{"id":3004,"date":"2016-11-07T12:35:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T17:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=3004"},"modified":"2016-11-07T12:35:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T17:35:13","slug":"stage-combat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=3004","title":{"rendered":"Stage Combat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stage combat is perhaps the most all-encompassing tool that an actor can have. It teaches active listening, physical characterization, and the highest possible level of objectives, obstacles, and stakes; moreover, if one feels safe, one can collaborate to create more engaging and dynamic stories. With a firm grounding in stage combat, an actor increases their presence on stage, much the way a confident martial artist does in real life. No actor worth their salt should turn away such an opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

I consider stage combat to be a modern martial art, focused on storytelling, rather than defense, much like many Eastern disciplines teach that, at the highest levels, violence and destruction are set aside in favor of aesthetic creation. A master becomes an artist, as the understanding of violence reminds one of their human nature (the earth, the id, the beast, etc.) but channeling that directionless passion are the creative and rational drives. As artists in the theatre, the consummation of all arts, we have the ability and responsibility to bring this violence as realistically to bear as we are able in order to confront and discuss \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and perhaps, to change \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the way in which we accept and cope with our natural tendency toward violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, it is essential that we as fight directors, give our actors the tools required to tell these stories. By necessity, we begin to help with precautions against harm; after all, beyond the obvious preservation of the actor, if the actor must hesitate because of a safety concern, then we have hindered the story by whatever fraction that hesitation costs. Contrarily, when we instill in actors the knowledge and practice to free them of the constraint of fear, we not only allow that particular scene to come alive, but we bring the actors to a greater state of awareness and commitment, which can only serve them in all aspects of performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The responsibility is colossal for fight directors, as with any teachers, to keep this always in mind. We must understand fear, violence, and all of the darkest parts of our humanity in order to create compelling art, but we must be in command of those forces, and teach others to be in command of them, if that art is to be of value.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stage combat is perhaps the most all-encompassing tool that an actor can have. It teaches active listening, physical characterization, and the highest possible level of objectives, obstacles, and stakes; moreover, if one feels safe, one can collaborate to create more engaging and dynamic stories. With a firm grounding in stage combat, an actor increases their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73iP8-Ms","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2611,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2611","url_meta":{"origin":3004,"position":0},"title":"On the use of Violence in the Theatre","date":"2\/2\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Theatrical violence incorporates the most important aspects of theatrical performance: objectives and commitment at the very highest stakes, physical communication and cooperation between actors, and a dual awareness at both the character and actor levels. For me, stage combat informs all of my work as a professional actor in Milwaukee,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2783,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2783","url_meta":{"origin":3004,"position":1},"title":"Your Daily Digest: Still Fighting","date":"12\/11\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When I take time off, it means that I get to do only things that make me happy. So, in this three month\u00c2\u00a0hiatus from theatre, I have done the following work, gratefully and happily: Sound design for\u00c2\u00a0Handle with Care at Boulevard Theatre Swing Stage Manager for\u00c2\u00a0Handle with Care Fight director\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":709,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=709","url_meta":{"origin":3004,"position":2},"title":"Packed with bruises, kung fu really satisfies.","date":"1\/7\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As I head off this week to intern at the nation's largest stage combat workshop, I watch this with glee and dread. Plus, it seems to focus on some sort of autistic savant of the martial, which tweaks me in the right places. My sister has a genetic condition similar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "For the geek in you"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":842,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=842","url_meta":{"origin":3004,"position":3},"title":"What are you doing?","date":"9\/11\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today: Interspersed large projects between IA and Subversion tutoring meetings. Run home fast to pick up back door key for new tenants. Run to old place. Turn in key, get security deposit, possibly any boxes left over. Run to South Milwaukee PAC for community theater meeting. Run to Whitefish Bay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Self-service"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=772","url_meta":{"origin":3004,"position":4},"title":"Jack of few trades, master of none.","date":"7\/1\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, after almost a year of anticipation, I received a set of DVDs from my second workshop in Vegas. Naturally, I hastened to play the videos and see how I fared. I knew that I had passed and that many of my friends had heaped praise on my performances,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":707,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=707","url_meta":{"origin":3004,"position":5},"title":"Assets and Improvements","date":"12\/20\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I did this mainly as an affirmation and a resolution for the upcoming year. I think it's a good exercise to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and address them with specifics. I have noted that my self-confidence wanes fairly often, and that can cause me to doubt whether I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Self-service"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3005,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions\/3005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}