Stage combat was one of the more
exciting aspects of theatre that I have had the great pleasure of studying
occasionally here and there. However, when I had learned previous before being
in the MSU Denver show of “Kiss me Kate,” I realized I had been learning some
bad habits. After one session of stage combat during “Kiss me Kate”, with Jenn
Zuko, I was embarrassed to admit, even to myself, that I had practiced
dangerous stage combat. I knew that in my career of theatre, I would eventually
need to correct the wrongs of what I had learned in the past from not so
qualified drama teachers, with learning from a more qualified instructor.
While reading the first two chapters
in “Stage Combat,” written by Jenn Zuko Boughn, I was amazed to find out how
many injuries can occur from doing “dangerous” stage combat. Something as simple
as a loose nail tearing the eyelid and our own adrenaline can cause the victim
in the scene to bite a lip or a tongue. As far-fetched as some of these
injuries may seem, they are very much possible at any moment if you try to
authenticate a fight scene. I find it very interesting that while learning in
class for the first time that the victim of the scene is in complete control.
From the audience, you wouldn’t think that because essentially we are setting
up an illusion. However, if set up correctly, it looks real and it takes a lot
to be in complete control, but if done correctly it would like the person being
under attack is not in control.
From a professional stand point, it
is very important to understand all of the dangers associated with any given
physical activity. Before you should engage in stage combat, you should know
what could happen if you don’t practice it the right way. Starting the class
text off with a chapter in “Violence and Actor Safety” seemed like a no
brainer. I have already learned stage combat a wrong way once, I wasn’t about
to learn it the wrong way again. So I feel it is very important for every individual
to know about the “what ifs” on the subject matter.
The next thing I read about was
“Movement Awareness.” Let me just start off by saying “Nostalgia!” A lot of
these activities took me back to my high school years in theatre class. My
favorite exercises in high school theatre were the status walks. Interestingly
enough, we do, unconsciously most of the time, practice status while we are out
in public. I sometimes will practice status consciously while I’m walking
around on campus. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost ran into
somebody because we both felt we had high status that neither of us had to move
out of the way for each other). You can really learn a lot about other people
just from watching their status.
There are many exercises for spatial
awareness, I loved getting to read about a few ideas, not just because they
were nostalgic, but because it is crazy how connected and applicable these
exercises can be to any aspect of theatre and stage combat. Status can play a
huge role in stage combat; it is status that can make a fight scene humorous or
dramatic. In addition to that, it is important to be aware of the space around
you especially during stage combat for safety reasons.
I think that safety and spatial
awareness are the most appropriate things to learn first in a stage combat
class so the reading was very beneficial in that sense. I highly recommend that
each of these areas be explored before engaging in stage combat.
On a side note, the image that I
have selected for this blog post is the “Willy Wonka” meme. I chose it because
it basically says that just because you know stage combat, doesn’t mean you are
a trained fighter. Your skills learned for on the stage don’t cross over to
actual fighting. I also chose it because a lot of my friends from high school
really thought they were the coolest because they could fake a fight outside
during lunch time. That isn’t cool, I personally don’t think it is, and Willy
Wonka isn’t amused either!
Image Citation:
"Condescending Wonka." Photograph. n.d. quickmeme. http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3prced/. Web. Aug. 24th, 2013.
I hope I have enlightened you today!
-Tatum Russo
I love the Wonka meme, and I have never seen the stage combat version!
ReplyDeleteIt's great! :D
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