The authorial function: discussions on the ownership of meaning in contemporary dramaturgical practices

Abstract

This paper intends to open a debate around the hierarchical status of the author in the new modes of building dramatic sense in today's theater. In order to do this, first we examine the role and figure of the author; and, secondly, we analyze the historical evolution of the different stage discourses. Our analysis shows that contemporary stage practices, even when they criticize the text-centric model as well as the one based on traditional author, they nevertheless continue to recognize an authorial function. The current modification is that they introduce modes of production in which the stage play arises from the collaboration of all poetic fields, that is to say the playwright, the performance, the direction, and the group. In this way, contemporary theater approaches the notion of complex authorships.