Observation Research on Musical Theatre Students

This observation seeks to explore the behaviour of musical theatre students, teachers and

attendees in a natural setting - a performance at a community theatre. The Bernie Grant

Arts Centre in Tottenham, London is where I chose to situate and conduct my

observation, during a final performance for the third year students from Urdang Academy

- a specialised arts based academy based in Islington. My focus was to analyse how a

middle class event plays out in a working class area, possibly showing signs of

gentrification (Glass 1964), and how the audience may perform a sense of habitus

(Bourdieu 1990) or dramaturgical analysis (Goffman 1971) through interactions with each

other.

Habitus and rituals of knowledge have both been studied by sociological thinkers. The

term habitus - derived from Pierre Bourdieu - means “society written into the

body” (Bourdieu 1990 P:63) which refers to the characteristics that someone has adopted

through interaction in everyday life. Researchers have used the notion of Bourdieu’s

habitus in many different ethnographic studies, including one conducted by Hobbs (2011)

based on the culture and habitus of midwifery. Another sociological interest is

dramaturgical analysis coined by Erving Goffman, which explores social interaction with

reference to theatrical performance, and this influenced me to take the idea literally and

observe in the setting of a theatre. In consideration to past studies and sociological

thinkers, the topic that I focussed my research on was that of habitus and gentrification,

but also how sense of self is expressed in a performance-related setting.

In relation to research context, my observation took place in the Bernie Grant Arts Centre

during the Friday evening performance. The show was public, but due to knowing people

in the cast and audience, I knew that it would be populated by friends, family and other
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students or teachers of musical theatre. The reason why I chose this setting was because

I found it interesting to explore the middle class habitus when it was situated in a working

class, deprived area of London, which I will explore later. Also, I was curious to find out

more about the specific group and the interactions between them. Due to the group

naturally being overly confident, I did not identify them as a vulnerable group, and I

believed that there would be no issues with the topic or covertly observing them because

they are in an environment which is predominantly based on performance and spectating.

Therefore, I don’t believe that I would have looked suspicious or would have imposed

harm on anyone or myself.

Another ethical consideration that I acknowledged was remaining unsuspicious, as this is

crucial when conducting a observation (Hegelund 2005) and for this reason, I ensured that

I fully immersed myself into the environment. As a researcher, I needed to involve myself

in different levels of interaction, both passive and active. Therefore, I ensured I completed

this by joining in on conversations between peers and then later recorded the dialogue

using retrospective data, but also by remaining passive and observing from afar. To avoid

suspicion further, I decided to take my field notes using the ‘Notes’ app on my iPhone

which made me look more natural in the situation and blend in with the usual behaviour of

the youths and adults around me, this could reduce the likelihood of reactivity (Bryman

2016 P:427).

Having a gatekeeper for research may be advantageous and so some researchers build a

rapport with a member of the group to gain more access and obtain in-depth and

valuable data (Hennink et al 2010 P:93). For my research, I attended the event with a

friend who knew a large majority of the people attending due to being a student at

Urdang Academy. I chose to have a gatekeeper because I believed that she could

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introduce me to others and I could ask her questions on things that I did not understand.

Consequently, I was involved in more interesting conversations with the teachers and I

was able to see whether they acted differently to the students. My gatekeeper also

helped explain the things that I didn’t understand, such as certain musical theatre

terminology.

After thoroughly planning and effectively conducting my research, it was evident that I

had collected a substantial amount of qualitative data to explore my rationale. As

previously mentioned, gentrification was something I wanted to uncover in my

investigation. Theatres are ultimately seen as middle class places, therefore Bernie Grants

Art Centre was no different. From the outside, the building was grand and smart, as seen

in Photograph 1, and behind was the modern building where the production took place,

full of heritage, colour and still a very middle class space, seen in Photograph 2. The

theatre also served food and drinks which could constitute to a middle class diet such as

sushi crackers, chickpea curries, red wine and bottled Peroni beer. However, Photograph

3 shows the street across the road of the theatre which symbolises the local area of

Seven Sisters and Tottenham - quite run down, deprived and more likely to be working

class.

