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.