The Interview and Questions

In June I interviewed my respondents with a list of questions about how they felt about what they were doing. All four respondents had been at The Lee Strasberg Institute for three months. (one semester) Two of them where continuing training, the other were to branch into the big bad world of performing.
I was able to interview them as I would see them everyday. Here is the list of the interview questions that I asked them:

• 1. What are you doing now? 
• 2. What has brought you here 
• 3. What is your strength in Acting?
• 4. How often do you practice relation?
• 5. How do you do you go about this? / What do you do?
• 6. Which area would you like to work in? (Theatre / Tv / Etc Etc)
• 7. Which area would you not like to work in?
• 8. On a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy what you are doing?
• 9. Why?
• 10. What would you change about what you are doing?   

I have learnt that interviews are a simple way to collect a lot of information as the person does not feel they have a limited time or space to say things. If I was to do this first section again I would have written my questions more open-endedly, so that the respondents could feel they had more to talk about. I am now holding onto this information waiting for the second part of my investigation to be complete.


I have now sent out my questionnaires, here are the list of questions that I used.

• 1. What are you doing now? 
• 2. What has brought you here? 
• 3. How have your strengths developed since leaving The Lee Strasberg Institute? 
• 4. How often have you been able to practice relaxation? 
• 5. How have you gone about this? / What have you done? 
• 6. Which area would you like to work in? (Theatre / Tv / Etc Etc) 
• 7. Has the way you audition for jobs changed? 
• 8. If so, How? / What do you do differently? 
• 9. On a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy what you are doing? 
• 10. Why? 
• 11. What would you change about what you are doing?  
• 12. How has The Lee Strasberg Institute changed the way you think about yourself?

I have learnt was that it was a good idea for me to change to a questionnaire over an interview. This is because I have been finding it difficult to get hold of the respondents as they are not only half way around the world, they are also as busy as I am. Changing this part of the investigation to a questionnaire meant that I am more likely to get my information back, as filling in a survey takes a matter of minutes, where as trying to contact each other via Skype etc would take much longer, if it was able to happen. If I was to do this again, I might have chosen respondents that were in the same country / city as me so that my investigation would become less complicated to complete.
I have received two of my four surveys. So I look forward to receiving them all, starting to analise the information and look into making my artifact. 

How I Use Method Acting

The way method acting has changed the way I think about my approach to acting and has made me change the way I think about myself.

Unfortunately I almost stop living in the moment and I rethink how I reacted to something, or the face I pulled at a situation, right after I have done it.

I think about what I did; why I did it and how would I do it again?

Method acting is a lot about personalisation.  

I have learnt an Ophillia monologue from Hamlet, for a 'just in case' time where I just need to pull something out of the bag. This is from act 3 scene 5, where hamlet has just shouted at her and walked off.

'Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!—

The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,

Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

Th' observed of all observers, quite, quite down!

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That sucked the honey of his music vows,

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;

That unmatched form and feature of blown youth

Blasted with ecstasy. Oh, woe is me,

T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!'

I personalise this monologue in a number of different ways; I use a place.

- Somewhere I that I know and have been, that I associate with sadness;

I personalise who I'm talking to.

- A lover which has hurt me and had his own down fall;

Use a personal object

- using something that i know very well. (Anything can be a personal object, a shoe, a phone, a bracelet, a coat. Anything you can pick up and hold) Just simply touching it, or stroking it (mentally) during a scene can bring back a huge range of emotions. However you must do a lot of work on each item as it requires practise to perfect;

I then think about the words effect both me and the personalisation exercises that I have used. 

But I could have used a lot more. In Lee Strasberg's technique you are supposed to use all of them. 

I only spent one semester at Lee Strasberg, so only had time to learn a number of exercises. 

I could have used; An over all sensation. 

- this could be weather, the feeling of sun, rain, wind, snow, hale. Etc etc

It can be anything that happens around you. So being in the shower is an overall sensation;

Using a song.

- Remembering a song brings emotions; 

I could use a person.

- this is very similar to a personal object, you work with it in the same way. But these are not the same things;

And more. 

Practising these exercises during the monologue brings me a lot of emotional pain. But it's good, because you have think that for Ophillia, what Hamlet has said to her, drives her to kill herself. 

What I could do now is to continue to work on the monologue and add in the other exercises.

How do I know if it's right to take the contract?

This blog concerns something that is prominent in my working life which affects my work based degree course: I am currently in a "mixed feelings" situation because I have been offered a six month contract as a dancer in India.
The reason I went to the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York earlier this year was to study method acting and to further my career in acting.
But once again I have been offered a dance contract.
How do I know if it's right to take the contract?
I'm in a predicament because I want to be acting now and I feel if I leave the country again I am going to be missing out on what is going on in England. Missing out on Christmas with my family is also a concern, naturally. It's a tough decision because I see many of my contemporaries furthering their careers and I can't help but think I'm taking myself out of it again! I also had to leave my last dance contract early because of an injury and I am unsure if my body is ready yet. Decisions, decisions!
I also decided under these circumstances that six months was too long to be away, so managed to talk my contract down to four months. They said this was possible but I would have to pay for my own flights but they eventually agreed to pay for one of my flights. This feels a little more practical.
Speaking to others, they have all said go for it as it's work and when would I get an opportunity to work in India ever again?
My father works around the world and it very aware of the dangers of Mumbai, so both my parents have that worry. He had also read through my contract and thinks I am going to be worked like a dog for very little money. Unfortunately for us, that is the nature of the performing world.

