Sesquipedalian Periphrasis

An actor's training often ends in violence...

2009-06-22T14:53:34Z

...and I think it should start there! Traditionally, stage combat is viewed as an "advanced" skill for actors and teaching it is reserved for the end of a performer's training arc. Yet doing so overlooks the valuable acting lessons intrinsic to stage combat: conflict at its most basic form, being in the moment, reacting to a partner, the illusion of the first time...and the list goes on. Ironically, acting coaches devise an elaborate panoply of games to teach the same concepts--that's how Zip Zap Zop, the Mirror exercise, and so many others were created. Those games are useful in class, but have little utility on the stage. Training in stage violence teaches the same concepts, and has actual future benefit for performance.

Conflict at its most basic. Aristotle said that conflict is the seed of theatre. So, let's start training actors right there. Physical confrontation is conflict in its most tangible, visual form. Learn how to be in conflict as a character with fists or a sword, yet still work together as actors to produce a scripted piece of choreography, and you understand the core acting challenge.

Be in the moment; react to your partner. Safety is paramount in stage combat, and the most important way to stay safe is not maintaining eye contact, or keeping proper distance, or even being careful not to hit your partner. You stay safe by fighting THIS fight, with THIS partner, RIGHT NOW. Actors hurt each other when they "fight the choreography," going through their moves by following the script in their head. Instead, one must pay attention to the exact position of a fight partner in THIS iteration of the fight, reacting to exactly what he or she is doing RIGHT NOW. All those other things: eye contact, distance, not hitting them---those are results of fighting in the moment. As a bonus, the actor learns what it is like to simply be in a scene, rather than working so hard to act a scene.

Illusion of the first time. How many times does an acting scene get rehearsed before performance? Ten? Twenty if you're very lucky? Yet of course, it must seem to an audience that this is the first time these characters have ever been in this situation. A fight scene will usually be practiced over and over and over, sometimes 50 or more times before opening day. Yet it must still look dangerous, improvised, and seat-of-the-pants desperate. A great lesson for the actors.

To be fair, I'm not an acting coach and I don't mean to tell all the experts their job. But time and again as we design violence for shows, Richard and I find ourselves teaching basic conflict theory to actors, and training them about being in the moment and making the fight look new every time.

Maybe postpone the monologues at your conservatory, and try starting with:

They fight.

My Life As A DM, in xkcd eloquence

2008-12-18T16:35:16Z

Roman Geeks

2008-06-19T14:12:18Z

Turns out that either Gary Gygax DIDN'T invent D&D, or he had a time machine...

Exhibit A under the link.

ballestra @ 2007-11-16T16:03:00

2007-11-16T22:04:12Z

Science Question for today

2007-11-08T16:04:35Z

I found this to be an interesting concept, but my background is theatre and language rather than geology and evolutionary science. Is the following just a crackpot Internet theory (though supported by slick graphics), or might there be something to this? Science types: discuss!

</div>

ballestra @ 2007-11-01T22:21:00

2007-11-02T03:26:45Z

Chicago Free Press

Chicago Reader

Loyola Phoenix

Another Moreau review

2007-10-31T13:57:06Z

Here's another great review for The Island of Dr. Moreau. R&D's name might not be mentioned, but our ears are burning...

Windy City Times

What do you gotta do?

2007-10-24T15:59:22Z

Lifeline Theatre just opened The Island of Dr. Moreau this past Monday, and I think the work that Richard and I did on the violence design is perhaps our best work to date. It certainly must be at the top of the list for sheer hours invested: we starting training actors in July! The show involves everything from copious bullwhip work (the standard noise-making cracks, as well as neck and arm wraps and contact lashes), multiple gunshots, animalistic violence, sailor brawls (complete with belaying pins), blood, a surgical probe lanced through the actor's bare arm, a rock thrown to strike another actor in the head, etc, etc. We even did a fair amount of other "non-violent" things like staging a full boatswain's chair sequence of sailors battling a storm at sea (one actor gets hauled 15' aloft). I saw the opening night performance and was elated at how well everything worked together: the audience was gasping, flinching and--in the front row seats--literally cringing to get away from the in-your-face action.

Now the reviews are starting to come in. R&D has often been overlooked by critics in the past, and we've been told that it's because we use our company name--R&D Choreography--rather than our individual names. Critics say they don't like to mention a company in a review. So, we broke our 10-year tradition and only listed our personal names alongside the title of Violence Design. And here are three preliminary reviews:

Chicago Sun-times
Chicago Tribune
TimeOut Chicago

Not a single one mentions our work, even the one that details every other designer. My question: what do we have to do to get some love? The critics certainly noticed the violence--it underscores most of the reviews. So why not give us a nod? Is it because they see our work and think it came from the "director's staging?" Because they attribute it to the "tone" of the production. I also wonder if they have no idea what to do with the term 'Violence Design.' Maybe the traditional-but-insufficient label "Fight Choreographer' would make them understand.

