To answer the core question of this thesis: “How can the feminist gaze be used as a tool for
dramaturgical practice?”, I will take the following steps: First, I will problematize the anxieties
surrounding the role of the dramaturg as an agent of cohesion and overview who is invisible
and flexible. To do this, I will lean heavily on the theoretical work of Myriam Van Imschoot
and other influential dramaturgs. I then look at theories of the gaze in the performing arts
and bring them in connection to patriarchal oppressive hierarchies through the investigation
of the male gaze, female gaze and feminist gaze. Here, I draw on Adam Czirak’s work on
the gaze in the performing arts and on the film directors Laura Mulvey and Joey Soloway, for
the male, female and feminist gaze. These theories of the gaze bring me to looking at the
gaze as an embodied concept, and consequently point me in the direction of embodied
dramaturgy as a feminist dramaturgical practice. In the third part of the thesis, I adopt a more
speculative approach using practical and theoretical writing as well as excerpts of
conversations I had with peers as sources, weaving all the different materials together to
investigate the feminist potential of embodied dramaturgical practice. The research for this
thesis is based on academic methodology and more speculative writing. I invite you to read
this thesis as the result of a making-process with intense research and much dramaturgical
thinking.