Photograph 1 (wikipedia.com 2017)

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 Photograph 2 (Davidson 2017)

Photograph 3 (Google Maps 2019)

Moreover, the theatre can be identified as middle class because it has been “pioneered

by the arts” (Hatherley 2019) which Hatherley describes as a main characteristic of

gentrification in London, by taking old buildings and using them for a purpose which can

serve the middle class habitus. “Gentrification offers a case in which salient

socioeconomic differences characterize the demographic shifts in a

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neighborhood” (Hwang 2015) meaning that differences in the population of an area can

be due to a difference in culture and habitus. It is evident through my observation that

gentrification is present in this area in visual and physical terms but also, through different

cultures and neighbourhood identities. I also observed how the theatregoers could

symbolise gentrification. The group was predominantly female with the majority of males

being gay, most also being white and arguably middle class. However, studies of

gentrification also focus on racial inequalities, and so it is interesting to observe that

deprived and gentrified areas, such as Tottenham, are usually populated by ethnic

minorities, which was evident in my observation, unlike the theatre audience who were

mostly white. I saw no interaction between the classes which leads me to believe that

multiple worlds of people coexist but do not interact in situations and areas like this. The

event was in Tottenham, but was not of Tottenham. Therefore, I can conclude that this

event showed signs of gentrification for the surrounding area and that class and racial

inequalities were being presented through the group that I was studying.

Another observation that I found interesting was how the ideas of Bourdieu and Goffman

are embedded in the interactions between the people of musical theatre. A trend that I

noticed was the way in which the theatregoers greeted each other with a hug or a kiss on

each cheek, and the older males would usually exchange a handshake. Greetings such as

these display a sense of cultural capital and performance characteristics. “The middle

classes subtly and quietly reproduce privilege through their very ordinary choices, tastes

and behaviours” (Davey 2009 P:1) and so other things I saw that could be noted as an

expression of cultural capital too would be drinking red wine, dressing formally and the

language used during interactions. The conversations were very vacuous and almost

gave a sense of falseness, which portray a self conscious performance being played out

by the musical theatre students, teachers and attendees. Performance is natural to this

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group but performing this way can also showcase a sense of habitus and dramaturgical

analogy. There are rituals of social interaction that keep this particular life and culture

going so that the presence of middle class privilege and habitus doesn’t breakdown. This

is why they act in the ways they do and interact with each other over dramatically.

Compliments were often exchanged in every conversation, even when they were

introduced to me - a stranger. The use of the names like ‘darling’, ‘sweetheart’ and

‘lovely’ were almost overused during interactions, which gives further sense of fakery or

an act of middle class character. But still, the conversations held no substance and

people talked at each other than with each other. An explanation for this could be that the

presence of cultural capital gave individuals the ability to feel more successful than others

and competitiveness is a trait that is held very much so in musical theatre students and

middle class people.

Furthermore, from previous studies conducted by Walmsley (2011), it was evident through

qualitative research with theatregoers, that there are “shared cultural values based around

a common regard for high..culture” (Walmsley 2011 P:4) and this reflects what I have

analysed from my observation. Reflecting on field notes and sociological literature made

me realise that education is also a way to practice class (Davey 2009 P:2) and this is

important because the group of interest involved students. This can further their portrayal

of a middle class life. Ultimately, notions of habitus and dramaturgical analysis are present

in the group’s interactions, but also combined with the idea of gentrification, we can

understand that “class is a pre-disposition to a place” (Montalban-Anderssen and Doctor

2015 P:84).

Reflexivity was at the centre of my research process because it is important to recognise

your role as a researcher during observations (Bryman 2012 P:394). A strength to my

