Home is where WIFI connects automatically..

So I arrived in India less than a week ago and I have already been on five flights and have been filmed dancing in two Bollywood movies! But between the 14 hour shoots I am having to find time to do my critical reflection!! I am doing as much as I can, however this is the first WIFI I have found in days. This is making completing my work incredibly hard but I am too close to the end to give up! So (somehow) I WILL complete it!

Beauty Is Not Between A Size 0 And A Size 8.

 I've had a but of a revelation, In terms of my own personal development:
 Last week I found myself in a situation, surrounded by others in the industry, those whom I am well acquainted. Now these girls are obsessed by 'prettiness' to almost an extreme. They are not actors, but singers, and they are in a line of work where looks almost concur all. It is not necessarily their fault, they have been working for someone who is making them a product, the girls are being told to look good at all times and are being put on strict diets. 
I was made to feel that I had no self worth by them. The worst thing about this - is that I don't even think the girls even knew they were doing it. 

Body image and being 'beautiful' is a huge insecurity to all girls. Especially performers that are judged by their looks every audition they go to. But what happens in ten years time when these girls have lost their looks? There is so much more to life than asymmetry and large assets. 

 I was talking to my friend Missy again about everything that had gone on and how awful they had made me feel, our conversation eventually changed course and we started to talk about when we are listening to our iPods and want to sing out loud in a public place. She said, from everything she has seen in New York, when people just break into dance and just start to jam as they are working down the street, she said, "Just go for it! Who cares what other people think!" 

This made me think about Strasberg. He has an exercise called, private moment. This is where you simply do the things you would if you were at home alone..in front of others. So I did a little experiment. I decided to walk for about an hour around London, singing aloud. At first, I found it very difficult, singing quietly and stopping if I thought anyone was looking at me, or came too close. Eventually I pushed myself to just do it! And although I did have a few people looking, it wasn't half as bad as I had thought. Plus it was raining so I was able to hide a little under my umbrella!! This has made me realise, people need to care less about what others think, it's going to be difficult, but by taking yourself out of your comfort zone, it helps you develop and learn and you find, things aren't half as bad as you thought they were going to be.

My Artefact

Blake Curtis-Woodcock - Module Three - Professional Artefact

My Artefact

I have decided to call my artefact: What is method acting?

This is going to be a finished product which is a small insight into what method acting is.

I am going to cover the basics of method acting; relaxation; a few of Strasberg's exercises; looking at a few method practitioners and a few videos showing the use of method acting from both famous actors and me.  

I have decided my audience will be someone that doesn't know anything about method acting. It will give them some idea of what method acting is, and hopefully surprise them with what they learn.

I am going to show this as an audio usual video. I believe this will keep it interesting for the person who will be learning about the topic.
I have started to plan what I am going to do and I have drawn up a story board.

EUREKA!!!!

It made me laugh looking at my overview of my blogger page today. Seeing that a few days ago my page views had zoomed to 114 in one day! Where they are usually a maximum of 6, maybe 7 if I had written a particularly good blog.

Yesterday late afternoon, I went into Middlesex Uni to use the computers to try and get some work done, as life (Especially getting my tax's done for the self employed!!!) is taking over at the moment and I am finding little time for my degree.
I ended up staying till midnight!! (It is a 24 hour library which actually comes in very handy!)
This is either because I am very keen, or I am worried I am not doing to get everything done by the time I go away at the end of this month.
I am going to pretend it's the first option.
So seeing how my page views had risen dramatically, it seems that I am not the only one!

However, I am so glad that I did this!! I have had an Eureka Moment! I know what and how I am going to be doing my Artefact! Better start planning!

Relaxation

Something that I did notice about what Missy was saying in our interview was that in the Meisner technique, they could sit however they like.

This shows a huge difference between the techniques, as relaxation is imperative in Strasberg's method.

In the book the Fifth Key Theatre Directors, Shomit Mitter, talks about how important Strasberg thought relaxation was.

'In Strasberg's work there was therefore an elaborate programme of carefully 
orchestrated preliminary work, the first stage of which was to get the actors to 
relax physically. Relaxations, for Strasberg, was the most fundamental condition of all creative work: it was so
important that he would often take all the allotted time in rehearsal just to achieve a properly

relaxed state.'Just relax', he would say,'If you never get to the exercise, I don't care' ' (Shomit Mitter 2004)

This web page describes what relaxation is and how is works.

What Relaxation Is And How It Works


This looks like a very strange picture, But this is exactly what relaxation looks like.

Why Would You Want To Be An Actor?

