Literature continued

Whilst searching for literature related to my inquiry I have been looking at the opinions of successful practitioners in the Musical Theatre industry.

An article of interest that I have found is an interview with Cameron Mackintosh for the Financial Times from January this year. The main bulk of the article is about the monetary success of his business. However I have found it useful in relation to my inquiry as he talks about the aspects a production must have in order to be successful.

“When I did Les Mis I said, ‘I’m not going to take this on the road unless it’s as good as what people have read about, with the same lighting and the same sound.’ I think that’s my biggest bequest — that I imposed my standards. It’s sensible, actually, because the real thing will last longer than something shoddy.”

When looking at the rehearsal process of Musical Theatre work I must look at all elements that make the show - the repertoire, the sound, the lighting, the costuming.

A link to the article is below:

https://www.ft.com/content/af6b04f6-ba34-11e5-bf7e-8a339b6f2164

Another article of interest is that with Broadway and film producer, Marc Platt, for the London Theatre guide website londontheatre.co.uk. During his interview a range of subjects where covered including target audiences and time scale. In the interview Marc talks about the time scale of an upcoming film adaptation of the Musical 'Wicked'. He mentions that they do not have a release date yet as they do not want to rush the material and want to make the film the best it can be. This made me think about productions that might not have the luxury of a large budget or the flexibility of choosing when to open. An obstacle that the rehearsal process can face is time constraints. For example a choreographer or director may want to spend one more week rehearsing a piece, but if you have a set performance date and tickets sold this would not be possible. How does a creative team work to a time constraint whilst still producing the work needed?

Please find the link to the article below:

https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatre-news/west-end-features/an-interview-with-marc-platt

Whilst reading an article with Theatre Producer of Happy Days the Musical, Amy Anzel, for website 'We are the city' I considered other possible elements and obstacles of the rehearsal process of Musical Theatre work. Amy, when discussing the different between producing work in the UK to the US, mentions the regulations that you must follow when producing work. She says that it is a lot less regualated in the UK,

'You don’t actually officially need to abide by the rules of SOLT (Society of London Theatre) or Equity for tours or Off-West End productions, only when you’re producing on the West End – so you can just literally do things however you’d like. This has its pros and cons of course and as a new producer you have a lot of freedom but you are also a lot less educated. I think this is might be why so many productions here suddenly close or run into difficulty. It’s a case of more opportunity…but also more opportunity to fail. In the US there are many more regulations in place and more unionization.'

In my inquiry I must consider the ethical implications on rehearsals in terms of structure and obstacles. What bodies are there that regulate rehearsals in terms of workers rights? Does this effect the structure and protocol in rehearsals? How do companies work to produce work but also follow the guidelines?

A link to the article is below:

http://www.wearethecity.com/an-interview-with-amy-anzel-theatre-producer-of-happy-days-the-musical/

Looking at the opinions of successful practitioners in the Musical Theatre industry has proved helpful in providing thinking points for my inquiry. I will continue to look at these for document reviews within my inquiry.

Informal trial of an interview

Last week I was fortunate enough to have a Skype session with a fellow BAPP student Megan Louch. I have posted a link to her blog below:

http://meganlouch.blogspot.com.

We chose to have the Skype session as both of our inquiries are based on Musical Theatre and we wished to discuss are ideas and work so far. I thought this would be an ideal situation to carry out an informal trial of one of my chosen tools of inquiry. I plan to carry out a set of individual Skype interviews in my inquiry so this was the perfect set up for a trail. I decided to carry out a semi-structured interview so that I would be able to gather the data I needed but the interviewee (Megan) would have the freedom to share her opinions and experiences related to the topics as she wished.

The questions I prepared were:

1. When rehearsing for a Musical Theatre show or number what elements of rehearsal do you expect to experience?
2. In your current job where there any elements of rehearsal that were new or unusual for you?
3. What do you personally like to achieve in rehearsals in order to feel ready for a performance?
4. Have you faced any obstacles in your current rehearsals such as sickness or injury? If so how have you worked to overcome them?

