Hi everyone
I attended the last campus session which I found very beneficial. Listening to the Module 3 students helped me formulate ways in - steps I could take to developing my Inquiry. I now had ideas how I could proceed with my investigation, all I needed now was something to investigate.
Towards the end of the last module I touched on something I called the Fear of Acting, and thought I might try an investigate this. I have seen literature written about the mental and physical aspects of performance from the view point of a classical musician.
Fear of Acting is quite a large banner, so let me break it down a bit.
I'm interested in exploring it's negative and positive effects. Something as a performer we attempt to conquer and equally embrace.
The first acting class I ever attended was called Confidence Through Drama. The class was made up of people taking their first steps into acting, business people who loathed the idea of speaking at meetings, and others who found it difficult to find their voice in work/social situations. We all came for different reasons. However we all came to conquer a common enemy: Fear.
Years later I attended Drama School.
The first exercise we did was a trust exercise. An exercise designed to build confidence in you and your awareness of the support around you.
Actors live with fear everyday.
Many actors will confess to the fear "of being found" out. The fear that they will not be able to inhabit a role successfully. The fear of failing an audition. The fear of stepping on stage, speaking the lines.
Of course these are things that are discussed in classes, among actors. There are ways the fear is tackled, on a personal level and with protocols learnt
.Improvisation is one such tool. As well as being a performance tool in its own right, it also means should something happen during a performance, an actor can use improvisation to keep the story moving along until an appropriate point of return to the text is found.
Lastly as an actor, fear is a sensation to be embraced and used in performance.
I'm not sure how I want to progress with this topic or if it is an adequate topic for investigation.
What do you think, guys ?
Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteI hope you're well and have had a good break!
I think the topic you have begun to discuss above would be a great one to explore more. I feel that FEAR and lack of CONFIDENCE are present in most, if not all performers.
Fear of finding work
Fear of competition
Fear of younger and fresher performers constantly being churned out
Fear that we aren't good enough
But how do we conquer this? Or as you said above, embrace it? I feel without the fear we would be empty performers so therefore the fear is a necessity. Weakening us at times it us also gives us strength and is part of our passion as performers.
I don't know about you but confidence for me is an up and down roller coaster and it's something that as I teach I see that a lot of my students have a need of.
Carla x
Not sure my reply got through, so here it is again. Thanks for the comments. You raise some interesting points. Fear of finding work. Fear of competition. You also mentioned confidence which I think fear feeds off of. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Jo,
ReplyDeleteA really fascinating topic area.
What I think you need know is a perspective ... a specific ay that you are looking at the issue. So for example, you could take a psychological look at the question. This would implicate a certain type of literature (which may be broader than fear of acting) and the question would need to be frame from a psychological perspective.
Alternatively, you might take a social science perspective, for example, an ethnographic perspective, where you talk to actors about their experiences, exploring common features and distinct characteristics.
The former is about understanding the [psychological makeup of fear as a phenomena, and observing known responses to fear. The latter is about the lived experience of actors dealing with fear. There are many other ways of looking at the issue, these are just two examples.
The way I would approach it is to ask ‘where does the insight lay’?
Experts in a specific field like psychology? Amongst actors? Social or cultural commentators? Once you sense where the insights lay, then your questions, literature and methodology line up behind that perspective.
EXAMPLE
I am interested in how actors deal with fear (stage fright – is that what its called?). I think it is actors themselves who hold the insights. So my method will be to interview or hold focus groups (possibly survey) to draw out insights. If I wanted to know the specific qualities of that fear, I would interview, to draw out deeper insights. If I though the fear was little spoken about, I might try focus group, so the actors can help each other form a viewpoint collaboratively. If I wanted to know how many actors feel fear, and the types of fear they feel, then possibly survey (but that requires that you fully work up a theoretical position so that you can create survey questions).
Lets say you decide that an iterative, developmental process with actors talking to each other about the issue would work best, then you can plan your research questions appropriately, e.g. ‘what are the range of experiences were have had of fear, and to what extent are these similar experiences’? etc .. Then you are in a position to title your research “Collaborative Voice: What Actors say about their Fear of Acting”. You are also in a position to know what sort of literature, for example, biographies where actors talk about their fear.
So start to think through where the insights might lay, and start to think in terms of the methods and questions that flow from that perspective.
Oh, and don’t mix lots of methods … you don’t have the resources and experience to manage research of that complexity and you’ll end up producing a superficial trawl of ideas, better to stick to one single focused method and go for authenticity and depth.
Really hope that helps Jo?
Hi Alan
DeleteThank you for your insight. At the moment I feel the social science route would be closer to the aspects of fear/confidence I wanted to investigate.
The idea of getting a group of actors together and exploring these themes would be great, as views can influence and build on other views in "real time". However getting a group of actors in a room all at the same time might be nigh on impossible. Therefore I'm going to focus on three actors - one currently going through audition after audition. One, working in TV, and the last, primarily on stage.
I would perform the role of observer to the information, plus challenging the information given with my own perspect and opinions.