What is a Dramaturg? A dramaturg is someone who collaborates with the director, playwright, and production team to provide critical analysis, research, and contextual understanding of a production. They serve as a bridge between the artistic vision and the audience, working to enhance the overall quality and impact of a performance.
By Emma Bilderback, Dramaturg
In 1905, William Sidney Porter (nom de plume O. Henry) approached the corner of 18th and Irving Place, found a seat at the tavern there, and allegedly wrote The Gift of the Magi. It was a part of a collection called “The Four Million.” It was named so in critical response to Gilded Age socialite Ward McAllister, who claimed there were only 400 people in New York City worth knowing. O. Henry’s thesis with his title is that every person was worth knowing, with New York’s population at the time being about four million.
The Gift of the Magi evokes the Nativity story, but it was more their spirit than their story that Henry was drawing on. The title receives its explanation in the final paragraph of the story:
“The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
There is wonder in all of our narratives, there is love and there is loss. Each of us has a story worth telling. It’s one of the wonders of being human, our capacity for love and our capacity for storytelling. The Gift of the Magi encapsulates both of these things.
Cape May Stage joins a cacophony of adaptations of the famed story, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas, Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas, even Mystery Science Theater 3000. There is something truly timeless about two people expressing their love to each other imperfectly; knowing that despite hardships, the love lasts.