As I started the session with Megan we discussed her line of inquiry on what interdisciplinary skills a performer should possess in order to impact positively on a Musical Theatre production. I found her line of inquiry and current job in the UK tour of Dirty Dancing very interesting to talk about. We began to cover many different subjects regarding our career experiences and before I knew it we had already covered many things relating to my inquiry without me having actually asked any prepared questions! This was a great learning curve for me as I am able to see how key it is for a person taking a interview to remain focused on the task and direct the conversation as needed.Once I realised that I had gotten slightly distracted I asked Megan if it would be ok to ask my prepared questions and for me to note down her answers to reflect back on in this blog post. I chose to write down her responses in my journal as my way of documenting the interview. Reflecting back on this I will continue to write down the responses of interviewees but also record the interviews as the speed at which people speak it is possible to miss important information when only writing the answers. By recording the interviews I can remain focused on the interview without worrying about missing information as I will have it recorded to look back at later on.Below I have written my questions followed by a summary of Megan's response.

1. When rehearsing for a Musical Theatre show or number what elements of rehearsal do you expect to experience?

Megan spoke about the structure she would expect in a rehearsal - Warm up, a plan of action for the rehearsal given by the Dance Captain, running of material. She also mentioned that she would expect constructive feedback from whoever is talking the rehearsal. If the number was to include props or a tricky costume, she would expect to rehearse with these before hand.

      2.In your current job where there any elements of rehearsal that were new or unusual for              you?

Megan spoke about how in her current job in the UK tour of Dirty Dancing she is cover Penny. This means that when she plays Penny and not her usual track she must go over things that are new to her including dancing with different partners, quick changes and entrances and exits.

     3.What do you personally like to achieve in rehearsals in order to feel ready for a                             performance?

Whilst touring Megan likes to get her bearings of a space before they perform. Different venues means that props will move differently, quick changes may happen in different places and overall the space will feel differently to perform in. She likes to feel prepared not only for a positive performance but for health and safety.

   4.Have you faced any obstacles in your current rehearsals such as sickness or injury? If so             how have you worked to overcome them?

Whilst people have been off during the tour they have had to have longer rehearsals in order rehearse with new people and go over the different tracks.

She also mentioned that they have had to get used to a raked stage, in particular extra practice lifts were needed.

Analysis

Megan was a very good candidate for me to interview as she is currently working in a Musical Theatre production which is touring which means that rehearsals are on going. I was able to collect the data I needed using open questions but I many consider using closed questions in my actual inquiry in order to gather some statistical data. For example I can ask 'Do you always have a warm up in you rehearsals' and then will be able to gather a specific number of people that are used to a warm up. Using Skye for the interview proved successful, it felt personal enough that Megan was at ease to answer my questions and the signal remained strong so there was no technological issues. I have learnt that I need to be more focused on keeping the structure of the interview and to not get distracted by any other topics established by the interviewees, especially if they are not related to my inquiry. I asked Megan's permission to carry out the interview as my trial tool of inquiry method, I know to ask my future interviewees permission and make sure they know the extent the data I collect will be used and gain their permission for this.

Overall the trial was very useful at showing me what worked well and what I need to work on. Preparation is key moving forward with my tools of inquiry.

Considering Tools of Inquiry

In order to collect data for my inquiry I must consider the methods available to me and how effective they will be at gaining the information I need to carry out my research. When looking at the tools I must consider the different factors that will effect the data I collect. Factors that I must consider include:

• People used within the method
• The environment where the data will be collected from
• My own personal bias

The methods that I must consider are:

• Observations
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Document Reviews

Within all of these methods a tool that I will be able to use to review and analyse the data I collect is my journal. I will be able to use my journal to note down observations and answers to questions, use it to evaluate the results of surveys and to analyse documents. 

The Tools

Observations

Observations can take place as an outsider to an environment or as a participant in your working environment. When considering using observations within my own inquiry I think it would be an extremely useful tool for observing my own companies rehearsal process. I usually take part in the rehearsals anyway so my presence in the room would not effect the activities or the responses of people to the activities. I would need to gain the approval of my company coordinator and choreographer to use the results of my observations within my work. All data noted would be done so with anonymity so as to do incriminate anyone within their work place.

