1.5: Theatrical Roles

Theatre is arguably the most collaborative of all art forms. A single performance may involve dozens—sometimes hundreds or even thousands—of contributors, from the most visible actors on stage to the often-invisible craftspeople building scenery, running lights, or editing marketing trailers. Over time, these collaborative functions have become formalized into distinct creative roles or professions. While every production process is unique, most revolve around a core team: the playwright, the director, the performer, and the designer. These roles form the backbone of theatrical storytelling and production. In this book, we explore these four key theatrical roles through contemporary case studies to understand not only what these artists do, but also how and why they do it.

The Playwright

The playwright designs a blueprint for action—a written script that includes characters, dialogue, and stage directions. But playwriting is not solely about plot. Playwrights craft situations of conflict, populated by characters with irreconcilable desires and choices. The play exists not as literature alone, but as an invitation to performance—a plan that depends on others to bring it to life.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Mary Kathryn Nagle. (Copyright author)

Chapter 1 explores playwriting through the work of Mary Kathryn Nagle, whose play Sovereignty (2018) dramatizes the contemporary fight for tribal jurisdiction over crimes committed on Native land, while weaving in 19th-century Cherokee legal and political history. A member of the Cherokee Nation and a constitutional attorney specializing in tribal sovereignty, Nagle writes plays that are as politically urgent as they are theatrically compelling. Her work bridges her dual professions, using drama to challenge U.S. legal narratives and reclaim Indigenous memory and agency. Sovereignty not only tells a gripping intergenerational story but also models a decolonial form of playwriting grounded in Native storytelling traditions.

The Director

The director interprets the playwright’s script and shapes it into a live performance. They guide the storytelling, often asking: Why this play, for this audience, at this time? Directors create a concept for the production, unify the work of designers and performers, and guide the rehearsal process. Their work is equal parts analytical, visual, emotional, and collaborative.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Mikael Burke. (Copyright author)

Chapter 2 examines the director’s role through Mikael Burke’s 2022 staging of The Magnolia Ballet by Terry Guest, produced by About Face Theatre in Chicago. Burke approached the script—a Southern gothic tale of race, queerness, and generational trauma—with a heightened sense of theatricality, using movement, memory, and magical realism to express the protagonist’s internal conflict. Burke’s background as both an educator and a Black queer artist informed his interpretation, allowing him to bring personal insight and cultural specificity to the production. His work demonstrates how directors can honor the playwright’s vision while also imbuing a production with their own artistic and political lens.

The Performer

The performer brings the script to life through embodied storytelling. Guided by the director, actors use voice, movement, and presence to inhabit a character’s truth under imaginary circumstances. Their work is deeply personal and intensely physical, requiring discipline, empathy, and vulnerability.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Alys Dickerson. (Copyright author)

Chapter 3 explores acting through the preparation of Alys Dickerson, who played Ophelia in American Players Theatre’s 2022 production of Hamlet, directed by James DeVita. Dickerson’s approach to the role combined rigorous textual analysis with an embodied exploration of Ophelia’s emotional arc. Her training at Northern Illinois University and the Moscow Art Theatre School informed her process, especially her attention to gesture, breath, and psychological realism. In a production staged outdoors and rooted in classical technique, Dickerson reinvigorated the famous role, highlighting Ophelia’s agency and internal struggle within a patriarchal world.

The Designer

Designers interpret the director’s concept to build the visual and aural world of the play. They create sets, costumes, lighting, sound, and media that help tell the story, shape the audience’s attention, and evoke mood and meaning.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Marcus Doshi. (Copyright author)

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Wilson Chin. (Copyright author)

Chapter 4 investigates design through the 2017 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, focusing on lighting designer Marcus Doshi and scenic designer Wilson Chin. In a play that fuses Waiting for Godot with the Black Lives Matter movement, Doshi and Chin’s work created a haunting, minimalist environment—an urban purgatory echoing both biblical myth and modern America. Doshi’s lighting design underscored the play’s tonal shifts, guiding the audience’s emotional journey, while Chin’s set—a concrete slab framed by looming streetlights—evoked a world of surveillance and suspended time. Together, their designs amplified the play’s urgent social commentary and theatrical power.

Throughout this book, we’ll return to these four central theatrical roles—the playwright, the director, the performer, and the designer—examining how they work individually and collaboratively to create meaning on stage. Along the way, we will explore the global histories of these roles, recognizing how different cultures define theatrical labor, artistic authorship, and the nature of performance.