Literature Review

At the beginning of this module and even in the previous module the idea of completing a literature review was daunting. Having never completed a similar task before it was very much a case of finding a system that worked for me. To begin with I read the module handbook and reader 7 for advice and ideas. I then went on to read the literature section in 'Doing Your Research Project: A Guide For First Time Researchers' (Bell, Waters, 2005). Within the chapter there were tips on choosing literature including:

• consider the worth of the research 
• looking for bias
• considering more than just your own point of view
• if it is your point of view - you must still consider that the writer may be bias 

Practitioner Brendan Duffy explained that writers won't declare their bias so it is the job of the researcher to expose it.

There were also tips on how to find the literature including:

• giving yourself plenty of time
• using search engines to the best of their potential - search limiters, not losing literature ect.
• avoiding spam
• being patient and persistent

These tips are things I can relate to reflecting on my work so far. At first I struggled with finding appropriate literature using the search engine, Summon. I was finding lots of literature but not specific enough to the research I was doing. As a result I used different search engines such as google and purchased my own books that I found online like 'Directing Musical Theatre an essential guide' (Deer, 2014) and 'Creating Musical Theatre' (Cramer, 2013). These books proved very useful but I felt I needed more variety in my sources. As practitioners Haywood and Wragg state a literature review needs depth and must not be 'a furniture catalogue'. I found a useful collection of videos created by the Royal Academy of Music London on YouTube that document their rehearsal period for Musical Theatre Productions like Sweeney Todd. After encouragement and tips from Paula and fellow BAPP students I went back to using Summon. This time round I had been able to establish more key words from the work I had done on the literature I had already. This allowed me to be more specific with my search and as a result I had a more successful outcome. From these searches I have found many more articles and short sections of literature to review.

In terms of actually carrying out the review I found the chapter written by Bell useful yet again. The chapter explained that within an inquiry you must show what is already known about a subject and how the ideas have been applied. It is important to ask questions to avoid the inquiry being one-sided. To look at all sides it is important to establish relationships between facts. It explains that a good way to do this is to identify THEMES across your literature selections. You can then group all of your literature together under headings and from this you can create a THEORY. This way of organising my work really made sense to me and I have found it successful it giving my work shape and direction.

An example of how I have used this can be shown in my review of an article written by music education professor June Countryman called ' Getting the most for the least time: Ideas on planning, preparing and conducting efficient, stimulating and productive rehearsals'. I initially considered the fact that the article is not specifically based on Musical Theatre work, however it is looking at preparing repertoire for a Music performance which is a discipline that directly relates to Musical Theatre. 

Within my work I have established three main themes and given them the headings:

Creativity VS Organisation

The process of rehearsal looking at balance and flow

Teamwork

Looking at these headings I was then able to pinpoint information in the article. For example the articles very first tip for preparing a rehearsal is 'Be organised' it also states that a choreographer or director should identify the 'tricky' parts of the repertoire they are rehearsing so that they know what to spend more time on. Overall the article suggests that being organised when you are on a limited timescale gives the choreographer or director more freedom. When I compare this to other literature I have examined an opposing opinion I can identify is that of Broadway director Marc Platt. During at interview for the London Theatre guide website londontheatre.co.uk in January 2015 he discusses that he is working on a high budget production that means they have no set time scale as he is not willing to sacrifice his creative visions to fit in with a time scale. These contrasting experiences give me the basis of a theme that creativity and organisation within a rehearsal period are governed by factors like budget and timescale and not just the personal preference of the person in charge. If you are taking a rehearsal it is important that you consider all of these factors in order to get the most out of the time scale you have.

Overall I will continue to use these system to present my literature review in my final submission.