I am available as a dramaturg for both:
- One-off or short-run consultations (e.g. a one-off consultation or a one-hour weekly check-in for a set number of weeks); as well as
- Deeper dramaturgical engagement on longer-term projects (e.g. more full-time work in a one or two-week workshop, etc).
My specialty as a dramaturg is in long-form musical theatre dramaturgy. The availability of playwriting, composition, and even musical theatre writing programs ensures that writers are often able to create compelling scenes, songs, or short pieces/excerpts that are compelling and competent from a craft standpoint. However, the way in which all the elements of musical theatre combine in a long-form story often necessitate (or invite) the assistance of dramaturgical feedback like what I could offer.
My Approach
My dramaturgical approach can be tailored to how you, the writer (or writing team) work, but is premised on these principles:
- Ascertain what the writer(s), mean(s) to say with the piece
- Through a process of gentle and loving questions and prompts guided by the writer, assist the writer in finding opportunities in their drafting and rewrites where the piece may continue to deepen and shape itself to align with the writer’s intentions
- Speaking about the text and the music in the piece with equal importance
- Treating the music in particular as emotional and narrative storytelling – in particular, while I am also happy to discuss music in a technical way with composers, it’s important that we all feel comfortable talking about the narrative in common narrative and emotional terms so we understand what its role is in the piece on a macro scale
- Referencing traditional theatrical (and musical theatre) narrative structures, but only insofar as they are helpful to your journey and your piece – all theory (narrative and music) is meant to be descriptive, to provide means of understanding why something is working – it should never be prescriptive (should never be used as a map, or a ‘must’). I love successful musical theatre work that really follows the ‘rules’, so to speak, but I also love lovingly and knowingly bucking and subverting the ‘rules’
- The writer must always be the leader in the excavation and examination of their own piece; you’re going to do the deepest and most reflective work on the piece when you are ready, and on the areas where your mind is curious – I will take your lead on where your rigour and curiosity is placed
Engaging me as a Dramaturg on Your Work
Please write me an email using the email address at the bottom of this page, telling me about your project in just a paragraph, as well as what kind of work you’re looking to engage me for. A small two-page sample of the work and up to one mp3 may also be included, but is not necessary – I’m happy to ask for samples if we get that far in our discussion.
I have both an hourly rate, which includes time spent reading and rendering notes, and a consultation hour of conversation, as well as weekly and fixed rates if being retained on a more ‘full-time’ basis for a finite period (say, a production rehearsal period, or a (multi)week workshop process). Both fees exist on a sliding scale, particularly for musicals by writing teams that represent BIPOC, queer, femme, and/or trans and non-binary experiences and perspectives.
Past Dramaturgy
A list of previous works I have worked as a dramaturg on.
| Ye Xian: A Musical Retelling | Hilary Wheeler & Heeyun Park | Bad Hats | 2025 |
| Levels, the Play | Abby Grass & Clarence Jura | No Strings Theatre | 2024 |
| Cruz Control | Jennifer Villaverde & Miquelon Rodriguez | Villaverde / Rodriguez | 2024 |
| Nobody Asked to Be Here | Avery-Jean Brennan & Camilo Diaz-Varela | Potassium Theatre | 2024 |
| FIRST DRAFTS: Kensington Rooted: A Musical Poem Nobody Asked to be Here | Beau Dixon & Raha Javanfar Jewelle Blackman Avery-Jean Brennan & Camilo Diaz-Varela | Sheridan College | 2022 – 2023 |
| Kabilang Buhay | Jennifer Villaverde, Kodie Rollan, Maria Aragon | Villaverde / Rollan / Aragon | 2022 |
| FIRST DRAFTS: Tiny Tenement of Horrors Destination Wedding Parkdale | Aaron Jan & alaska B Jennifer Villaverde, Kodie Rollan, Maria Aragon Meghan Swaby & Chris Tsujiuchi | Sheridan College | 2021-2022 |
| UnCovered: Prince & Stevie Wonder | co-Dramaturg | The Musical Stage Company | 2019 |
| UnCovered: Dylan & Springsteen | co-Dramaturg | The Musical Stage Company | 2017 |
| UnCovered: Queen & Bowie | co-Dramaturg | The Musical Stage Company | 2016 |
| Fancydance: The Musical! | Andréa Ledding & Tenille Campbell | Native Earth / Weesagechak | 2016 |