The First Correspondence

6/6/2006
Salutations Fellow Scholars,

It brings me great joy to formally present the very first proper posting here on "Professor Happ's Happenings." As the resident dramaturg and expert on, well, just about everything for Makeshift Theatre, I am excited and honored with this opportunity to continue the noble practice of my trade in the name of scholarly research.

As the occupation of dramaturg is fairly new to the American theatre scene, I have already posted, as you can see, the definition of said work from Wikipedia. Although I am aware that Wikipedia is not always a reliable source and has been discredited on several occations, all said incidents involved biases based on either personal or chronological proximity to the source material; however, as the index I have used is simply a definition of standard vocabulary, it contains neither personal nor chronological proximity to any of the authors resident to Wikipedia and, therefore, can be regarded as a legitimate definition of the term.

The critical difference between a traditional dramaturg, as per the definition provided, and the services I shall be rendering for the Makeshift Theatre Company (henceforth, MTC) is that MTC has decided to take dramaturgy in a new and exciting direction. Instead of limiting oneself to the cramped confines of a research lab, MTC believes, as do I, that the key to the future of theatre is located not among the dusty pages of antiquated volumes crowding the forgotten shelves of libraries, but among very world in which said art form first took shape.

Did literature predate theatre? Did the first orators of our species learn to write before they learned to speak? Did the very first work of theatre spring from the pages of a book? No! The entire notion is preposterous. Theatre is the culmination of oration, and oration is the physical manifestation of imagination; thusly, MTC has enlisted myself, the esteemed Professor Pellinore Happ, to conduct my noble trade in the heartlands of its own origin; I shall single-handedly catalogue and classify the types of theatre as they have evolved around the world, by studying the very minds in which they developed, and it shall be the crowning glory of a new age, an age known heretofore as the Age of Field Dramaturgy!

Yes, well. I suppose I do get a little excited about it sometimes.

At any rate, I shall have in my employ, as I intrepidly travel across the globe, the services of a page and messengerboy known as Nero. You may, from time to time, encounter updates on this site from him in my stead, as I shall be tirelessly devoted to my research. You may find him, as I do, to be incredibly dull, but I shall ask you on his behalf to be patient with him; he really is a bright young lad and a promising scholar, if only he learns to take his field studies with greater sobriety. In any case, you may rest assured that my ingenious work shall, more often than not, grace the pages contained herein.

And with that, fellow scholars, I must sign off. My first assignment awaits!

Brilliantly Sincere,

Professor Happ
Director of Field Dramaturgy
Makeshift Theatre Co.
profhapp@makeshifttheatre.com