From the Perspective of Out of Character’s Dramaturg, Madeleine Oldham
In BTG’s 2025 performance of Out of Character (now Off-Broadway with a new title, Other) the creative team included a member of that had a role that is not seen as often as other more classic roles in theatre, like director, cast and stage management. Read on to discover how dramaturgy influences the development of a play and what exactly a dramaturg does.
What is a dramaturg? Often, dramaturgs are pictured as academics who only research plays, but at the core, a dramaturg provides the contextual and advisory lifeblood of any production. Identifying a true, universal definition is challenging, as the role varies depending on each play’s needs and the people who are working on each production. Ask one dramaturg, and they may describe themselves as a literary consultant, collaborating with directors, designers, and actors to help realize an artistic vision. Ask another, and they may define their role as a scholar who champions the playwright’s original intent throughout the rehearsal process. To truly understand the role of a dramaturg, we sat down to interview Madeleine Oldham, who has the unique role of being both the dramaturg and sound designer for Out of Character for the past five years.
Q: What Does a Dramaturg Do?
A: “I’ve been doing [dramaturgy] for around 30 years and I still can’t answer this question.” With her role fluctuating between acting as an extra set of eyes and ears for the director Tony Taccone and actor-playwright Ari’el Stachel, while also being a person for the writer to talk to about script ideas, Madeleine essentially acts as an additional designer. “My job is to imagine how the play is presented to the audience,” she says. “Essentially, I am the imagined audience, because sometimes [their perspective] gets lost in the process.”
Q: How Has Out of Character Developed Over Time?
A: Along with many smaller adjustments, Madeleine states that the production has had two major changes throughout its six-year development, with the first being about the role Ari’s anxiety has on the play’s narrative. While writing the play, Ari initially thought he was writing solely about identity, but, during the play’s first production, he realized that all of the decisions he was making in the story were all driven by his anxiety.
“Helping peel back those layers was huge for the whole structure of the story and helped us understand what the play truly is about,” says Madeleine. “Once the anxiety aspect was identified, Ari made an off-hand comment that he gave his anxiety the name ‘Meredith.’ Tony immediately seized on that, and we developed Meredith as an actual character in the play.”
Set on exploring this new character in Out of Character’s World Premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2023, Meredith was introduced as a voiceover. As a dramaturg and sound designer, Madeleine found that Meredith appearing in this manner was not as successful as originally imagined. Meredith’s place on the stage as the new antagonist was still a piece of the puzzle that did not fit. All until Ari got an idea. For the second production co-presented by Theater J and Mosaic Theater Company in Washington D.C. earlier this year, Ari ran by Madeleine the thought of having himself play Meredith along with the other roles he performs and together they found that this was the better choice.
The other big evolution for the play was the incorporation of a global event with profound repercussions for Ari: the breach of the Gaza–Israel border by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Even though it was not included in the earlier 2023 World Premiere at Berkeley Rep, Ari, Tony and Madeleine found that the event’s impact on Ari could not be left out of the story because of the resurfacing of the same anxious feelings he felt and tried to bury surrounding the events of 9/11. Madeleine recalls, “[The inclusion of the events of October 7] brought up two questions: 1) Where and how does it belong in the story? and 2) Where do we stop? You can’t keep chasing current events. You have to stop at some point, so, if that’s included, what else has to be included?” As a dramaturg, it is important to not let the play become, as Madeleine likes to put it, a “runaway train.” The art of ensuring that a play does not accidentally become a history novel can be tricky, but is a task that Madeleine finds rewarding.
Q: What Has Been The Most Challenging Aspect of Being a Dramaturg?
A: Madeleine states that, while Ari’el balances his dual roles as both playwright and performer well, writing is “not his first language.” She states that separating Ari’s two roles has been a bit challenging, as usually a dramaturg approaches each role with new ideas differently, since they have unique relationships to the play. “He was a performer before he was a writer, so I think it has been really useful for him to have me to call and ask ‘You know, I think this is missing in the text’ or ‘I want to add new things, is this the direction we should go in?’”
Q: What Other Aspects of the Role Do You Feel the Audience Should Know About?
A: Madeleine states that being a dramaturg requires extremely close reading. Some adjustments, even if they are not as big as changing the script to fit in a new character or event, are equally important. “We have spent hours at rehearsal just talking about single words,” Madeleine recalls. “We would ask each other ‘Is this a ‘but’ or a ‘and?’’ And that can sound really tedious, but, in this world of theatre and storytelling, it’s a place where that one word does matter and makes a difference. The audience may not know or see that, but they will feel it. It’s that really deep, detailed work that makes a play that much richer and more impactful.”
Final Thoughts
The role of dramaturg–especially in a production still in development like Out of Character–is essential, but often overlooked. “Making theatre is so hard,” Madeleine reflects. “There are a thousand decisions that need to be made, and a thousand decisions that need to be done. There are a million moving parts, and, as a dramaturg, carving out a place to make sure you are breathing and paying attention to the words is vitally important.”
