Week 8

The Little Mermaid performed this week! I'd like to extend a giant thank you to anyone who came to watch us. While I did field the occasional last minute characterization question, this week was mostly filled with rehearsal, so there isn't much to report. Check back next week to see a sample of the survey I'll be using to collect data for the project!

Week 7

Spring break! Check back for more updates soon.

Week 6

Week 6 was fairly quiet as far as new developments go. I did, however, begin working with cast members in "The Little Mermaid" on their characterization. I asked each individual to come up with specific ideas related to movement, voice, facial expression, etc. for their character. Almost everyone left our sessions with a more refined idea of their character after just a few pointed questions. The cast contains actors from all grade levels, making it a good resource for study! I'll be asking all of them to fill out the survey in a few weeks.

Thanks for reading.

Week 5

Week 5 continued in much the same fashion as the past few weeks. At this point, I've worked with nearly all of the 5th graders on their characterization, so I've begun cycling back through and asking how they can refine their vision even further. During the process, I encountered an interesting behavioral obstacle in the students. I was meeting with a group of them and presenting questions about their characters based on a Chekhov acting technique called beats.

A beat is essentially comprised of a character's goal and emotional state at any given moment in a script. Beats can change very swiftly (even within the same line) and often help actors discover subtleties within their characters that would be difficult to perceive otherwise. Take for example the opening sequence from 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark (Rewatch here if you'd like). 

Indiana Jones transitions through countless beats during the scene. At the start, we could say his beat is to admire, or something similar (beats are always phrased in the form of "to _____" or "to be _____" to emphasize the character's goal or emotional state). Seconds later, his beat becomes something along the lines of to protect (when he stops the guide from walking toward the idol) and then to analyze (when he says "That's what scares me" and pauses). Throughout the remainder of the opening, Indy's beat shifts between to focus (1:34 in the video), to be relieved (2:29), to panic (2;33), to be angrily submissive (4:07), and even to fear (6:01).

As audience members, we wouldn't normally be trying to actively acknowledge a character's beats, especially because they can change so quickly, but actors can find the method helpful to really dig into a character on a moment-to-moment basis. I was trying to engage the 5th grade students with the method of beats when an fascinating trend began to arise. The first student told me her beat during the scene was to be scared, a reasonable analysis of her dialogue and the context of the scene overall. However, each student afterward also answered that their beat was to be scared, or some vanishingly small variation on that theme. Everyone was simply taking the idea of the first student and running with it, stunting any real characterization or analysis in the process. It was almost as if the importance of individual thought was diminished in their minds in favor of giving a safe answer because I approved of to be scared and they knew it was an acceptable response as a result. 

Initially, I took the phenomenon as evidence of my personal lack of professional educational skills. However, Ms. Grilliot (my extremely helpful mentor), who teaches the same group of students, informed me that she noticed the same trend on a larger scale. While the possibility of the pattern being a fluke (once again) exists, it could also be an age-related trait and therefore bears relevance to the study.

Thanks for reading.

Week 4

In week 4, an unexpected chance to work with another grade presented itself when Mr. Adams asked me to help some 6th graders with their characterization. The class is rehearsing a show entitled "The Best Little Theatre in Town" and a few of the main actors were having difficulty getting invested in their roles. So I came to the class on Thursday and Friday to watch a performance of the full show and assist the students in the acting process. I quickly discovered that the students were much more forward in telling me the problems with both their own acting and that of the other characters in comparison to the other classes I've worked with thus far. The 6th graders possessed a kind of blunt awareness which allowed them to tell me about their personal issues with confidence, what they thought student XYZ could do to improve their performance, etc. I suspect the observation may be a mere fluke because neither the 5th or 7th graders exhibit a willingness to voice criticisms of themselves and others. Nevertheless, it may be wise for me to include a question on the final survey which accounts for the small difference, just in case. The project is about discerning behavioral variations between age groups after all. Speaking of which, I plan on starting construction of the survey's basic structure in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for a sample on this blog.

The string of scientific articles that I mentioned last week was authored by a New York professor named Doctor Thalia Goldstein. Her work supplements the aims of my study quite nicely as it examines acting from a psychological perspective. Check out this article for an example of the type of research Dr. Goldstein pursues. I may try contacting her in a few weeks to ask for any scientific insight she may have on the specific sub-division of acting theory that I'm studying.

Thanks for reading.

Week 3

Exciting developments happened in week 3. I began working with small groups of the 5th grade students in a more personal setting to help them along their characterization process. They are incredibly creative, imaginative, and fun. I asked them to give me ideas about how they viewed their characters' personalities and what methods they could use to portray those personalities to an audience. They started engaging with their characters more even in the short session I spent with them. I look forward to continued work with the 5th graders as a more coherent impression of the age group starts to form.

A director at GCU also sent word this week that he would be willing to let me observe some rehearsals for his upcoming performance of the show "West Side Story." The opportunity will fill in the gap at the older end of the age spectrum for the project by allowing me an insight into the acting habits of college students.

I'm nearing the end of Chekhov's marvelous book on acting (more to come on that) and beginning to read a fascinating series of scientific articles on the relationship between acting and empathy. My hope is to tie in developmental psychology with my examination of age-related characterization differences to lend the project a more robust perspective.

Thanks for reading.

Week 2

The project is ramping up as week 2 comes to a close. My observations of the 5th grade students thus far have hinted at the presence of potentially interesting differences in their approach to characterization, even in comparison to a group as close in age as the 7th graders. One behavioral artifact of the divergence is the palpably lower average confidence level in the younger students. Naturally, the confidence level of individual students differed significantly within each class, but, on the whole, the 5th graders seem less sure of themselves in an acting environment. I'm exploring possible explanations for the difference, including the amount of previous acting experience among the students in each class. I should be able to unearth more information in the coming weeks as I start working on characterization with the 5th graders who have larger roles in the summer camp musical. I'm also going to consider how the confidence factor should affect the way I craft the survey which will yield the majority of this project's data.

A second branch of my project-related activities also began this week as I started working as the characterization director for BASIS Peoria's Spring musical, "The Little Mermaid." The musical cast contains actors from nearly every grade level (5th-12th), making it an exciting opportunity to examine age-related disparities in the characterization process. I'll be assisting actors as they develop their respective characters and making observations along the way as always. More on that next week after I meet with the first group of actors to discuss their characters.

 
Lastly, I provided a quote from Michael Chekhov as food for thought earlier today. The visual nature of theatre necessitates the dedication of special attention to an actor's physical movement on stage. According to Chekhov, physicality is one of the most fundamental and effective means of portraying a character. I think it will become equally necessary for me to give it appropriate attention as I observe and work with the actors and build the survey.

Thanks for reading.