Shelley Orr

Shelley Orr (PhD) is a freelance dramaturg who teaches dramaturgy and theatre history at San Diego State University in the U.S. She is the past president of the international professional association Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA).

Shelley Orr’s paper Dramaturgy in the United States provides a sense of the current attitudes toward dramaturgy in the United States, along with a brief overview of how young theatre professionals enter the field. The first section is entitled "Attitudes Toward and Definitions of Dramaturgy in the United States and traces the rise of the profession over the past forty years while pointing to the notable challenges faced by dramaturgs during that history. The second section "Paths to the Profession in the U.S. outlines the two main ways early career dramaturgs enter the field. The paper concludes with Orr’s personal definition and philosophy of dramaturgy.