The Musical Theatre Dramaturgy – Report from the field by Nick Coburn, ’10

Nick Coburn on his path in musical theatre dramaturgy. 

After graduating from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing and Theatre Studies with an emphasis in Dramaturgy, Nick held two internships in New York. He was literary intern at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where as he read musical script submissions every day. His other internship was at Davenport Theatrical Enterprises with Ken Davenport. Nick was working in internet marketing, writing material for the company websites (BroadwaySpace.com, DidHeLikeIt.com, BestOfOffBroadway.com, 20at20.com, etc.).

After that, Nick spent just over ten months of 2011 serving as the Programming Associate of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Championing new musicals was a dream come true, especially given that nearly all the musicals produced in the Festival were by unpublished authors. Narrowing hundreds of submissions down to twelve “Next Link” finalists (plus about eighteen invited shows) was an adventure in itself, and he  found that providing dramaturgical feedback for so many musicals per week is taxing! But it’s easy when compared to attending 10+ shows per week as a representative of the Festival to give curtain speeches, monitor audience feedback, schedule and calculate Festival Jury awards, etc., in addition to standard office hours!

He left the position in late 2011 due to an offer he simply couldn’t turn down: to be the Associate to the Creative Director at Davenport Theatrical Enterprises. Working in the creative office of a commercial Broadway producing company has opened his eyes to a completely new side of theatre. He typically designs print and web ads, websites, email media, etc., for the shows his office represents, but they also have a creativedevelopment branch of the office that commissions and develops new plays and musicals on avery regular basis. Being a commercial office, the finish line is generally seen as Broadway — and it is interesting to approach material looking at its commercial value in addition to its artistic value. Hopefully in the next few months they will be mounting our first original musical — watch out for that! Also be on the lookout for Nick slowly taking over the NYC theatre scene — this year he completed his first Off-Off-Broadway gigs as choreographer and on stage management, both on Equity showcases!