PRFM1603 Chap.8 A Dramaturgy for Place
A Dramaturgy for Place
Dramaturgy is the organisation of relations that lets an audience experience a governing idea. In site-specific work, those relations include site, action, duration, transition, audience geometry and the place ordinary life. This chapter rejects the assumption that abandoning conventional plot means abandoning structure. A sequence can accumulate, contrast, interrupt or return.
Space and time perform compositional work: a threshold can delay entry, a long pause can shift attention, and a change of viewpoint can recast an earlier action. The method begins with a dramaturgical proposition, then tests every moment for function. Transitions deserve particular attention because they reveal whether the work has genuinely organised audience movement or merely placed separate ideas beside one another.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Dramaturgy as organised relation
- 02
A governing proposition for the work
- 03
Sequence without conventional plot
- 04
Space and time as compositional materials
- 05
Audience geometry and reception
- 06
Transitions as evidence of structure
Worked example · free
Repair a collection of unrelated actions
- 1Write one relation the audience should encounter, such as how a place hides the labour that sustains it.
- 1Give each action a distinct job: establish, complicate, reverse, intensify or leave unresolved.
- 1Order the actions by changing audience knowledge and bodily position rather than by the order in which they were devised.
- 1Design every move between actions as part of the proposition, then remove any moment that duplicates another function.
Key terms
- Dramaturgical proposition
- The governing relation or question that organises how actions, space, time and audience work together.
- Sequence function
- The distinct job a moment performs within the developing audience encounter.
- Audience geometry
- The spatial arrangement of viewing, movement, proximity and partial visibility among audiences and performers.
- Transition
- A designed change between moments that can alter position, attention, rhythm or interpretation.
- Compositional duration
- Time shaped to produce expectation, effort, repetition, interruption or reflection.
A Dramaturgy for Place FAQ
Can site-specific performance still tell a story?
Yes, but narrative is one organising option rather than a requirement. A work can also structure relations through accumulation, contrast, return, simultaneous action or changing viewpoints. The important question is whether the chosen form helps an audience encounter the site proposition. Plot should not be added merely to make experimental material feel familiar.
How do I know whether a transition works?
A transition works when it changes audience position, attention, knowledge or rhythm in service of the proposition. Rehearse it at full duration and from the audience route. If it requires an apology, hides unsafe movement or simply fills time, redesign it. Sometimes removing an action creates the clearest transition.
What makes audience geometry dramaturgical?
Where spectators stand and move determines what they can see, hear and infer, as well as how they affect ordinary site use. Geometry becomes dramaturgical when those differences contribute to the governing relation. Partial visibility may be purposeful, for example, but only if access, safety and the audience experience are deliberately considered.
Assessment move
Print the score as separate action and transition cards. Write the governing proposition at the top, then annotate each card with one functional verb. Arrange the cards to change what the audience knows or does, not to preserve the devising chronology. Walk the exact audience route and time every segment. Remove or combine cards with repeated functions, and rehearse the new gaps rather than filling them immediately.
Finally, sketch audience sightlines and public circulation at each stage. For analytical writing, choose one structural revision and explain how space, time or transition changed the reception of the central proposition. Make a second card layout using the same material but a different audience route. Predict how the changed geometry alters knowledge, proximity, effort and public visibility.
Rehearse both versions with someone unfamiliar with the concept and ask them to describe when the central relation became legible. Their account is reception evidence, not a vote that determines artistic value. Compare the two sequences and select the one whose transitions carry the proposition with less explanation. Document any moment where technical feasibility strengthened rather than compromised meaning.
For the exegesis, analyse one deletion as carefully as one retained action: explain the duplicated function, the decision to remove it and the effect on rhythm or encounter. This shows dramaturgy as reasoned composition rather than inspiration followed by description.
Read the final score aloud as verbs only to confirm that each moment changes the encounter and that no transition survives merely because it is technically convenient.
