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University of Kent / ARTS STUDIO
STAFF PROFILE
DUS˘KA
RADOSAVLJEVIĆ
Dus˘ka Radosavljević joined Kent in 2008,
having worked as a dramaturg for the
Northern Stage Ensemble and Newcastle
University, and as a Higher Education
Programme Manager at the Royal
Shakespeare Company. She also
works as a theatre critic, writing
regularly for The Stage newspaper.
Here she discusses dramaturgy and
how it influences her teaching.
Can you explain what a dramaturg is?
In European theatre, the work of a dramaturg is well established, but it is
quite a new concept in the UK. It’s about being responsive to how a piece of
work as a whole communicates to its audience; you work with writers and
directors, dancers and other performers, as well as lighting and set
designers to tease out meanings and the best ways to communicate these
to the audience. In the past, I have defined it as being an in-house agony
aunt; someone employed by the theatre to be an ‘outside eye’.
How did you get into this work?
My PhD centred on how plays are constructed and how this can have
political effects. I have also done a lot of work translating and adapting
plays, a process that I find fascinating. There is an assumption, which to
some extent is true, that what you can say in one language you can say in
another. But in adapting and translating work, you discover that equivalent
words in another language may mean something different. Equally, in
theatre, a play on the page feels very different when you see it on the stage
where it exists in another language.
I also work as a theatre critic, which for me, is not about criticising individuals
but about looking at a piece of work at every level and assessing its
qualities. I think all of this prepared the way for my work as a dramaturg.
How does your experience as a dramaturg influence your
teaching?
I think that in order to work successfully in the theatre you need to develop
the attributes of a dramaturg. You need to understand everybody’s input and
the mechanics of how a piece of work makes it to the stage. At Kent, we are
teaching a younger generation how to be dramaturgs; by learning about
many different aspects of theatre, they are able to step outside of their work
and understand the bigger picture; if you are going to be successful, you
need to be able to do this.
36
Slava’s Snowshow
Do you enjoy teaching?
I find working with young people inspiring, you can test your ideas out on
them and they often give you very interesting responses. Sometimes you
meet former students who are now working in theatre and they will tell you
how a particular lecture or workshop was very important to them and that is
very rewarding.
At Kent, unlike a lot of other drama departments, we do not have staffdirected
performances either within the curriculum or outside of it. Students
have access to all the resources for their own work, which we go to see and
offer feedback on.
Do you think Kent graduates are well-placed for employment?
I think we equip them for jobs in the real world; drama gives people skills that
are not just relevant to the subject itself. Confidence, projecting your voice
and positive body language can help you in job interviews and impress
potential employers. Many of our graduates go on to work in the theatre, but
others have gone into teaching, business or social work.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Go out of your comfort zone – try something quirky such as
Slava’s Snowshow.
Performer or director you
would always seek out
Robert Lepage – a Québécois actor,
theatre director and filmmaker, with
an excellent dramaturgical
sensibility, who has made a real
mark on the theatre of the late 20th
and early 21st century around the
world.
Robert Lepage
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