Procrastinating....

I have been told I am a huge procrastinator when it comes to things I am wary of. And now the time has come to fight this, so I can pass my Module 3.

Where do I begin?

Well whilst I was on the ship I held master-classes (Focus-Groups). Which were a really interesting way of viewing how the cast works together when under stress, when they feel comfortable, and when they are put with people they don't usually work with. I put people who aren't naturally leaders in a leader position to see how the'd cope if given the chance and how the rest of the cast responded to them. I had them over 2 sessions which were an hour each. My focus was all on team-building exercises, as I wanted to observe what happened in each circumstance. It was an enjoyable experience, and an experience that was worth-while and brought some interesting questions up. To be continued....

Did anyone else have any problems finding the motivation and the discipline to sit down and focus on module 3?

The time has come...Module 3

So the time has come for our final module. I am filled with nothing but excitement, that I am one step further to graduating! I know it's going to be hard work, but I'm keen to start and eager to finish, so I can then plan & focus on the next big step in my career, being a proud owner of a BA (Hons) Professional Practice in Performing Arts.

Where will I go? Will the next big thing be a PGCE, as I had originally planned? Or has my mind been opened to new experiences, and changed my direction? For now, I'll keep that to myself until I finish...

How about everyone else? How are you feeling with the impending start date coming ever so near?

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

         Module 2 was a definite increase of workload, but also a challenge I actually enjoyed. I’m looking forward to the outcome of my Inquiry Proposal already. My proposal is now all fully planned out, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this prepared for an upcoming project. I am slowly becoming better at time management, although I’m not where I want to be just yet. It’s been hard to balance work and the BAPP course, one I hope to get better for Module 3.  This module was perfectly set up in order to prepare you fully for the upcoming Inquiry Proposal.

Tasks 4 eased you in with tasks 4a http://john-paulbirss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/4a-my-questions.html & 4c then encouraging you to challenge your own ideas and improve on them. http://john-paulbirss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/4c-development-of-my-questions.html.  Task 4b was then to help you expand your world and create a SIG, (Special Interest Group). My SIG address: https://www.facebook.com/groups/456490371087989/. It was called ‘Life as a performer on cruise ships’; so far I’ve had a good response to it, with more people every day joining in. Task 4d was the time to decide on our award title, one that I went back on forth on throughout this whole module before setting on BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Performing Arts). http://john-paulbirss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/4d-my-award-title.html. I decided this was the best decision as it will help me in the future rather than focusing on old dreams, I can encompass them and expand for my future career decisions.

Tasks 5 was a huge challenge for me as ‘Ethics’ is not something we generally think about on a day to day basis, but we actually deal with them sub-consciously every day. So to actually stop and think what are they? And how do they affect me, was like I said a challenge. Here is a hyperlink to my blog: http://john-paulbirss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/5b-ship-rules-regulations.html. Task 5 was definitely the hardest for me.

Then it came to the Inquiry Proposal itself, I struggled for a while to find the precise title for my Inquiry. I knew what I wanted to include in it, but I didn’t know how to word it? Sitting down and writing this was actually easier than I had originally thought It would be, as the module had prepared me well for what was to come. Even though I didn’t complete the tasks in reader 6, I still was confident in the end that I could write this Inquiry Proposal. The hardest part was actually finding the right literature to go with my own thoughts and ideas for the economy and the entertainment world within the cruise industry, where I had to go on my own experiences rather than information I could find.

To finish, the final product of my Inquiry Proposal is structured to hopefully enable anyone to follow and understand what I am proposing and what to expect within my title. It will be discussing the group dynamics within a cast and the recent economy changes and its effects on performers. Bring it on!

5b – Ship Rules & Regulations

On searching for information regarding the ethics onboard my cruise ship, I found that we have 2 sets of professional ethics. One is the ‘Code of Ethical Business Conduct’ and the other is ‘Crew Guide to Ship’s Rules and Regulations’. Both are given to each crewmember on their arrival day.

After looking through both the ‘codes of conduct’, the ‘Crew Guide to Ship’s Rules and Regulations’ is very close to what I had written in 5a-Professional Ethics, obviously in a lot more depth than my small list that I had written. Discussing life onboard a cruise ship, the do’s and don’ts whilst working, ship terms, safety training & the 68 NCL rules of conduct. The ‘Code of Ethical Business Conduct’ mainly focuses on as it states, the business conduct that is expected of us and crewmembers and ambassadors of Norwegian Cruise line. This focuses on company property, financial interests, relationships, & confidentiality of information.

So I wasn’t too far off, but reading through the material certainly gave me a bigger insight to all the ethics involved in my own company. I actually enjoyed reading through all the usual jargon they gave me rather than tossing it aside, because I actually got some use out of it for BAPP.

5a-Professional Ethics

So this part of the module was the one that bothered me the most and, I was quite frankly a little hesitant to begin it. As ethics is not something that is discussed on a daily basis, however we actually deal with them on a daily basis whether we know or not? Be it in school, work, or out socially. As quoted from the Dictionary: Ethics are ‘Moral principals that govern a person or group’s behaviour’. So every school, workplace and even society has its own set of rules/policies/standards or conventions that help to guide behaviour and conduct.

