This book marries a theoretical analysis of the issues underlying the role of the dramaturg with a thorough sense of the material conditions of theatrical production, from script editing and rehearsal room interactions to the preparation of program notes and audience lectures. Central to the project is a notion of authority defined not by text or author, but by the theatre itself. The result is a guide for the prospective dramaturg which also provides for the more general reader a unique case study of the nexus between the methods and assumptions of literary criticism and those of practical theatre.