"Repeatedly, throughout this collection, dramaturgy resists the mantle of stable definition and instead insists on perpetually redefining itself in relation to its context: the people, projects, and parameters it operates upon and within. Yet, as other entries in this collection demonstrate, this wary elusiveness concerning definitions in no way precludes concrete description and analysis of its 'working parts.' The machinery of dramaturgy has been a remarkably popular topic of debate, in personal exchanges and in published criticism, for several decades. Some of the most noteworthy positions and personalities from that conversation have been gathered here to be revisited and reassessed with an eye to the future." —from the introduction

Bruce Barton is an educator, playwright, dramaturg, and director. Born in Montreal, raised and educated in Ontario, he spent from 1991 through 2001 living on Canadaâ??s East Coast, including Corner Brook, NF, Charlottetown, PE, and Halifax, NS. Bruce received a doctorate in Drama and Theatre from the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto, where he now holds a position in playwriting and dramaturgy. He has articles published in Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, Essays in Drama, and Canada on Stage. Additional book projects include a theoretical study of the relationship between theatre and film (2004) and a critical history of Atlantic Canadian theatre (2005).

He is currently completing an extensive entry on Canadian Drama in English for the online Canadian Encyclopedia, and he is the author of the annual, year-end drama review essay for the University of Toronto Quarterly. He is also the editor of Theatre Research in Canada. As dramaturg, Bruce has worked extensively with new and established playwrights throughout Canada, and is currently focusing on physically-based theatre creation (specifically with Torontoâ??s Number Eleven Theatre). Bruce is a national award-winning playwright with credits in stage and video production, as well as CBC radio drama. His play Roswell is included in New Canadian Drama 8, published by Borealis Press. He is a past-president of the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, and a current member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Bruce Barton's profile page