The Dramaturgy of Nothingness

This chapter explores a fundamental difference between two dramaturgical techniques, one which assumes that an essential “being” is at the center of the human experience while the other assumes that an essential “nothingness” or quest to dissolve identity is at the center of human experience. These two dramaturgies create different approaches to the journey of a character as our dramaturgical choices are inherently dependent to our view on human experience which is often axiomatic. The chapter provides exercises and tools to examine this fundamental difference in playwriting. The difference is most clearly seen on examining Aristotelian structures of drama versus oriental forms such as Noh, Kathakali and Kabuki, though this is in no way restricted strictly to these paradigms of east and west.