In the process of writing my EE, I encountered some problems. If I could undertake my research again, I would attempt to gather more primary sources. I predict that this change would make my research more credible as I would be interviewing different actors of different levels of profession; from amateur to a professional actor, I could gain more insight into psychological acting from different perspectives. However, as my main primary source was an interview with an actor from NYU Tisch, this already gave me an opportunity to have an interview with an actor, the rest of my research was based mostly on secondary sources and reports made by other researchers. A question that I wasn’t expecting was how psychological acting does not only apply to actors, but to journalists, scientists, psychologists etc. That aspect made me think more about the impact of psychological acting on humans, rather than just to actors. Despite the challenges I faced, I thoroughly enjoyed the research process as it has helped me broaden my knowledge and understanding of acting and human nature. As a theatre student, I believe it is important to be wary of one’s self, and this research had helped me so.
Category: Extended Essay
Reflective Conversation 2
So far, my research into my EE has been fairly successful in terms of secondary research. However, I found a problem with gathering primary research together. Since my EE is about psychological acting, my primary research is an interview with a well-known method actor. I managed to get lots of data from the interview, however, it was very time consuming and could’ve been done more efficiently. Through this however, I’ve come to have a better understanding of what psychological acting is and how wide a topic it is! I used to have the mindset that there was only one type of psychological acting (method acting) but in the world of theatre, it goes so much further than that. I have not changed my approach or strategies, but I realised that my research process has developed vastly; from using the internet, reading through primarily sourced books of the practioners I’m researching into, and holding an interview.
EE: Initial Reflection (1)
Initially, I wanted my EE to be centred around the extreme cases of method acting and how it psychologically affects actors. I would do so by going on the internet to find reliable sources, using the books in the library and even asking other theatre students about method acting as secondary sourcing. This was a good time to build my knowledge and interest in theatre further. In my initial conversation with my supervisor, she mentioned that method acting in film and theatre are on different spectrums. I was not aware of this and had to take a different approach to my research and main question. Right now, I have the idea to gather as much data as possible about method acting itself before diving into details of method acting in theatre. Of course, I would cover both aspects in my EE but I would focus on method acting in theatre, making references to the psychological effects later on in my EE.