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.