Dramatourgos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A playwright or author who composes dramatic works for theatrical performance
2. A creative individual responsible for writing scripts and constructing narratives for plays
3. An artistic figure whose role is to develop and shape drama, often for stage production

Etymology: Dramaturg, the Greek-derived term for a theatre's literary advisor, has a surprisingly long life: it is Greek "dramatourgos", literally "play-maker" or "drama-worker", from "drama" (a deed, a thing done, later a play) and "ergon" (work), with the second element surfacing in English words like "energy" and "surgery". In ancient Athens the word was used of a dramatic poet, someone who composed a play. The English form entered the language much later and largely through German. In the eighteenth century, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing used the German "Dramaturg" in his "Hamburgische Dramaturgie" (1767–1769), a series of critical essays written while he advised the Hamburg National Theatre on its repertoire and productions. That job, reviewing texts and shaping how plays were staged, gave the German word its modern sense. English adopted "dramaturge" and "dramaturg" in the twentieth century, and "dramaturg" is the form most common today. Note that the role itself is a mostly modern, theatre-based one: the Greek word named the playwright, while the English term names the person who helps develop the play around the playwright.

Synonyms: playwright, dramatist, scriptwriter, author, writer