The Dramaturgy Focus Group works closely with Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (www.lmda.org). A growing community of dramaturgs regularly meets at both conferences. LMDA and ATHE supports the work of dramaturgs and literary managers in all its variety in terms of age, level of schooling, nationality, length of career, institutional (or non-institutional) affiliation, theatre size or mission, and so forth. While acknowledging and celebrating our differences, we seek to determine in what ways we come together, particularly in terms of shared values and beliefs. Based on these commonalities, we can then chart for the future a limited number of projects that will improve the environment for the field: e.g.-advocacy; affiliating with other organizations and communities; opening and continuing dialogues with writers, directors and other theater makers;
exploring the implications of dramaturgy for education and its usefulness as a paradigm for various theater and non-theater projects. In broad terms, the Dramaturgy Focus Group and LMDA are engaged in an extended search for ways in which collectively we can defend the function, explore the practice, and promote the profession of dramaturgy. As a relatively new focus group, we deeply appreciate the space that ATHE makes possible for us to gather and work. We are keenly interested in collaborating with other focus groups on creating conference sessions. We feel that one of dramaturgy's most important functions is as a meeting space for people and ideas.