DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre

After reading through “The Process of Dramaturgy” over the last couple weeks, I’ve been thinking about the important component of marketing. In everything we’ve learned about what it takes to be a dramaturg, this is an area that I find really exciting. I’m pursuing a concentration in Communications and Media, tailoring my liberal arts credits each semester to get my brain working in a completely different way then how we work in our studio classes. Last year I took a course called Computers in Communications and we essential acted as a mock marketing consultant for a local business. I choose the ever popular Allston frozen yogurt place, Mixx. We had to create radio segments, commerical segments, billboard ads, magazine ads, and eventually a full blown website to market this establishment. I found it incredibly rewarding and found a lot more links in what I was doing at COM with what we do at CFA. They are both very creative fields and so I was able to exercise that muscle in a new manner – with computers, digital materials, sound, color scheme, etc. It’s also became really important because I’m realizing more and more that as actors we are constantly marketing ourselves to the world of theatre and art. Learning these skills are not only a great way to boost your resume but also to understand the ways of marketing something or someone.

So relating this directing to “The Process of Dramaturgy”, there was a section within the outreach and education chapter titled “Public Relations and Marketing Materials” (pg 115). The one page (..only one page?) section discusses writing blurbs for the shows, getting articles in newspapers, press releases, and most importantly, the website.  How does one effectively drawn in audience members through the use of the web? How powerful can an article or video or interview become when put on a website? In what ways can the marketing of this show be enhanced through the popular medium of the internet? I started to make great connections with my work at COM with this area of dramaturgy. It excites and encourages me that the work I’m doing in my liberal arts credits can serve and compliment my work as a theatre artist. I then start to make connections with the wonderful marketing that our senior theatre arts major’s created to promote Prom this year. They were very smart, clear, and consistent with their marketing and I do believe it got the event the needed attention of our students. I’m also reminded that this area of dramaturgy, the marketing and PR, lends itself to a world of creative and artistic choices  – a necessary skill that I know I sometimes forget to include in my perception of what it takes to be a dramaturg.