So looking at my workplace and my cruise line, I started looking our own “guidelines”. Here’s what I came up with:

•         Provide a good product (show).
•         Attend all rehearsals, shows, & warm-ups.
•         Be 15 minutes early.
•         Dress to impress-look presentable.
•         Be courteous, polite & helpful.
•         Smile & say hello!!
•         No fraternising with the passengers.
•         2am curfew.
•         Passengers come first.
•         Zero tolerance to illegal drugs.
•         Alcohol tolerance, nothing above 0.04% on duty, and 0.08% at any time!
•   

4c-Development of my questions…

After I put forward some of my questions on my SIG, it was brought to my attention that some of the questions that I had asked my SIG were biased from my point of view. I have decided to look at my questions again and change the way that I have written them so they are no longer from a biased point of view, this will enable me to get more truthful and unbiased answers for my inquiry. For example: I asked ‘Why are entertainers resented by the rest of the crew?’ But after asking this to my SIG, and realising that is a question asked in a biased way, I’m changing it to ‘How do you think entertainers are treated by the rest of the crew and why?’ I’m going to be interested to see if there are any differences in the answers that I receive when I next ask the question in a non-biased way.

4d - My Award Title?

I knew as soon as I could pick my award title that I wanted to keep it based on my training whilst I was in college. I was trained in musical theatre, it's one of my passions and I strove to achieve that and make it a reality. So when I chose to do this course I wanted my title to reflect that in the end.

So saying that I've chosen:

BA (Hons) Professional Practice in Musical Theatre

Is this too narrow minded of me? Should I broaden it to:

BA (Hons) Professional Practice in Performing Arts?

4b- Life as a performer on cruise ships- My SIG!

Here is a link to my SIG, it's called 'Life as a performer on a cruise ship'. I have at the moment contained it within the cruise ship world and I thought I'd expand it at a later date. I've asked all my below questions to my fellow colleagues and peers. And surely enough I was getting answers seconds later! I was very happy. So keep an eye open for my results in the coming weeks...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/456490371087989/

And I'm back...!

Let the work load commence! I'm back away working in sunny Tampa, Florida rehearsing hard for my next adventure.

So the arduous task of trying to find the right balance between work and Uni work begins all over again! I recently found a new wind of inspiration to get back into the blogging world...And I'm looking forward to my inquiry already, my ideas will follow soon . :)

4a- My Questions...

Life living on ship is like anywhere, it has it's own set of rules, perceptions & hierarchies. I wanted to look deeper into this world that is so important to many performers around across the globe on the many different cruise lines.

 

From looking at my colleagues answers here are a set of questions I wanted to explore:

• How does bad management affect the cast?

• How does living and working with people of different nationalities affect how we work together?

• Why are entertainers resented by the rest of the crew? We are only doing our job too?

• How does the group dynamics affect the performance of a show? Or does it?

• How can we change the perception of the jobs of entertainers on a cruise ship?

• How has the economic change affected performers regarding the future career decisions?

• Living & working with the same people in a contained environment, how does this affect the group dynamics and the performance?

• Performing to an audience who haven't paid to see the show. How does that affect the performer? Is theatre etiquette important?

• In the entertainment world, why are dancers considered less than singers?

I'd appreciate any feedback, or even your insight whether you've worked onboard cruise ships or not?

4a - My Questions...where to start?

To help me find a set of questions on what I wanted to discover, I started off by interviewing my colleagues. So I asked, "What Issues affect us in the Entertainment department in the cruise industry as performers?"

Here are the answers I received:

• Hierachy?
• Why are dancers considered not as respected as singers?
• Bad Management-how does that affect the group?
• Separating work from our personal life, as essentially we live at work...
• Tolorance-diverse groups of people. Some nationalities aren't as tolerant of more diverse groups in the entertainment department.
• People from all over the world, working together with one goal...How does nationality affect how we work together?
• Entertainers who work on a cruise ship are not considered to have a viable job that is respected by the rest of the crew, we are highly resented by the rest of the crew.
• Entertainers on a cruise ship are not as respected and entertainers who are working on land on Broadway, West-End or reputable dance companies. 'It's just a cruise job'
• Cruise ship perception, how have cruise ship alumni affected the improvement the quality of the shows onboard?
• Weigh-Ins- it affects performers due to the mental training we receive as a dancer. Why do it? Muscle is heavier that fat...How do dancers handle it? No feedback is given.
• Stage-It is literally moving, so there are safety concerns and also sea-sickness is possible.
• Audience is a factor as they are not paying customers, they don't necessarily know theatre etiquette. They come late, walk around whilst we are performing, they let their children run around the theatre, they'll shout out to the performers whilst they are performing on stage...
• Always at work, there's no escape unless you stay in your room, you can't be anonymous.
• Having other responsibilities-taking exams that don't relate to us as performers...
• It's more difficult to arrange your next job whilst onboard-meetings have to be delayed, more internet access is needed and it's very expensive!
• No understudies or swings, so last minute re-blocks are constantly needed, a lot of unnecessary stress and it's a lot of pressure for the rest of the team, you feel like you can't be sick as you'd be letting down the other 13 members in the cast.
• Food. It's very limited on what you can take on/off the ship, so its hard to maintain a healthy diet. Scheduling times for food, if you're working you just miss out on eating times and have to wait until the next available time slot. 

So as you can see, there are many issues that affect us as performers and these aren't all of them! Next task, I have to devise a set of questions...Wish me luck!