Geoff Proehl's Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey

I've just finished Geoff Proehl's new book, Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey, which is excellent. It strikes me as akin to Anne Bogart's A Director Prepares in that it voices dramaturgical urges and pursuits without prescribing a set course of action, showing an awareness that each dramaturgical process is unique as well as a wariness of reducing dramaturgy down to the role of the dramaturg. Both his articulation of the "dramaturgical sensibility" and his critique of his own dramaturgical work at the Guthrie are lively, honest, and insightful. By weaving together a wealth of dramaturgical knowledge, personal narrative, and scintillating quotes from playtexts, he models through his writing the dramaturgy he practices. He combines the rigor of academic analysis with an open - almost vulnerable - reading of his own work to create a book that is engaging and important. Indeed, I would place this at the top of the required reading list for any course on dramaturgy.

I am preparing a full review of the book, which I will post here.