Critical Reflection and Summary: Digital Portfolio

At the beginning of term I had very little idea about what a professional inquiry was let alone what I might actually investigate, how I might go about it and how I would ensure that it was ethically sound. Thankfully by engaging in the various tasks of the module I am now able to answer these questions and look back at the evolution of my ideas. 


I have discovered that my professional inquiry will be a way for me to increase my understanding of my profession with the hope of opening new doors and moving forward. I have also become aware of the problems that may face someone doing an insider inquiry (Appendix A).


My interest and profession revolve around musical theatre so I knew my inquiry would be related to this. I therefore started a Musical Theatre SIG on the BAPP Facebook page to see if others shared my interest (Appendix B), inviting people to join through a blog entry (Appendix C). Many interesting discussions occurred regarding perception and performance ability, some of which are outlined in my blog (Appendix D).


I also joined several other SIGs that complemented my own interests such as Dance and Drama in Education (Appendix E), Education and Training, Was it Appropriate For Your Career? (Appendix F) and Jack of All Trades... And Master of None (Appendix G). The creation of the SIGs has enabled my ideas to evolve through discussion with my peers. For example, the conversations I have been having with Rebecca Jane Gaskell both on her blog (Appendix H) and my blog (Appendix I). The SIGs didn't come without their problems however, although I found it difficult to change anything (Appendix J).


I initially thought my inquiry would be based on the perception of musical theatre but after meeting with professional peers to discuss my questions (Appendix K) and thinking over comments from BAPP students (for example, Stephanie Thomas' comments (Appendix L)) it soon became apparent that I was more interested in investigating the way musical theatre students are trained. It now seems the perfect inquiry as it marries my love of musical theatre with my desire to move into the vocational training of other performers.


Given that my inquiry would now be about musical theatre training and that my prior knowledge of ethics was relatively small (Appendix M) it seemed appropriate to look into the code of ethics for both performers (Appendix N) and teachers (Appendix O). This investigation of ethics coupled with information from the reader enabled me to make decisions about what ethical standards I would ensure were in place for my inquiry (Appendix P).


I began researching musical theatre generally, thinking about which performances I admire (Appendix Q) and what types of musical theatre there are (Appendix R). I also investigated opinions on how musical theatre students should be trained (Appendix S) as well as the training actually available (Appendix T). I have used Delicious as a way of bookmarking and sharing my electronic resources (Appendix U) (as well as looking at the resources of other members of my SIG (Appendix V)) and I have used the BAPP references wiki to share other important, non-electronic literature (Appendix W).


This accumulation of resources however wasn't enough to inform my thoughts and ideas. It was only through critical analysis of the literature, three of which are posted on my blog (Appendix X, Appendix Y and Appendix Z), that I really began to understand the professional landscape in which my inquiry will take place.


The final challenge was working out how to obtain the necessary information needed to increase my understanding and draw conclusions. I carried out a pilot observation (Appendix 1), survey (Appendix 2), interview (Appendix 3) and focus group (Appendix 4), some with more success than others. The failures didn't matter however because all the pilots gave me insight into exactly what I wanted to find out and into what would be the best way to obtain the information needed. 

This term has brought me to a place where I am now excited and confident to ethically conduct a professional inquiry that will not only benefit my understanding but will hopefully also contribute to the industry as a whole.

Interview

A couple of weeks ago I conducted a pilot interview with one of my professional peers. I initially tried to conduct this over the phone and because it is not possible to record on my phone I made notes on the interview. This proved to be an extremely difficult process and the information I collected ended up being paraphrased and sketchy. I also felt that not being able to see the person limited my appreciation of the nuances of their responses. I therefore decided to conduct the interview again in person.

The second time around I recorded the whole interview so that I could transcribe it and revisit it whenever I wanted. I did still makes notes however in case something went wrong with the recording. I also tried to create what Judith Bell describes as a 'draft schedule'. This is where I had a sequence of numbers for each question that signified a range of responses. I would circle which number was closest to the answer of the interviewee.

This process gave me an indication of the area in which the interviewees thoughts lay but I think because of my inexperience the sound recording was much more useful because it gave the detail. During future interviews I will always try to record the process because it makes analysis much easier and more accurate (there is no risk of paraphrasing to suit you purpose). I must admit though that I hadn't realised how time consuming transcribing would be. I found my transcript vital but I am slow at typing so in future I need to set aside at least five hours to transcribe a one hour interview.

I decided to make my interview semi-structured, again at the advice of Judith Bell. She writes,

The advantage of a focused interview is that a framework is established beforehand and so recording and analysis are greatly simplified. This is important for any research, but particularly so for limited-time studies (2005).

I didn't want to make my interview completely structured as I felt I needed the possibility of following where the interviewee might lead. I also didn't want to make my interview completely unstructured as I am constantly aware of my limited time scale and knew that there was certain information I needed to collect in a certain amount of time.

I think ultimately this proved the best idea because it meant I could decide what information I needed before the interview started and make sure I had it before the interview ended. It also meant that a couple of times I could ask spontaneous questions that gave me information and insight on an area that I hadn't previously considered.

I spent along time before the interview preparing my questions in much the same way as I did for my survey. Generally I tried to use open ended questions that would encourage the interviewee to give expansive, explanatory responses rather than one word answers.

