Best Online Definition:
“Dramaturgy, the art of writing for the theatre, is the discipline which unites scholarship and stagecraft. Dramaturgs use their knowledge of the Early Modern social, historical, and cultural context to contribute to choices made by actors, directors and designers in rehearsal and in production.”
http://www.mbc.edu/shakespeare/about.asp
Best Dictionary Definition:
The craft or the techniques of dramatic composition.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy
Most Notable or Unusual Definition:
Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective stemming from symbolic interactionism. The term was first coined by Erving Goffman, who developed most of the related terminology and ideas in his 1959 book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Kenneth Burke, whom Goffman would later acknowledge as an influence,[1] had earlier presented his notions of dramatism in 1945.
In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that human actions are dependent upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate scene being presented.[2] Goffman forms a theatrical metaphor in defining the method in which one human being presents itself to another based on cultural values, norms, and expectations. Performances can have disruptions (actors are aware of such) but most are successful. The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through manipulation. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed.[3] This makes it an intimate form of communication, highlighting it as a micro-level sociological theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy_(sociology)
Historical Context:
The art or technique of dramatic composition or theatrical representation. In this sense English dramaturgy and French dramaturgie are both borrowed from German Dramaturgie, a word used by the German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing in an influential series of essays entitled Hamburgische Dramaturgie (“The Hamburg Dramaturgy”), published from 1767 to 1769. The word is from the Greek dramatourgía, “a dramatic composition” or “action of a play.”
http://www.britannica.com/
dramaturgy
"Composition and production of plays, 1801, from Fr. dramaturge (1688), introduced by poet Jean Chapelain (1595-1674), from Gk. dramatourgia, from drama (gen. dramatos) + ergos "worker."
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy
Job Description:
A thorough text/story analysis.
Research into the prior productions of the text as needed.
Historical research of various sorts.
Attendance at at least one quarter of the rehearsals, the first read-through, and as many run-throughs as possible.
Oral or written notes for the director.
Attendance at some preproduction meetings.
A loyalty to the basic mission and ideas of the production and the text. Maintaining that loyalty in the midst of technical difficulties.
Program contributions.
Flexibility.
http://www.dramaturgy.net/dramaturgy/what/Job.html
My Own Definition:
Dramaturgy-
The art of researching and studying all aspects of a play in order to understand it the way in which the playwright intended.
