Clemson University student is nation's top dramaturg

Published: April 28, 2011

Susanne Parker was named the nation's top college dramaturg for her work on this production of "These Shining Lives." image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — A Clemson University performing arts student has been named the nation’s top college dramaturg. 

Susanne Parker, a junior from Spartanburg, is the winner of the 2011 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s Literary Managers and Dramaturg of the Americas Dramaturgy Award. Parker received her award at the national festival held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

“This is a mammoth achievement,” said Mark Charney, Clemson’s director of theater. “Not only was she competing against seven of the best student dramaturges in the country, but she will now spend the summer working at the O’Neill Theater Center, where she will dramaturg both new plays and new musicals. Shows such as 'Avenue Q' and 'In the Heights' began there, and August Wilson and Lee Blessing wrote many of their best plays in that supportive environment. This is a rare and significant opportunity, and I know Susanne will make the most of it.”

Dramaturgy is a specialized type of theatrical writing and analysis. Dramaturgs work in collaboration with playwrights and directors to bring historical, social, political and cultural expertise to the production. From their analysis of the text, dramaturges advise directors, cast members and the technical crew to specific conditions mentioned within the play. They also serve as liaisons between the playwright and the director and give advice directly to the cast and crew about the production during rehearsals. Dramaturgs also serve as directors of outreach and education programs.

Parker won the award for her work on "These Shining Lives," a play that the Clemson Players produced last fall. Lenora Inez Brown, the author of "The Art of Active Dramaturgy" and a judge of dramaturgy at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, was impressed with Parker’s thorough research and her inventive methods of expression and communication.

Parker graduated from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville.

As the national winner, she receives a full scholarship to attend the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference as a literary assistant and assistant dramaturg. The conference takes place this summer at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. The O’Neill Center is the country’s preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new plays. The center is named in honor of Eugene O’Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The award is the result of a partnership between the Literary Manager and Dramaturgs of the Americas, a professional association of dramaturges and literary managers working in North America, and the American College Theater Festival.

Students from Salve Regina University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, California State University-Northridge and Southern Illinois University were among the eight universities represented at the festival.

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