Even after this careful preparation there were however times when the interviewee asked what I meant by a particular question. I think this proved to be one of the positive aspects of the interview process. I was able to clarify and explain what I meant so that the interviewee answered the question I thought I was asking. If I had been conducting other interviews this would also have been useful because I could have ensured all participants understood the question in the same way.

I did however find a problem with explaining what I meant by a particular question. I occasionally found myself saying, "The reason I'm asking 'A' is because I want to know if 'B' or 'C' happens." I think my clarification sometimes lead the interviewee to give an answer they may not have given without prompting. Now I am aware of this I will try not to do it in future.

The interview itself was very illuminating. I used it specifically to discover my professional peer's experience of their vocational training, what has been required of them in their profession, and how they think their training has impacted this.

One of the interesting discoveries was that even though the interviewee trained on a musical theatre course, the course itself was very much taught from an acting perspective and this was the reason for their choice.

By going to 'School A' I knew I was going somewhere more weighted in acting, so it wasn't really a surprise that the majority of classes included voice, voice and text, playtext, acting theory, stage combat and neutral mask. Things like the voice and playtext classes would have about three classes timetabled in the week compared to maybe one or two of each style of dance.

It was also interesting that the interviewee believes they are an actor who just happens to work in musical theatre and that the majority of work they have done has been in character driven shows such as Les Miserables and Woman in White.

The interviewee still believes in the importance of versatility however,

I think it is vital to be versatile, especially given the competition and lack of work within the industry. I think it is important to know you strengths but in order to be open to the maximum amount of work I think you need to be versatile.

The analysis of interviews is difficult and I intend do a lot of reading over the next few months on how to effectively draw conclusions from the qualitative statements of expert individuals. Regarding this interview, I found it difficult to draw extensive conclusions because I had nothing to compare it to. It sits as a lone opinion. Judith Bell writes, 'So, we must be wise and vigilant, critical of out interpretation of the data, regularly question our practice and wherever possible triangulate' (2005).

For my professional inquiry I intend to use interviews as the primary data collection tool because I think they uncover such depth of information. They don't just tell what happens but give you the reasons why as well. I am however going to make sure I select a wide enough range of people to give a rounded view of the questions being asked so as to eliminate any possible bias.

Literature Review 3

I will be reviewing the Foreword of the book Acting in Musical Theatre: A Comprehensive Course. This is written by Lynn Ahrens the Tony Award winning writer and lyricist whose musicals include Lucky Stiff, Once On This Island, and Ragtime.

Ahrens argues that musicals are by there very nature contradictory. They make comment on real life just as any piece of theatre does but they also contain elements of sheer fantasy where the audience are expected to believe that people just 'burst into song.' She believes it is the role of the writer to make this 'fantastical world ring true' but she also believes it is the responsibility of the actor.

She describes acting as an 'extremely difficult discipline' but believes that a 'performer' has the even more difficult task of acting 'within the strictures of rhythm and rhyme and melody.' An interesting perspective as I believe a musical is generally thought to require less acting skill than a play, not more.

Ahrens talks about the importance of music in a show but continually returns to the idea that it is the acting that makes musicals work. It is the acting that enables the audience to believe in what they are seeing and to become emotionally involved in the world of the musical. She writes, 'The song is simply a heightened extension of the dialogue and if we - actors and writers - make the transitions appear seamless and natural, it helps to convince the audience that what they are seeing is real life.'

Perhaps feeling the need to substantiate her beliefs Ahrens uses the cast of her current show The Glorious Ones as an example of what she means. She says the cast is a mix of seasoned musical theatre professionals and actors who are more normally seen in plays. Some have big voices and others workable voices. Some have natural dancing talent and the others are movers. In spite of these differences what the entire cast has the ability to do is to act the song and it is for this reason they were cast and the show works.

It is not surprising that Ahrens champions acting in musical theatre. After all the foreword is for a book that's purpose is to explain and develop the skills needed to act well in musical theatre. If her foreword said acting in musicals was pointless then nobody would bother to read the rest of the book, and I imagine the writers would have something to say about that.

Also she is a lyricist and writer so her preoccupation is bound to be with words and stories. I wonder whether the composer of her musicals is equally fond of an actor with a 'workable' voice singing his songs.

Ahrens paints a very positive picture of musical theatre and asserts that to do it well is immensely difficult. As somebody who works in musical theatre and as somebody who is writing in a book designed for musical theatre students and teachers she has an obvious bias. I imagine a playwright for 'straight' theatre may perhaps comment that most plays contain much more substance than most musicals and therefore the acting skill required for a play is much greater than that required for a musical.

In spite of her bias I think Ahrens view on the importance of acting in musicals is really interesting because, as I have mentioned before, a lot of my favourite musical theatre performances have come from 'straight' actors. These actors don't always have the best singing voices or dancing ability but they are always immersed in their characters. It is their ability to make me believe in the world of the musical that captures my imagination and makes the performance memorable.

Perhaps these 'straight' actors approach the rehearsal process in a different way to musical theatre 'performers'. They are used to working with text and character so that is where their focus lies. Whatever the cause in my opinion, and Aherns opinion, it is musical theatre approached from the acting perspective that is most successful.

As part of my inquiry I am extremely interested in seeing whether other professionals have the same opinion. Should we be focusing more of our attention on developing the acting skill of our musical theatre students?


Ahrens, L. 2008, 'Foreword', in J. Deer and R. Dal Vera Acting in musical theatre: a comprehensive course. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.