After the interview Missy and I spoke about one of the exercises she was talking about: Where we had to say how we felt.
I started to tell her that at the Lee Strasberg Institute, in one of the method acting classes, before we did scene work we had to improvise the scene we had been working on. We didn't need to say any of the lines, but just go though the thought processes with the character saying how we felt. I was telling her that my partner and I had worked on a scene from The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, Our teacher Mauricio Bustamante, who had been taught by Strasberg in the last few years of his teaching, was pushing me to say how I felt, he pushed me more and more when suddenly, I just burst in to tears, shouting 'WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME!?!' So much so that the tears were making puddles on the floor!
Here is a link to an early rehearsal of the scene: Blake Curtis-Woodcock - The Dreamer Examines His Pillow
Missy laughed and said how great it was, (A connection that I believe only people that have worked with the method can understand) She said that there is a video on the internet of one of her teachers doing exactly that!
Here is a video from the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, It's a great video to watch all the way though, but if you want to skip forward to my example, it's from 2:28- 2:38.

Why Would You Want To Be An Actor?

Conversation With A Professional External..

This is my friend Melissa McAnulty. She has trained in method acting in New York too! However this interview was interesting for me as she trained in the Meisner Technique.

She is in a band called State Of Play which are doing really well at the moment.
Here is a link to their Facebook page, if you could give them a cheeky 'like' it doesn't cost anything and it would mean the world to them :) Thank you!
State Of Play - Facebook


This interview has given me a lot to think about and there are more blogs to come!!

Other Ideas I Had For Literature..

• Actors VS Dancers - (Mind Sets)
• Phycology
• Organisation books
• What to expect from an acting career 
• - Lee Strasberg, the father of Method acting - Melgussow 

Mind Maps

I drew some mind maps to help me think about what I should be reading into for my literature.

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!

Critical Reflection

Here is a link to my critical reflection of module two:

Module Two Critical Reflection

6d Resources Posted On My Delicious Page

I have posted on my Delicious page a list of resources that I have found that go along with my topic. I only had enough characters to add seven web pages, but I feel that they are all very useful.

I wish I had been more general with question 6c when searching for literature. I was more general with what I was searching for in this question, so found it easier to find a lot of really good and influential information. Where as because I was trying to be more specific with what I was looking for in question 6c I found it harder to find anything of any value.

Here is a link to my Delicious page, I am not very familiar with this website so I hope that I have posted my work in the correct place!! 

Blake's Delicious Page

Please let me know what you think! 

6c. Literature

I have been looking through lots of different websites and literature that deal with the exact topics that I am looking for. The best I have found are:

The Essential Guide

This is a guide that gives you all the information that you need about choosing a drama or performing arts school.

It tells you everything from what to expect from a course, how to choose a school that would fit your needs and why it is beneficial to go to one of these schools rather than train at a university. 

The Different Methods

Here is a list and a bit of information on the different acting techniques giving you an insight into choosing which technique would be better for you.

International Accredited Drama Schools

Here is a list of the best acting schools around the world. Once you have decided what you want from your training and what technique is right for you, it is time to choose a school!

FYI, Both my schools; The Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts and the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre and Film are on this list too! 

6b. Evaluating Methods Of Enquiry

I have found the information I have received very interesting. It is because all the information is extremely varied and personal.

First I interviewed myself. This was for a few different reasons. 

One, to get a different style of video interview into my blog. 

Two, because I feel that when I'm talking about something I can express it better than in writing.

Three, it enables me to find out more information than from a survey when people jot down a few lines.

And finally four, because in our industry we get interviewed all the time. Being able to have a good interview puts you streets ahead from anyone else. So getting as much practice as you can get is essential. 

I enjoyed the interview, I hadn't put too much thought into my answers beforehand as I wanted to speak about how I actually felt. Rather than pre thinking up the answers. What didn't make the interview as good as a survey is that it wasn't to the point, I rambled on, and got a lot of information that wasn't needed.

The surveys.

With the surveys, because the questions I have asked don't have right or right or wrong answers I get a huge verity of different answers.

This can go one of two ways:

The positive outlook on it is that I have so much information that I have so much that I could talk about. However, negatively, this could mean that I have no correlations between the answers.  

I use the lessons as focus groups. Because if I had a pre arranged focus group, people are not necessarily going to agree on everything that has been said. Some people are against doing theatre, where as that is where others passions lie.

In the lessons people perk up with their own personal goals. Which has helped me a lot. This could also be looked on as observation.

A disadvantage of observation is that we tend only to take one the information what we want to. We tend to think that some information is unneeded when actually it could be vital to the enquiry.

