Katherine Profeta uses the word ‘skeleton’ to define the concept of dramaturgy in her book Dramaturgy in Motion. The definition of the skeleton as stated by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is something forming a structural framework or reduced to its essential parts. This describes the core of what dramaturgy is.
Profeta uses ‘skeleton’ when speaking of dramaturgy and its relationship to text. In the introduction, she refers to dramaturgy as the ‘skeleton of the work’. She later explains why she refers to dramaturgy as such being the most essential part of a body of work. The dramaturgy of any art piece is the foundation on which it is built and compromises of its key components and concepts. She also states that dramaturgy compromises of a ‘textual skeleton’. Profeta writes, “text serves as both recipe and main ingredient for performance”. A dramaturgy cannot be made if the text is not first made. Henceforth the main component of a dramaturgy is the text. This text can be anything, from the script of a play to the musical sheet of a song.
I chose the word skeleton to discuss due to the Profeta’s use of it throughout the first two chapters of her book. She defines dramaturgy as the act or technique of dramatic composition and theatrical representation . Profeta explained this using the description of dramaturgy as a skeleton of work. It is viewed as the most essential components of any art piece. Henceforth, it is valid both as text and as a performance. The dramatic composition being the text and the theatrical representation, the performance. Profeta’s use of the word ‘skeleton’ shows that dramaturgy builds a piece of art both from it pages and gives instructions for its performance.
Merriam-Webster "Definition of skeleton." Accessed 5 Jan 2018. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skeleton.
Hi Tyeece,
Skeleton is an excellent keyword. I’m going to address the writing and the ideas in this essay together, since the two are really integral. When you pick a keyword, it’s fine to go to the dictionary. But after you do, you have to tie the dictionary information to the way in which the word becomes a relevant image, metaphor or descriptor for Profeta. Why would she use the word skeleton when writing about dance dramaturgy? Dance is unique because most of its preoccupation is about the body and embodiment. Therefore to begin using a property of most bodies that give flesh form makes the metaphor apt. Your essay is a series of statements that are paraphrased from the book as if the ideas, restated, are obvious. But what we look for in most student essays is elaboration – how the idea becomes understood by you and how you understand it relates to the ideas that are pertinent to the class. Please go to the writing center and ask them for help in eliminating redundancy so that you can use the engagement with the text to communicate the ways in which the author furthers an argument about her subject and how terms of art might be a lens into how she does so. This essay is mostly a restatement with the addition that a skeleton is a form and shows a plan. That could be the first sentence of y