A possible negative aspect to the use of this tool would be my own bias towards the environment as it is one I am familiar with. I would need to address this directly by expressing clearly that the observations have come from my personal view point. I could then attempt to give the data more standing by backing up my findings with supporting data collected by other practitioners within a similar environment.

Interviews

Interviews would be a useful tool within my inquiry. It would allow me to access data from outside of my own workplace. I am currently working with a company in Spain which would make it difficult for me to travel for interviews. Therefore I would conduct most of my interviews through Skype. It would be very important to choose people to interview that have relevant knowledge on the subject of my inquiry.

I would need to be careful to word the questions without bias. The interviews would need to be conducted in a structure that makes the participants feel comfortable and able to share the information they hold. A negative aspect of interviews can be that when analysing the data I must interpret what i think the participant meant, you are

'constructing or documenting a version of what you think the data means' (Mason, 2002, p.149)

Focus Groups

When reading about Focus Groups a particular quote from Bell made see how a focus group could be useful to my inquiry.

'focus groups are more likely to include members who either have similar characteristics or experience ... or are known to have a professional concern and knowledge of the issues involved' (Bell, 2005, p.162) 

I believe a good place to start collecting data for my inquiry would be discussing the rehearsal process I am personally involved in with my current peers. I feel like the dimensions within our cast are positive and this will prove a useful tool on gaining information. The participants can gain inspiration from other peoples comments.

I will have to consider that it is important to keep the group discussion moving in a positive and productive direction. I will, as the conductor of the session, have to ensure that this is achieves. Similar to the interviews I may conduct I will have to be considerate of my choice of language within the discussion as to not show any bias to any elements we may discuss. I will need to record the session in order to collect or necessary data. I also need to consider whether this will be only a voice recorder or if I film the session in order to easily identify the speakers. I would worry that the presence of a camera may effect the willingness of participants to speak freely and they may feel self conscious. I believe a simple voice recorder would feel less ominous and more appropriate.

Surveys and Questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are a great way to target a lot of people with questions. They tend to gather quantitative data, statistics that you can use to prove or disprove an argument. Some qualitative data can be acquired by using open questions, similar to interview questions but the participant writes down their answer. Similar to interview questions it is important that when constructing the survey or questionnaire you are careful to avoid your own bias when writing the questions.

If I were to include a survey in my inquiry I must consider that the people I get to complete it properly represent the musical theatre industry in terms of age, gender ect. This might be quite tricky to achieve as the industry is not heavily regulated in terms of keeping check of these things so it would be difficult to ensure the right people were getting surveyed.

I would also need to weigh up if the data I would receive would help my inquiry in a significant way. My initial thoughts are that qualitative tools may provide more useful as opinions and experiences may prove more useful to me than figures and facts.

Document Reviews

There are many different document types that you can use to review in your inquiry including academic literature, reports, and journals. I can see document reviews being a useful tool in my inquiry. As i would like to look at the rehearsal processes carried out by Musical Theatre companies from different eras I will have to rely entirely on historical literature. I would also like to look at what policies and organisational documents, if any, current Musical Theatre companies have in place in order to conduct rehearsals.

I will have to consider many things when looking at the documents in order to ensure that I am analysing the data I collect objectively. Although documents could be an extremely useful tool in my inquiry it is important that I consider the context they were written in. The documents themselves can hold bias. I must think about factors such as who wrote it and why, the historical context of the document and the effect this could have on the view points presented and who is the document aimed at.

Conclusion

Looking at all of the methods I think it is important that I keep asking myself what information I need. I think it is also very important to remain open minded about the different methods available. Initially the methods I believe I will use, such as interviews and a focus group, will collect qualitative data. However practitioners such as Bell state,

'No approach depends solely on one method anymore than it would exclude a method merely because it is labelled quantitative, qualitative, case study, action research'. (Bell, Doing your research project: a guide to first time researchers, p.119)

I intend to perhaps include a survey within my inquiry so that I support the information I find through my qualitative data with facts and figures attained through a more quantitative tool.

Overall what is important is that I collect enough data to support and answer my inquiry questions and that the data is appropriately and correctly analysed.