. We're open to devising, so we've constructed the script to act as a framework. The ensemble we choose will fill in the gaps. We've been exceedingly lucky to gather the work of so many talented and undiscovered writers--everything from spoken word poetry to narrative storytelling. It's a bit of an experiment, but a welcome leap of faith in a theater space that doesn't often fulfill our creative desires.

The word dramaturg is an ugly thing (nowhere near as lovely and endearing as 'choreographer'. Damn you, Beth). But in this case, I also get to act--a scary proposition, since I haven't been onstage in about 2 years. Someone will probably try to make me dance at some point in the rehearsal process, in which case I will pretend to be busy 'reading' or 'editing' or 'workshopping a text'.