Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism

Additional Requirements

Anti-Racist Theater Practice Requirement
Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism students are required to enroll in DRAM 3(04)a/b, Toward an Anti-Racist Theater Practice, in order to fulfill the School’s anti-racist theater practice requirement. Combined with the prerequisite workshop, Everyday Justice: Anti-Racism as Daily Practice, this course offers vital strategies for the lifelong development of individual and communal anti-racist practice.

Theater History Requirement
Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism students are required to enroll in DRAM 6a/b, Survey of Theater and Drama, in order to fulfil the School’s theater history requirement. This course is considered a crucial foundation for all of the program’s students.

Dramaturgical Assignments
Each student serves as a dramaturg on one or more productions per year either at Yale Repertory Theatre or the School. During the fall term of their first eligible year, students are not typically assigned to production work. In the second term, these students may be assigned to a play by a playwriting student at the School and may also work on other plays under the supervision of the resident dramaturg. In their subsequent years, students may undertake a project at Yale Repertory Theatre, a director’s thesis production (see Directing program, The Director’s Thesis, DRAM 140a/b), a Shakespeare Repertory Project (see Directing program, Directing II, DRAM 120a/b), or a play by a playwriting student at the School.

Students work on School productions and Yale Repertory Theatre productions subject to availability and suitability of projects and program requirements.

Additionally, dramaturgy students assist the resident dramaturg and Yale Rep’s literary manager in script evaluation and related tasks through the Literary Office Practicum (DRAM 346a/b).

Yale Cabaret
Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism students are encouraged to work in all capacities at the Yale Cabaret, but this participation is understood to be in addition to, and in no way a substitution for, required program work. No student with an “Incomplete” grade in any course, and no student on program-imposed academic warning, may participate in the Yale Cabaret in any capacity. Students must request approval from the student labor supervisor and should inform the program chair before agreeing to participate in the Cabaret.

Yale Repertory Theatre Artistic Office
Students are trained to read scripts for Yale Repertory Theatre, and each academic year, they are required to submit written evaluations of these scripts to the Artistic Office. This work is done under the supervision of Yale Rep’s senior artistic producer and dramaturgy adviser, who is a lecturer in the program, and the literary fellow, who is a D.F.A. candidate in the program.

Theater Magazine Office
During their first year, Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism students take the Editing and Publishing Workshop (DRAM 106a), taught by the editor of Theater, the journal of criticism and performance co-published by David Geffen School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre and Duke University Press, which introduces them to major aspects of publishing such a journal. In the second and third years, qualified students may have additional opportunities to work on the magazine’s staff in a variety of editing and publishing positions. Select D.F.A. candidates may be appointed to senior staff positions as part of their doctoral fellowships. Along with essays, reviews, and translations by leading authors and professional critics, Theater has published outstanding work by Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism students, who are encouraged to propose and submit writing and editorial projects for possible publication.

Language Requirement
The language requirement is satisfied during the first or second year by the translation of a play in the Translation seminar (DRAM 246a). Students who wish to pursue a special emphasis in translation may take this course once more with the approval of their advisers and the course instructor.

Literary Orientation
Upon entering the department, students are required to take orientation seminars introducing them to the Yale University Library system and its various facilities and resources.

Comprehensive Examination Requirement
The comprehensives are a set of final written and oral qualifying examinations in which third-year students demonstrate their ability to bring critical depth and dramaturgical perspective to broad areas of the field. Through this process students take responsibility for mastery of subjects of their own choosing. Often these subjects have not been covered in course work.

Each student must write two independently researched exams. For each of these, the student writes essay-length answers to two questions in the chosen area of study. Topics for written examinations must be chosen in consultation with the student’s adviser and reflect breadth of study across time periods, genres, movements, etc. Areas of study should not overlap and may include major historical periods; important dramatists or other figures; basic dramatic genres; significant theoretically or critically defined movements. Other broad areas also may be devised in consultation with faculty advisers.

Each student must also submit case studies in theater history in the spring terms of the first and second years. Based upon a selection of plays chosen by the faculty in Classical and Medieval Drama in the first year and Pre-Modern Drama in the second year, these case studies demonstrate the student’s mastery of theater history. Guidelines for these case studies are available from the department.

Each student must create one dramaturgical casebook each year based on a production assignment completed during the student’s first five terms at David Geffen School of Drama and approved by the faculty. Casebooks must include the full and cut scripts, an essay of textual analysis, a comprehensive production history, a critical bibliography, preproduction and rehearsal journals, and other pertinent materials generated by work on the production (program pages, poster design, etc.). Guidelines for casebooks are available from the department.

These written components—exams, case studies, and casebooks—are followed by an oral comprehensive exam. Oral examinations are designed not only as defenses of the written exams but may also be a further exploration of areas students have worked up but not answered in their other comprehensives. The casebooks will provide the basis for discussion during the oral exam of the student’s development as a dramaturg. These exams will be completed in early May.