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study was that I was able to gain findings that explained my focus and enabled me to

prove that musical theatre students, teachers and goers attempt to portray a middle class

lifestyle. I also uncovered that gentrification and racial inequalities were present in the

area in which I chose to conduct my study but so was dramaturgical analysis. I also never

became a subject of suspicion, and I credit myself on using a gatekeeper because this

enabled my observation to be carried out more naturally because I did not look out of

place. Being an observer opened my eyes wider into the world of sociology because I

never had a chance to carry out a qualitative study before and it was interesting to grasp

a sociological explanation for something that I usually take for granted. Before, I had

understood that the culture of musical theatre can be classified as middle class, but I

hadn’t considered the fact of surrounding areas or the idea which “Pincus (2004) claims

that quantitative research has failed to provide a true synthesis of motivation….the

complex motivations of theatre audiences remain unclear” (Walmsley 2011 P:2) therefore I

found this fascinating and I praise the use of qualitative data for research topics similar to

this.

In future, it may be interesting to complete an observation in a working class situation,

such as the cinema and observing the interactions there, or even studying musical

theatregoers in a more unnatural setting and seeing if they interact differently. I could also

combine quantitative methods to make a mixed method approach on this topic and see if

conducting empirical studies would give me different findings. A method I would use

again is photographs because I believe that they added depth to my theory because

“photography rests in the clearly detailed, realistic depiction of the physical

world.” (Weston 1943 P:169).

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In conclusion, through qualitative research methods, sociologists can uncover

explanations for a wide range of topics, and it is evident through my experience that

musical theatre students, teachers and goers perform a specific habitus through

interactions in settings natural to them, and that gentrification can also be found in these

observations.

Bibliography:

Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Logic of Practice, Polity Press

Bourdieu, P. (1990) In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology, Stanford,

Stanford University Press, pp. 63

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.394

Bryman, A. (2016) Social Research Methods, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.427

Davey, G. (2009) Defining the middle classes: Using Bourdieu’s trilogy of habitus, capital

and field to deconstruct the reproduction of middle-class privilege, Southhampton,

University of Southhampton, pp.1-2

Davidson, L. (2017) Bernie Grants Arts Centre Cafe and Bar, Available at:

https://www.we-heart.com/2017/07/07/bernie-grant-arts-centre-bar-cafe-morag-

myerscough/ [Accessed on: 15th March 2019]

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Glass, R. (1964) London: aspects of change. Edited by the Centre for Urban Studies,

London, Macgibbon & Kee.

Goffman, E. (1971) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Penguin Books Ltd.

Google Maps (2019) Available at: https://www.google.com/maps/

@51.5879531,-0.0707764,3a,88.5y,63.14h,85.99t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!

1soZW7lupYZhj2vT5se36rBA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 [Accessed on: 15th March 2019]

Hatherley, O. (2019) Changing places: reuse of obsolescent buildings in south London,

Available at: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/changing-places-reuse-of-

obsolescent-buildings-in-south-london/10040102.article [Accessed on: 16th March 2019]

Hegelund, A. (2005) Objectivity and Subjectivity in the Ethnographic Method, SAGE

Publications, Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1049732304273933

[Accessed on: 15th March 2019]

Hennink, M. et al (2010) Qualitative Research Methods, SAGE Publications, pp. 93.

Hobbs, J. (2011) Newly qualified midwives’ transition to qualified status and role:

Assimilating the ‘habitus’ or reshaping it?, Elsevier Ltd.

Hwang, J. (2015) The Social Construction of a Gentrifying Neighborhood: Reifying and

Redefining Identity and Boundaries in Inequality, Massachusetts, SAGE Publications.

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Montalban-Anderssen, R. and Doctor, J. (2015) Pierre Bourdieu, high culture and societies

of elites: What is good taste and how is it acquired?, Michigan, College of Liberal Arts and

Sciences, pp.84

Walmsley, B. (2011) Why people go to the theatre: a qualitative study of audience

motivation, Journal of Customer Behaviour, pp.2-4

Weston, E. (1943) Seeing Photographically, pp.169

Wikipedia (2017) Bernie Grants Arts Centre, Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Bernie_Grant_Arts_Centre [Accessed on: 15th March 2019]

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