ABSTRACT
For thousands of years as we evolved via a cognitive spirit the desire to ask questions, a Dramaturgical Impulse has developed. This Impulse is at the very core of the artistic process. The following essay tracks the Dramaturgical Impulse from the Blombos Cave at the tip of Africa nearly 100,000 years ago to the Lascaux Cave in France through the evolution of the dramaturgical profession today amongst dramaturgs who, in rehearsals, theaters, and their communities, demonstrate a “Questioning Spirit” as Citizen-Dramaturgs. Bly incites dramaturgs, teachers, and audiences to develop a heightened “social awareness or activism” on pressing issues such as climate change and the threat of the extinction of species worldwide, while challenging the hidden and not-so-hidden prejudices in our theaters, communities, and nations – prejudices that discourage theatrical and social investigations of, and resistance to, racism, meaningful justice, and equity.
