The dramaturg's profession, which began in eighteenth-century Germany, has only recently been instituted in the United States. During the past decade, new resident and ensemble theatres around the country have added to their staffs the first generation of American dramaturgs. Generally these dramaturgs hold the less Germanic title of Literary Manager or Literary Advisor; but like their European counterparts, they serve as criticsin-residence for non-commercial, subsidized theatre companies.

Delayed arrival of the profession is partially due to America's late development of permanent, non-commercial theatres. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Germany's first important dramaturg, began his career in 1767 when the nation's first permanent, subsidized repertory company hired him to write about its productions at Hamburg. Though the permanence of the Hamburg National Theatre is questionable—it lasted about two years—its plan to develop a repertory of new plays led the theatre to hire Lessing, a playwright/critic who both carefully evaluated new scripts and wrote them.