This paper takes the form of an email dialogue between Jessica Naish and Professor Alison Oddey, in which some key questions pertaining to practice as research are raised. It was first presented at the Practice Based Research seminar at the American Society for Theatre Research conference in New York, November 2000. It is written as a documentation of an ongoing dialogue between a prospective Ph.D. student and her potential supervisor. It is intended to stimulate further debate about the nature of practice in academic research contexts. Written in the moment, it is an improvised dialogue, marking pertinent questions at a particular time. It is one point of departure in the swelling tide of debate and documentation about practice as research.