ABSTRACT
The South African theatre and performance landscape is diverse, complex, and fractious, defined and described in multiple convergent and divergent ways. Within this landscape, the role, function, and position of the dramaturg mirror this diversity and complexity (and at times its fractiousness). In an attempt to trace the various dramaturgical trajectories at play in the South African theatre and performance domain, the context(s) produce or bring to the surface various discourses, both aesthetic and sociopolitical, that co-exist in an unresolved dialectical tension within the dramaturgical pursuit of “creating” South African theatre and performance. Within these discursive moments, the South African dramaturg “hovers,” contributing in ways appropriate to a specific context, purpose, and task. In doing so, diverse and shifting loci of authority and hierarchies of discourse(s) interplay in/for the process(es) of creation. The function of the dramaturg within the South African context has become one of “discourse management,” 1 as the dramaturg operates in the slippages of discourse and the negotiation of authority in/through discursive spaces and strategies.