Final grades for the comprehensive examinations are determined upon completion of the process. Following each written examination, students will be given a Pass/Fail evaluation by their faculty advisers. If the faculty concludes that the exam is not passing work, the student will be informed of the areas of deficiency. In such a case the oral examination becomes an opportunity for the student to redress the deficiencies. A student who fails one or more comprehensives and/or the oral is allowed to reenroll in the comprehensive process once more during the following year. A student failing the second time is not awarded a degree.

Third-year students must adhere to the following schedule*†

• August 29–September 2, 2022: Deadline for third-year students to meet with their advisers to review and update comprehensive study procedures and propose a fall examination schedule. There will be a program faculty meeting in this week, at which third-year students must give their presentations of the five topics they have identified during stipended summer study. Students must take at least one examination during the fall term, according to the schedule below.
• November 6, 2022: First fall deadline for turning in a comprehensive examination.
• December 11, 2022: Final fall deadline for turning in a comprehensive examination.
• February 26, 2023: First spring deadline for turning in a comprehensive examination.
• April 16, 2023: Final deadline for having completed independently researched exams.
• May 12, 2023: Final deadline for having completed the oral examination.

*In light of the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, these dates are subject to change.
†In 2022–2023 there are no second-year students; a typical calendar for second years’ comprehensive exam process will be reestablished next year.

Requirements for the Doctor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism
Upon completion of the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism program requirements for an M.F.A. degree and graduation from the School, a student is eligible to register to remain in residence for the proposal year to apply to the Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) program.* Acceptance into the D.F.A. program is not to be considered an entitlement and is based not only on the merits of the proposal, but also on the faculty’s assessment of the student’s performance and progress in the M.F.A. program. Candidates must submit their proposals by January 9, 2023, the first day of the spring term, for review by the D.F.A. Committee. The proposal must conform to program guidelines and designate first and second readers. If either reader comes from outside the program, the proposal must include a letter from the reader acknowledging a willingness to advise the dissertation if the prospectus is approved. It is understood that, except in extraordinary circumstances, if the student’s proposed dissertation can be read by a member of the full-time faculty, that faculty member will be considered the first reader. Upon review, the committee may approve, reject, or recommend changes to the proposal. If changes are recommended, the student has until April 1, 2023, to resubmit the proposal in order to obtain the committee’s approval. If the proposal has not been sufficiently revised at that time, it will be finally rejected.

A student holding an M.F.A. degree from the School has two years after graduation to apply to and be accepted into the D.F.A. program. Upon acceptance of the proposal by the D.F.A. Committee, the student is expected to complete the dissertation within three years, working in close consultation with the first reader. If necessary, and so long as the student is able to demonstrate progress, an extension may be granted upon a written request. Each year all D.F.A. students registered as “in residence” are expected to attend an in-person chapter conference at the School; here they will offer a twenty-minute presentation about their latest research and writing. These chapter conferences will be held at the end of both the fall and spring terms. In consultation with their advisers, students may choose at which conference they would like to present.

Graduating D.F.A. students must adhere to the following schedule

• January 9, 2023: Final deadline for submission of revised drafts of all chapters to first and second readers.
• March 10, 2023: Notification of approval of revised chapter drafts and requests for final corrections.
• April 15, 2023: Final deadline for submission of all formatted files.

After the D.F.A. Committee’s final acceptance of the dissertation, two bound copies must be delivered to the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism chair two weeks prior to the date on which the student expects to graduate. The dissertation proposal guidelines contain complete details and stipulations for obtaining the degree and are available through the program.

The D.F.A. candidate may elect to register as a full-time student in residence to pursue work on the dissertation. The tuition fee for this status is $1,000 per year in residence and entitles candidates to use libraries and related facilities, to audit courses related to their research, to eligibility for tickets to School and Yale Repertory Theatre productions, and to Yale Health Basic Coverage. Yale Health Hospitalization/Specialty Coverage is offered for an additional fee (for 2022–2023, the fee is $1,378 per term). In the first five years of residency, D.F.A. candidates receive a scholarship to cover tuition and the cost of Yale Health Hospitalization/Specialty Coverage. (If students decline this insurance coverage, their scholarship will be reduced by the amount equivalent to its cost.) Students enrolled in the D.F.A. program are eligible to apply for one of three writing fellowships, a Yale Rep artistic associate fellowship, a Theater magazine fellowship, or DRAM 6a/b teaching assistantships. These fellowships are awarded based on suitability and other factors, such as additional opportunities for support, pedagogical enrichment, and demand or history of support in the program. The Theater magazine, artistic associate, and literary office fellowships are twelve months long; the rest are for the nine-month academic year only. As a result, fellowship awards offer differing financial support. More information is available from the financial aid office.

*The Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism program has instituted DRAM 46, Special Research Project, as a capstone project for students enrolled in the four-year curriculum. Students interested in pursuing the D.F.A. degree are expected to use their enrollment in this course to complete their prospectus under the mentorship of program advisers. For more information on DRAM 46, please see the section below.