AUTHOR
Coming soon: Witch Fulfillment: Adaptation Dramaturgy & Casting the Witch for Stage & Screen (Routledge)!
“This book suggests that the Witch represents a crucial category of analysis for inclusive theatre and performance and will be of interest to theatre practitioners and designers, along with theatre, witchcraft, and horror studies scholars.”
Adapturgy: The Dramaturg’s Art and Theatrical Adaptation
Dramaturg Jane Barnette has put together an essential guide for theatre scholars and practitioners seeking to understand and participate in the process of adaptation for the stage. Employing the term “adapturgy”—her neologism for the art of adaptation dramaturgy—Barnette redefines the dramaturg’s role and thoroughly refutes the commonplace point of view that adapted works are somehow less creative than “original” plays.
The dual nature of dramaturgy and adaptation as both process and product is reflected in the structure and organization of the book. Part 1 explores the ways that linking adaptation to dramaturgy advances our understanding of both practices. Part 2 demonstrates three different methods—each grounded in a detailed case study—for analyzing theatrical adaptations. Part 3 offers concrete strategies for the dramaturg: dramaturgy for the adapted script; the production dramaturgy of stage adaptations; and the role of the dramaturg in the postmortem for a production. Rounding out the book are two appendixes containing interviews with adapters and theatre-makers and representative program notes from different play adaptations.
Plays adapted from literature and other media represent a rapidly growing part of the theatre. This book offers both practical and theoretical tools for understanding and creating these new works.
Reviews
“Adapturgy is a razor-sharp introduction to adaptation as dramaturgy in action. Best of all, Barnette consistently works to broaden our sense of the potential for theory and practice to inform one another.”
— Geoff Proehl, Toward a Dramaturgical Sensibility: Landscape and Journey
"Thoughtful and accessible in its approach, Adapturgy is more than a 'how-to' book about adaptation dramaturgy; it presents a compelling argument for understanding dramaturgy and adaptation as related and mutually informing processes."
— Lindsay Cummings, Theatre Topics
“This book is the first to tackle literary adaptation for theatre from a dramaturgical perspective, providing an up-to-the-minute treatment of a still-blossoming area of theatre practice. I am eager to use it for my next seminar in dramaturgy.”
— Felicia Hardison Londré, author, “Love’s Labour’s Lost”: Critical Essays
"Unique, informative, exceptionally well organized and presented, "Adapturgy: The Dramaturg's Art and Theatrical Adaptation" is an especially recommended and extraordinary addition to professional, community and academic library Theatre/Cinema/TV reference collections and supplemental studies reading lists."
— Mary Cowper, Midwest Book Review
“Adapturgy is a worthy addition to the library of certain performance-makers. . . . Those not regularly engaged in such work will find this book helps them ‘understand and participate in the process of adaptation for the stage,’ as Barnette writes in the introduction.”
— CHOICE, A publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries
Jane’s writing can also be found in journals, edited collections, & in dramaturgical program notes.
Background Image: “Night Garden,” Drawing by Danielle Laurin
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“What is Wanda, but Witches Persevering? Palimpsests of American Witches in WandaVision,” Theatre Journal 74.1 (2022).
“To Wright the Witch: The Case of Joanna Baillie’s Witchcraft,” Theatre History Studies 40 (2021).
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“Hocus-Pocus: WitchTok Education for Baby Witches.” TikTokCultures in the United States, ed. Trevor Boffone (Routledge, in press)
“Reevaluating Rigor with 2020 Hindsight—A Manifesto for the Ungraded Classroom.” Teaching Performance Practices, eds. Jeanmarie Higgins & Elisha Clark Halpin (Routledge, in press)
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“The Devil You (Don’t) Know.” Program Note for Witch by Jen Silverman (Theatreworks, Colorado Springs 2021), Directed by Caitlin Lowans.
“Fun Home’s Labyrinth of Mirrors.” Program Note for Fun Home the Musical, books & lyrics by Lisa Kron, music by Jeanine Tesori (KC Rep, Kansas City 2020), Directed by Lisa Rothe.