I'm struggling to develop my questions as no one has commented on them :(
I have emailed them out to fellow actors, but a link on my twitter and put them on my blog.
Any feedback from fellow BAPP people would be great or I might have to start hanging around outside theatre's!!!!
Hi Kate,
ReplyDeleteOK, so key thing for you to do is to work on crafting questions and using the type of feedback I have given below to critique your own questions. Lots of people in exactly the same boat, but this is where we are at this point. You need to work at the lines of inquiry to construct questions that are coherent and are likely to lead to workable answers. Give time and focus to craft your questions, it’ll make the research more feasible and enjoyable.
Also, look at my recent feedback to others, as I give other types of advice that might help.
I thought the following to your specific questions:
Q1) what makes a good actor?
Unanswerable … what does ‘good’ mean, you’ll never be able to define this. You could ask ‘what do actors say about the qualities of good acting’. This is because this would be reporting on what people say. This is very different to you telling us what makes a good actor.
Q2) Can you learn how to act? Already known, why ask a question we know the answer to?
Q3) what skills does a good actor need? Again, ‘need’? According to whom? In relation to what … film, stage, youth theatre? When? …Now, near future, the past? What type of performance? This is too broad, too vague and carries a huge assumption that there is a set of common skills. And if a common set indeed existing, what possible value would a list have? Better to ask ‘what skills do established British theatre actors report as the main skill set they use? This you can answer.
Q4) Does how an actor looks affect how the audience will feel about them? How can you possibly answer this? How will you get to what audiences ‘feel’. I’d just avoid this one.
Q5) is there enough ethnic diversity in the industry? What does ‘enough’ mean? Again, this will simply lead you to a ‘Kate’ opinion piece. This won’t work as a research question because in is unanswerable. ‘What is UK theatre doing to promote ethnic actors? Now that can be answered.
Q6) Are there enough opportunities for actors with disabilities?
Another ‘enough’ question, unanswerable because there will be huge difference in what people think is ‘enough’. The real danger here is that it will end up being what you think is ‘enough’ and that, trust me, always makes for very bad research.
Q7)What affect will the baccalaureate scheme have on creative subjects? Ok, but from what perspective? Performance? There is data already emerging so this could be answered/. Better if you could be precise about ‘affect’. If ‘affect’ was ‘policy intent’ then you have a question you can answer: ‘In what ways are creative subjects promoted within the baccalaureate scheme’? Now that can be answered.
Q8) How can you differentiate in drama? Sorry, not sure what this means.
Q9) What makes a good teacher? So what does ‘good’ mean? Unanswerable.
Q10) Can you learn to teach? Answer known.
Thank you Alan. Can you clarify for me the outcome of this process? I mean I've read the reader, I've looked at archived blogs, but I'm still very unclear. I don't understand what literature I'm meant to be looking for as I don't no what I'm inquiring about yet. Maybe I'll have to come back to task 4D later in the course. Is the goal to have 1 question that you then go away and research?? I'm so confused!
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