Developing a SIG

When thinking about launching a Special Interest Group, I remembered reading a blog post last term by Mark Iles. He described the problem of the SIGs being to specific and therefore there were too many, which prevented students from getting involved in the SIGs. For example, if I chose the title 'Acting in Radio Plays', I could well be on my own as perhaps no-one else on the course would have this interest!

As we are a small group studying this module, and nobody else is in quite the same area of the industry as me, I have decided to keep my SIG very broad. I hope in this way I will get as many people as possible to join and share thoughts. From interacting with you last term, I believe the majority of people in our group have a dance/education background; although I am in a slightly different field I hope that we'll still be able to have interesting discussions and there will be areas that cross over. So, the title of the SIG I would like to create is simply.... 

"Theatre, TV & Film"

I have started a 'Theatre, TV & Film' discussion on the BAPP facebook page - please come and join in with your thoughts and ideas. For anyone who's not sure how to get started with creating a SIG, you can get started by going to the BAPP facebook page, go to discussions and then hit 'add new topic'. I also found it was really interesting to look back over the discussions some people were having last term. Topics created by the students doing our module last term include; 'What makes a good singing teacher?', 'Showreels' and 'Dance and Drama in Education'.

Look forward to getting some discussions going!  

Developing lines of Professional Inquiry - Initial Thoughts

Welcome back!

It feels like it's been such a long break since the last module I was not sure where to get started with developing my lines of inquiry. So, I decided to begin by looking back at the 'Inquiry Task' from last term to see how much my areas of interest had changed or developed over the past few months. Here is a rough list of the areas of interest I identified last term:

• Spontaneity, Improvisation & Truth in acting
• 'Polymaths', Producing & New Skills
• Screen Acting
• Disabled Performers & promotion of 'disability issues' through Theatre/Film
• Theatre around the world

I found that broadly speaking, my areas of interest fell into two categories; those that are based on exploring theatre's place in education and society, and those that are more to do with my personal creative growth and career development. I still feel very torn between the two different directions, so for now I would like to keep my options open. However, I am aware that I need to begin ruling out certain topics and developing others further, narrowing down my areas of interests to more specific questions.

I have been fortunate enough to be in consistent employment this year at a fantastic theatre, which has certainly shaped my ideas. I have worked with new directors and performers, widened my professional network (which has given me a more diverse and experienced group of contacts that my be able to help me in my inquiry) and find that I am even more ambitious to work in different mediums and possibly even different roles within my industry.    

Looking at reader 4, it states that "The ultimate goal of the inquiry will be to explore a topic that will benefit your work and the work of colleagues..". This is something I will have to chat to the academic advisors about, as some of the inquiry lines I am interested in pursuing would not particularly benefit others, but are more to do with my personal development. I suppose this is one of the challenges of applying WBL to a performing career, as we are self-employed freelancers and do not have 'colleagues' as such. Does our inquiry need to have a direct impact on those we work with (eg. cast mates in a play)? Do we need to publish our findings so that they can be of benefit to others? Is it enough to follow a line of inquiry that makes us better at our job and therefore bring more to the projects that we work on?