Questions

Apparently I have turned into a procrastinator this term. I have no idea why but it seems to be the case. That isn't to say that I haven't been thinking about my line of questioning a lot because I have, and even in the last week my questions and the angle from which I am looking at things has changed a considerable number of times. I have just found that I have been putting off writing about them. Perhaps this is because I have this feeling that the minute I actually write them down I will have to justify why I want to ask them, why it is important to me and why it will be useful to anyone else, something that I'm not sure I have the answers to yet. Blogging is sometimes like thinking out loud and in this instance I've felt the need to be relatively quiet (although obviously not completely because that is an impossibility for me) until my ideas reached a level where I felt I could effectively communicate them. I think that time is now so I am going to talk you through  how and why my thinking has evolved in the last week.

I should start by clarifying that I am a musical theatre performer (a term some of us are trying to rid ourselves of I know, but for now it will do) and a 'sometimes' teacher who in the future wants to move into the vocational training of musical theatre students. I initially believed that I wanted to become a dance teacher but the more I have thought about it the more I realise that dance isn't where my passion lies. I love drama. I love the creation and performance of characters. The portrayal of emotion that runs through acting, singing and dancing. It is after all musical THEATRE so I believe that acting is the most important aspect of what I do. It was this understanding of my current love and my future goals that helped me establish some initial questions.

• Why are musical theatre actors taken less seriously than 'straight' actors?

• Whose perception is this?

• Are musical theatre actors less good than straight actors?

• What is expected of straight actors and can musical theatre actors meet the same needs?

• If not, then why not?

These questions are all things that are really important to me and they are still definitely a part of what I want to investigate but looking through the reader I kept coming back to Hanstein's idea of 'pseudo questions'.

"A genuine question truly seeks an answer, as a pseudo question expects no answer, cannot be answered, or has an answer that is already known to the person asking the question." (Hanstein, 1999).

I began to think that perhaps some of these questions I already know the answer to. For example, I am pretty sure I could tell you why musical theatre actors are considered less good than 'straight' actors. It doesn't mean I think it is right but I think it also means there is no need to do research around it.


I was still interested in the perception of musical theatre though. Reading Rebecca's blog 'Task 4a Developing questions relevant to my Professional Practice' I realised that other people were having the same experiences as me. Your CV and being a 'musical theatre performer' seriously impact not just the work you get but even the work you are considered for. I then posed the following question;

• What is people's (the public and industry professionals) perception of musical theatre performers, and how does this impact the training and work available to them?

Task 4c suggested that you should 'Develop your questions with your own professional community beyond the programme.' I thought it would be good to arrange a couple of meetings with people I know in the business to discuss my questions and ideas. One of the people was a performer friend of mine who did this course two years ago. The other was a performer friend of mine, who is carrying out her PhD and who is also head of drama on a two year MT course. I thought both would have useful insight and I turned out to be right.

At my first meeting I raised my questions and I was given some useful feedback. My friend suggested that the above question was perhaps too broad and that I needed to relate it more specifically to the area I wanted to move into. I would after all be using my research project to rationalise my award title and I would surely want my award title to highlight my knowledge of teaching vocational musical theatre. She also suggested that the first part of the question at least (what is people's perception of musical theatre) was perhaps still a pseudo question, and that I already knew the answer. She also suggested to me that I thought about what resources were available to me and what contacts I had in the industry that I could make use of. All of these observations really started to get my ideas flowing. We came up with a couple more questions;

• What would be needed from an educational level to improve musical theatre performer's acting ability and the image of it?

• Is the current level of training at musical theatre schools sufficient in creating actors of a high enough standard?

I didn't feel happy with these questions though because I thought they might be constricting. I then suggested the question;

• How do you best train someone for a career in musical theatre?

This question really appeals to me because it is totally related to where I want my career to go. I know there is lots of literature on the subject but I am also sure there is not a current consensus. I am certain that I do not know the answer but I think that an investigation into it would not only help me as a teacher but would also benefit my future students. I also think the question incorporates strands of all the other questions I previously asked. For example, how you train someone must surely be influenced by the way you perceive the industry. Are all musical theatre students being trained for the same thing? What are the expectations of where they will end up? Is there in fact a right/best way at all? This line of inquiry genuinely excites me and I would love to know what any of you think.

My second meeting was equally enlightening in a different way. Instead of talking about types of questions we talked specifically about the question above. As my friend is head of drama on a two year musical theatre course she obviously had a lot to say on the subject. I won't give you all the details of the conversation but something that occurred to me that was interesting relates to organisational change. The course she helps run is only in its second year and as such they are in a position to really assess what the industry currently requires from graduating musical theatre performers. I think they are also in a perfect position to help mould what is expected. This made me realise that some of the older more established schools were perhaps at risk of being out flanked because they are so steeped in history and 'the way things are done'. I would love to do case studies on the heads of lots of different musical theatre courses. I think the findings would be both interesting and important for the future of the industry. After all it is the graduating students who will shape the direction that theatre takes.

Sorry for the hideously long blog but I am glad that I have finally got some of my thoughts down. Let me know if you have any thoughts.