6a. Survey: What Is The Reason YOU Train?

Here is a link to my survey on training. Please take a look at my questions, but this is aimed mainly at the students who are training with me at the Lee Strasberg Institute. But if it applies to you please take the survey! Thank you!

What is the reason YOU train?

Self Interview!

Here is a video of me interviewing myself with my questionnaire ! Hope you like it and please let me know what you think!

5d. Continued..

I have posted some questions on my LinkedIn page.

Please have a look at them, any feed back would be greatly appreciated!

Going back to training..

5d. Proposed Enquir

In less than one week today I will be leaving for New York!

I have got a place at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, so will be studying out there for three months.

The reason I have chosen to go back into education and to study this course in particular was for a number of different reasons:

I keep speaking to people about how I have trained, (Three years in Musical Theatre at Italia Conti) and they turn their nose up at it. 'Ohh musical theatre..' As if doing musical theatre means that you have not studied acting;

I love method acting. This school specialises in it. It is also an incredibly accredited school;

I love that it is a 12 week course, I feel like anything else would be too short. And I wouldn't have enough time to cultivate what I had learnt. And anything longer would be too much time to take out of my working life.

So I have decided to change my proposed enquiry to;

What are the reasons you would go back into training?

With this question there is a lot of explanation to be made. Similar to my old proposed enquiry, people have a lot to say about the company.

5c. Ethics

A lot of news is for light reading. Should we really care about what a celebrity has in their fridge when there are issues happening all around the world that are more common that we may think!

An issue that is very close to home at the moment is about a family friend. He had the wrong lung operated on and as a result has passed away. Now, who could have made such a foolish mistake? Was it the mistake of the surgeon? Was the surgeon just following the notes? Who wrote the notes incorrectly? If it was the fault of the note writing assistant, who is to blame? The assistant or the surgeon that was clearly operating on the wrong lung? Is this man slaughter? Could someone go to prison for originally trying to save the patients  life? But most of all, how often does this happen? Is it that this is very common but the media don't widely report it? Because its not as interesting as the new nail varnish that your favourite D list 'celebrity' is being out?

In the eyes of the mans family. This man has been murdered. If the procedure had gone correctly, he probably would have lived. Someone made a huge mistake and should pay for that. 

'Luckily' this was an elderly man. Who's wife has passes away and his children are all in their 40's. However, would the law look upon this case differently if this had been a thirty year old man who supported his wife and three children? 

A subject is only ethical if it is believed to be ethical. 

Take one of the main topics of news at the moment, gun crime in America. The one thing everyone can agree on is we don't want a mass shooting in schools ever again.

But how do we go about stopping this?

Some states such as Texas and other republican states want to make guns readily available, they believe that the only way to stop fire is with fire. They say that if a psychotic person had a gun. The only thing that would stop him would be to have gun pointed back at him. There are many stories of people who have lost their friends and family at gun point and believe that if they had been in possession of a weapon they could have stopped devastation.  And where do you draw the line with who can own a gun? At sixteen or even eighteen years of age you are still wanting to show off to your friends, you wear your heart on your sleeve and you want to be top dog. You are still not mentally mature enough to own something can can kill a person so easily. Surely it's like tip toeing on the edge of a cliff. The slightest thing could make you fall.

The other view is a ban on weapons. But surely, this will actually make no difference. As drugs are illegal but widely used all round the world.

 Guns can be confined to shooting clubs. As shooting and hunting are still sports. A ban on weapons in the home. But it will be very difficult to controls this as there is always a way of getting around the law.

Another idea would be to stop schools being gun free zones. To make sure that two or three teachers were trained to handle a situation with a gun incase the worst was to happen. But who is to stop someone or a child getting hold of this gun?

It's an ethical issue that Obama us trying to solve with a vote. Who who is right and who is wrong?

In regards to the ethics of the well being of yourself or your employees. A list of factors must be drawn. But inevitably it all comes down to twos fault it is. If a dancer has slipped on a  wet stage it is the fault of the employer. As it is the employers job to abide by the minimum safety requirements for the dancer. 

If a dancer does not warm up and tears a muscle it is the fault of the dancer as a dancer is required to keep themselves in tip top condition.

However, if a singer gets nodules or looses their voice it is very difficult to decide who is ethically responsible. Is it the singer for not looking after their voice correctly? Is it the employer for pushing them to do too many shows without enough rest? Has the singer been abusing their voice with late nights, smoking and shouting?

Each topic is very different and maybe the only way to solve them is to look at the facts and to try and work out which is the most logical explanation as people look at things differently. Making ethics a continuously hard subject to tackle.