(Asian) Dramaturgs’ Network: Sensing, Complexity, Tracing and Doing explores the histories, stories, and practices of the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network (ADN), a network of dramaturgs, performance makers, cultural producers and performance scholars in the wider Asian region that has been active since 2016. It explores two questions that have emerged through ADN dialogues and events. Are there Asian or Asia-based dramaturgies of practice and performance? And how does one write about these within contextually grounded frames, moving beyond Eurocentric paradigms? In selected essays, extracts from presentations, case studies and critical reflections, the collection explores the story of ADN, and the future of dramaturgy in and for performance in the region. It makes a strong case for rigorous and vibrant dramaturgical thinking, and is an open invitation for further dramaturgical work, opening up sustainable spaces for thinking and doing dramaturgy in the region.

This book argues that dramaturgy makes things visible and does so in two distinct and interrelating ways: creative processes and formal elements of performance are rendered visible and readable; and performance dramaturgy becomes an expanded practice in which performance is a locus for creating wide-ranging events and activities. This exploration defines dramaturgy as a perceptibly transforming agency in the construction, presentation and reception of contemporary performance; and it shows how contemporary performance has an intrinsic dramaturgical aspect whose proliferation of dramaturgical practices has led to a far-reaching reinvention of what contemporary theatre is. In doing so, this book deals with a careful selection of performance practices, including theatrical adaptations, new media dramaturgy, contemporary dance, installation-performance, postdramatic theatre, visionary works by auteurs, and revivals of well-known stage shows. This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in theater studies, performance studies, cultural studies, curating, and dance scholarship.