Capstone Blog Post 2

Capstone is going very well for me. I have done lots of research and I have recently done my interviews. I interviewed two people for my capstone.

The first interview was with Sandy Jacobs, the producer of Hamilton. The second interview was with Travis Griesler, the director of The Cher Show. I interviewed them because they are experts in my topic and they have worked on famous plays. I got the interview with Sandy Jacobs because I know someone who knows him and they sent me a phone number. I got the interview with Travis Griesler because my mom found him on the internet.

They both gave me a lot of information and had such detailed answers that I didn’t have to ask all the questions I had prepared. They both used metaphors to help me understand their roles. Travis was very vocal and enthusiastic and Sandy was more serious. A few times Sandy asked me to repeat my question slower because I was speaking too fast. I learned to slow down when I am talking. We set a day and time with both interviewees and I called them at the specified time.

I faced some challenges when finding a person to interview. We knew people who knew people but we weren’t sure they were going to agree to be interviewed. We didn’t want to put people on the spot so we started looking for backups. But, luckily, both of them responded and agreed to be interviewed. Another challenge that I faced during my first interview was that I kept losing my place in my list of interview questions which caused a silent pause before I could ask the next question. I learned from this and in my second interview, I crossed out each question as I asked it so I kept my place the whole time.

I learned a lot, but the most interesting thing I learned was probably that 80% of the plays fail and it is very rare to have a successful play.

Capstone Blog Post #1

For Capstone, my topic is backstage at a Broadway play. My main inquiry question is “What are the most important jobs backstage during a Broadway play?  My five sub-questions are:

  1. What does the director do, and why is it important?
  2. What does the set designer do, and why is it important?
  3. What does the casting director do, and why is it important?
  4. What does the choreographer do and why is it important?
  5. What does the music writer do and why is it important?

My main inquiry question wasn’t too hard to come up with because I already have a strong interest in plays. Ever since I was little my grandma used to take me to Broadway plays. So naturally I wanted to do something about them for Capstone. It was challenging to figure out what my main inquiry question should be, though, because I knew what my topic was, but not how I would turn that into a project. My teacher helped a lot with the main inquiry question to make it more specific about how the different jobs work and contribute to the success of the play. Once we together came up with the main inquiry question,  I made the sub-questions.

I’ve learned a lot about myself as a learner so far. One thing that I learned is that sometimes it is helpful for me to brainstorm with someone to come up with ideas, like I did with Ms. Edwards.  

 

Identity Bags and Identity Maps

This week we have been working on identity bags and identity maps. I think they are both very fun and really interesting. In the identity bags every person gets to bring in 5 – 8 things that are part of their identity. We share them with the rest of the class and we learn a lot about others from them. The identity maps. In the identity maps we make some kind of design with a lot of shapes and in each shape we write one thing about our identity. We can do whatever we want as long as we have room to write in them.

 

In the identity bags I learned that I like donuts a lot. I learned this because I brought in a giant donut. (It’s a pillow) I learned so much about my classmates too. About their interests and siblings, friends, etc.  In the identity maps I learned that I have a lot of great ideas. I used very creative shapes and drawings to write. I learned a lot about my classmates from what they wrote too.