GLOSSY

This week has been focused on creating a glossary for both Execution of Justice and The Arsonists. I am so glad that I am learning about glossaries because it is something that had never really been on my mind as I started dramaturgy work for The Arsonists. The first time around (before discussing glossaries in class) I only found a small handful of words to define for my cast and production team. The second time around, I found dozens. What I found is that the many of the words for my glossary were British terms. Some of them seemed obvious to me. For example, "bloke", is a word that I have heard very often and would never second-guess the meaning. I put down that word, however, because I wanted to be as thorough as possible

Then there is a gray area where I knew the word for the most part, but I might second guess that knowledge on occasion. "Petrol", and "damask linen" were two of those. On the other end of the spectrum, some words or phrases went right over my head until I dug deeper. For example, "had his collar felt" or "inflammable" were totally new to me. (And yet somehow I did not come up with the idea to put them into a glossary???).

One of the biggest takeaways from working on a Glossary in dramaturgy class has been the idea that a dictionary and a glossary are distinctly different. I so desperately want to define every little word that the actor's may not know, but that is not the purpose of glossing the text. I also could go so in depth about many of these British terms, but the setting of the play for our production will be in a non-specific American town. Many of the uniquely British phrases and words will probably be changed because of this. Of course, it will still be incredibly useful for the cast to understand the meaning of the original translation, but that is just an thought that has rolled through my head.

Similarly, I have encountered the gray area of what should be put in a Glossary for Execution of Justice. There are a lot of references to specific people and places that could be put into it, but some seem a little insignificant to weigh down the glossary with it. For example Polk Street is a very geographically specific place in San Francisco, but there doesn't seem to be any other significant relevance to the story. On top of that, there is still the struggle to decide what terms simply need to be defined, like in a dictionary, and which need more in-depth explanation.