The San Diego Union-Tribune: A voice rings out across the Don Powell Theatre stage early one morning at San Diego State University, issuing a terse command: “Assume the position of attention.”
But for an observer witnessing a dozen people suddenly brandish swords and daggers as they step into warrior stances, attention is not really an issue.
The weapons, as it happens, are real (more or less). But the purpose is the pursuit of art rather than some poor foe’s arteries.
9 comments:
If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, you know that when Arya first goes to learn sword fighting, her instructor introduces himself to her as her dancing master. He then proceeds to teach her the water dance. As we know, Arya turns out to be a very smart and strong fighter, regardless of her size. With that being said, there is clearly an important connection between dancing and sword fighting, whether real or on stage. Maybe some of the principles of how the body is used are the same. Maybe they require the same type of focus from the people involved. Maybe you have to be as graceful and fluid with you body when sword fighting as you are when dancing. I am not sure. However, I see the connection more with stage combat because it is all "fake fighting." You have to choreograph an onstage fight and that requires the same from the performers as it would from dancers. It is basically a dance. The only difference may be the goal of the performers. When you think about it, dancers are also acting onstage. They are embodying some form of presence and trying to convey that to the audience in the form of dance.
This is such a great way to talk about stage combat in any sense. Stage combat, whether hand to hand, sword, dagger, or anything, should be thought of in a choreographed sense. There are specific movements each party involved need to follow in order for the routine to work visually, as well as for safety concerns. One small misstep could result in a fatal injury. Randi McKenzie seems like the perfect individual based off this article alone to be teaching students the discipline needed to be a good ‘dancer’ within stage combat. A lot of stage combat classes I have seen seem to focus primarily on hand to hand. This one gives everyone the opportunity to practice with varying types of swords and daggers. Like the article says, this is perfect for some of the more dated plays in the canon (special mention to Cyrano de Bergerac). I hope to see more classes that teach stage combat like a dance rather than just staging a fight. It may result in less injuries overall if we keep that mentality of fluidity and grace within the movement.
This was so much fun to read. It's great to see this opportunity at San Diego State University. I know multiple people who go there and some who are in the theater program as well. Fencing is such a fun sport also. When I was in 4th grade I used to live in Mexico and while I was there I took up some fencing classes. Honestly, I was so scared playing around with a sword and stabbing people (even though they were in full protective gear). But I eventually came around to how fun and precise it was. I remember the specific stances we had and having to lunge with the sword. There was also specific ways to hold the sword and how we would carry the weight of it in our palm. There was also the back hand that you would hold up in the air as you lunged. It was all so much fun and very much did make me feel like I was in the Princess Bride.
-Pablo Anton
My high school did Romeo and Juliet one year, and there were real swords on stage; we hired a fight coach and it was this big ordeal. I have so much respect and admiration for fight coaches/ actors ? specialists ? Working with actual sharp objects on stage comes with a lot of risk, and getting proper training is highly important when wanting to avoid as actual injury on stage. In stagecraft, we got told about an actor or got stabbed through a pant and combat boot with a knife, during tech. During one of our productions, an actor did not follow the exact movements they rehearsed and accidentally got slashed on the hand. It is not fun to help wrap an actual bleeding cut during a show night. Swordplay is so fun though, and brings a realness and magic to a production that ould not necessarily be achieved with fake weapons.
As a purveyor of pointy objects, sword fighting has always been something that I've had a deep interest and admiration for. However, stage fighting has never had a draw for me. The thing that excites me about swordplay is the spontaneity. The complete focus you have to employ to keep from being sliced open in the blink of an eye. For me, stage combat has always seemed rather uninteresting for the exact reason that it's choreographed. How can something feel real and engaging when at its core it's just a performance? Obviously, the argument can be made that that is theatre. That theatre is a performance made so persuasively that it feels real to both the audience and the actors. However, when it comes to stage combat it just doesn't feel authentic to me personally. When I see stage combat in a show it feels real and engaging, but as someone doing the performing rather than watching I am acutely aware that I'm following a specific routine. Which is a bit of a turn off for me.
This is definitely a class that I would be interested in taking if it was available. Stage combat is something that is really fascinating to me and I became sort of fascinated with in undergrad. For a few years we had someone who would come and teach a workshop at our school on stage combat and it was really informative and interested. For someone like me who definitely was not an actor it provided a real solid way of connecting with someone in a performative way. It was really freeing to focus on the action and movement of a piece instead of words. Also the fact that it was all about safety something that made me cringe when looking back at high school productions with any sort of stage combat we were definitely not looking out for our own best interest because we didn’t know any better. Not to mention that the weapons we use are really fun and give a sense of responsibility and entitlement. I think that idea of correlating it to dance is an easy step to make since just like any pairing dance you can not move forward without your partner in proper position.
Stage combat truly has the power to make or break a show, in my opinion. Because if it doesn't look spontaneous, the entire audience is automatically taken out of the show, even if only for a split second when they noticed an actor thinking ahead to what the other actor is gonna do next. I think that it would be really interesting to see a show where the actors were taught all different types of stage combat, and how to do it safely, but the fighting was never actually choreographed, just improved each night. It might be cool to see what that does for the spontaneity of the piece. Either way, I love that sword fighting in theatre is becoming so detailed and smart, and there are classes to teach it, because it is so integral in so many different pieces. I love watching well done sword fights on stage.
Being able to experience many things is one of the big perks you will receive from majoring theatrical art. The training of a theater professional is always mixed up in some way, and that is also indicating how interesting this industry is. During my undergrad years I have had the chances going so many elective courses including both physical or literary. Although most of my time went into philosophy and history, I did get into a dance class. That was the first time I realized how important it is to develop one's own body in order to improve many skills, whether regarding to theater or not. It is the language of the body that we practice every day, and just like other skill we learn and polish. I really envy those who are able to join the classes like this one here, since it really helps to both life and study.
I think it’s a great idea for performance majors to learn fencing or sword fighting as they will undoubtedly use the skills they have learned in their career! I am not sure if CMU has a similar class to “Foiling Around”,but if not, we should definitely look into adding one. I love how enthusiastic McKensie is about teaching her class. I find that often the best classes are ones where the teacher feels truly passionate about the subject that they are teaching. I would love to take a sword fighting class, it sounds very exciting and fun! Sword fighting in theater can be so exciting and can really add to to the realness of a production of done well. I hope that the students at San Diego state are able to use their newfound talents to better their performances in future productions.
Post a Comment