Though I am worried I will be missing out in England, the only work that will be going on over the next few months is pantomime. I have already played the principle boy twice so don't feel as if it will further my career. As far as missing my family at Christmas, it might be nice to have a change over the festival period as I know that Christmas at home will only be the same as last year.
In terms of physical fitness I can practise my exercises every day to strengthen the muscles around the injury.
In regards to my acting career the reason I changed the contract from six to four months, is that I can get back in time to audition for the Edinburgh fringe festival and for Shakespeare in the Park over the summer
So I 'think' I have decided to take the contract, I have time to enjoy and make the most of this experience: our careers are a marathon not a race.

This then presents another small problem!
It only gives me five weeks to get as much of my degree in as humanly possible. My time management needs to be perfect and I have started to write a plan for me to get though it.

Wish me luck!

Campus Session

I was able to make it to a campus session today.
We talked about exactly what our topic was on in one or two sentences. Doing this stopped us from making it more complicated than it is.
We talked about how, when we write something, we should read it, find the meaning of what we want to say and condense it. This will help us to get straight to the point without waffling.
Paula has a power point presentation for us, although I've seen it already I will be looking at it again as it was a good guide to help me keep on the right track.
We then started to look at example presentations. These took a number of forms; a poster; books; a leaflet; an audio visual version etc etc
A few of these will also be put up on the internet.

I am now thinking about presenting my artefact audio visually.  Seeing the video example has given me ideas on how to do mine. Being dyslexic, I do find writing challenging, so this for me, seems to be an interesting solution.

I have also written a list of things for me to blog about which will help me progress.

On the arrow chart I am currently between stage two and four. I have not yet properly started on reading up on my preferred literature, but I have already sent out my questionnaires and started to look at and mentally analyse the feedback.
I need to start looking at literature as soon as possible in order not to get ahead of myself.

My Current Professional Work

I am currently in a play! There are two plays, The first being Women at the Christ's Tomb and Pheadra (The Sarah Jane version) .
Luckily rehearsals have been cancelled on Tuesday so I can make the campus session!!

Here is a link to my play, it's in Camden. If you enjoy theatre and want to check out some of London's fringe theatre! Come down! Here is the link to the Facebook page, where you can buy tickets.

Theatre Collection - Women At The Christ's Tomb and Peadra

Reflection On Using Social Media

Social networking has made the world much smaller. It is now simple to contact people all around the world with a simple click of a button. 

I have been using the social networking site Facebook to contact my interviewees, because they are all globe trotters, now being situated in America, Asia and the Middle East! However, I have only collected one reply. One out of four. 

I received a message from one of the respondents saying that the questions were confusing. I tried to make the questions so that they were applicable for the students at the Lee Strasberg Institute and for those who have left. 

What I've learnt is that because we are all in different countries, social networking does make contacting each other possible, but we all still have very busy lives and often it becomes impossible for people to find time to do a questionnaire, let alone finding chance to Skype to do an interview. This could be due to commitments on both sides and the time differences around the world. 

I have also learnt that I need to think about who is answering the questions and put myself in their shoes to understand how they would answer them. One of the respondents second language is English, so I need to think about using less complicated language. 

Due to the lack of possible communication, it shows me that my decision to change the investigation technique from interviews to questionnaires was a good one. 

Hopefully if I keep messaging, I will eventually contact them at a convenient times and receive the replies. 

Review of 'Campus Session' - One on one with Paula Nottingham

I am currently in a play, spending most of my time working and rehearsing and therefore it is impossible for me to make any of the campus sessions. This is a problem of the Work Based learning system. It is also a big problem for me being dyslexic.  I find reading difficult and trying to get my ideas from my head to the computer makes working on my own, even harder. Class room' situations, where I have peers to talk to about the topics can help with me particularly consolidate and clarify my thoughts. 

Between jobs I was able to meet up with Paula, this helped me immensely. 

We spoke at length about my questions and and my topic.

We discussed what I needed to do in regards to literature, we spoke about how I needed to delve deeper into the subject I am talking about. 

Having the summer off, away from the degree meant that I had difficulty finding where to start again, but we talked about a skeleton frame of what I needed to do, taking everything slowly and talking about what I needed to cover in this module. 

A further difficulty of not having the support of campus sessions is that I was trying to rush ahead of myself. I thought that I ought to know exactly what the outcome of my topic would be. She explained and reassured me that I won't know any of this until I have all my information from the questionnaires back, so I didn't have to worry. 

Following my meeting with my tutor,I looked over my module 2 work. Having already done part of my interview at the end of the last module, helped me by giving me a place to start module 3.

I am happier knowing I can meet with Paula to keep me on track because the Campus Sessions are practically impossible to make in my situation. 

Finally! I've been able to start Module three!

I have been away from my laptop where my module two review had been saved! I have been continuing to blog (But not posting as I like things to be in the correct order!) and starting to collect my information for my findings.

I've transferred the review to a Google doc to post on here, So here it is:
Any comments will be gratefully received!

Blake's Module Two Review!