artist’s secret place

Dramaturgy - the study and practice of using dramatic composition to represent a scene on stage in performances, world-building, and historical contexts.

Dramaturgs have an interdisciplinary job in which they help open up and clarify the world of a production from different perspectives:

Study dramatic productions: Production dramaturgs study dramatic productions such as musicals, operas, and plays to represent and contextualize the given story in a way that makes historical and dramatic sense. A dramaturg has extensive theater history knowledge and experience building narrative structures and analyzing dramatic literature.

Perform script analysis: Dramaturgs can provide key script analysis for playwrights, musical theater writers, producers, and directors to help identify the most (and least) exciting parts of the narrative. They also suggest ways to improve the structure, clarify the timeline or setting of a piece, and help logically develop the story.

Conduct research: An expert’s dramaturgical analysis may also include research for directors, production teams, or costume designers for historical accuracy, making sure that details such as language, clothing, or behavior accurately match the specific period.

Theory of Dramaturgy

Sociologist Erving Goffman developed a sociological theory applying dramaturgy as a theatrical metaphor for human beings in the world.

If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results: 

What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)

What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)

What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)

Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory) 

What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.) 

Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)

Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)

Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)

What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.) 

An old offering tree on top of an Iron Age burial mound at Sordal farm in Bygland, Aust-Agder, Norway This is a bad photocopy of a photo by Jan Henning Larsen, found in the magazine Viking vol. 57/1994

Trees in Scandinavian tradition (very briefly told)

Trees have always had a central position in Scandinavian folk tradition. Nearly every farm used to have one particular tree in the yard whose fate was closely linked to the fate of the people of the farm, and that used to be treated with the utmost respect and given offerings regularly on holy days and on occasions when, for instance, a cow had calved or the beer was to be tasted.

In some places it was the spirit of the tree itself that was offered to, in other cases the tree was seen as the abode of a protective wight, often the ancestral father or the person who cleared the farm (i.e. the farm spirit or nisse), in yet other cases, you made offerings to your beloved dead at it. This latter custom was recorded as late as the 1960s, and with the revival of heathen and other older traditions, old trees have seen new venerators, and new trees have been planted or chosen for the same use.

A smøytre or smygtre is a tree that has grown with two trunks or main branches that at some point have grown together again, creating a hole through which people - usually children - suffering from something could be ritually “threaded” or “slipped” to remove the illness or curse and regain health. If such a hole is too small to pull a child through, one can either pull their clothing through, or cut the relevant part off the tree and make a “portable” smøytre.

Trees are also used in magic, for instance to ritually “put away” illness and curses in various ways. Such trees - as well as those mentioned above - were traditionally left standing when the surrounding forest was cut, to avoid that the accumulated sicknesses and curses were released and transferred to the one who was cutting. Nowadays they are left standing - even when they are dead - because they are protected by law.

Photos: various

Swedish toothache pines

Some of you might recall I wrote a bit about Trees in Scandinavian tradition a while back.

I haven’t been able to find mention of even one Norwegian toothache tree still standing, whereas the Swedes seem to have several in every region. I wonder why is that? Anyway, here are some pictures of Swedish ones.

Top left: Storhultatallen - the Storhulta pine - in Västra Götaland, also known as Mossen’s toothache pine Top right: Klampabron toothache pine in Västra Götaland Middle left: Gammeltallen - the old pine - 1 km south of Finnbromossen, Örebro Middle right: Trolltallen - the troll pine - toothache pine near Skärmarboda, Örebro Bottom left: Keeled-over toothache pine in Nottebäck, Småland, 1938 Bottom right: Toothache pine on Andersvägen, Norra Haga, Solna, Stockholm