I don't mean to whine, or press sour grapes, but I am frankly tired of seeing fight guys who do "in-the-box" choreography (usually with neat little start-and-end cues) get ink from the press--not to mention Jeff awards--when our work than infuses a whole production doesn't even rate a mention fair or foul.

What do you gotta do?

OK, more toys

2007-10-07T15:56:37Z

Just found out about d30 and I've decided I need some. It could seriously expand the envelope of stage combat possibilities (dorky English guys notwithstanding):

Here's their site: www.d3o.com

Made me laugh

2007-10-06T06:03:05Z

People Are Just Petty

2007-10-03T16:08:23Z

[See full story here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/bush.veto/index.html]

It's unbelievable the nitpicky things that people harass the President about! Like yesterday, for instance, when he vetoed legislation that would expand a children's health insurance program by $35 billion over five years. The program would give coverage to parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance for their children.

Bush aptly pointed out that such an irresponsible bill is a step toward universal health coverage: parents might be prompted to drop exorbitantly expensive private coverage for their children to get cheaper coverage under the bill and be able to better provide for their families.

As a parent of two lovely young girls, I am outraged that people would object to such a veto from the President, who is clearly trying to safeguard Americans from the budgetary excess of a wildly liberal Congress! Think of it: thirty-five billion dollars could fund half of what we needed to fight the War on Terror this year alone! Granted, the insurance bill would spread the cost out over five years and spend it on our kids, but why keep kids healthy when they're just going to grow up and get shot in some Allah-forsaken desert anyway?

Health coverage for kids...doesn't Congress have something better to do with their time? Shouldn't they be setting aside money for the invasion of Iran, or removing Constitutional safeguards on the privacy of law-abiding citizens? I tell you: I've HAD IT with the Democrats!

To Quote a Friend

2007-10-01T16:45:53Z

I got to use a great line today from a play written by a friend. As I was nursing my morning coffee, my too-chipper, all-natural intern said, "You, know, coffee's not really good for you."

I squinted at her across my oversized mug and said, "Used to be bourbon."

Thank you, Scott...

I WANT

2007-09-19T15:11:26Z

OK, I've found my new favorite high-fall pad...looks like this stuff could revolutionize the industry.

American priorities

2007-09-12T14:30:32Z

The American media is ubiquitously in the face of our government's leaders, constantly (and often justly) trying to hold them accountable. Sometimes, though, the media should turn its Responsibility Watchdog to sniff around its own house. Case in point this morning on cnn.com: on the front page near the top there is a link to a full page story with photos, here, opining that Britney Spears's recent comeback performance was artistically bad, but that maybe it's unfair to call her "fat." On the same front page, a link titled, "Putin Dissolves Russian Government" that takes you to a page where they barely managed to think up three sentences about that topic, including zero analysis or commentary on the ramifications of or the motivations behind that action. While I grant you that a parliamentary dissolution does not mean that the entire Russian government has collapsed, shouldn't a story of some political significance carry as much (dare I say greater?) weight as an article about Britney, which had supplemental links for more information, an attached video, and quotes from at least six source?

Where is the journalistic responsibility here?

Christmas Wish

2007-08-24T15:55:23Z

To all of my Livejournal friends--

If you love me, this is what you will get me for Christmas. Home defense for the fight geek without the scariness of guns in a home with infants...

That's My Girl

2007-07-30T19:33:35Z

I took my 3-year-old daughter Ellie to rehearsal for the first time this weekend (a quick one-hour last look at Oklahoma! for ATC--they're remounting it at Theatre on the Lake). After a bit of work, which included the Farmer and the Cowman brawl, I gave the actors a short break. Ellie, sitting nicely right next to the director, waited about four minutes and then said (and I quote), "Daddy, I want to see more men fighting." The director burst into laughter; I turned to the cast and said, "You heard my daughter. Break's over." And away we went.

That's my girl...

It amused me...

2007-05-24T18:34:36Z

Well, that's cool...

2007-04-11T05:08:15Z

My short story, Eden's Bodyguard, was selected for publication in Thuglit's first short story anthology: the Best of Thuglit. Which comes with some complimentary copies and a little bit of cash.

Furthermore, without my suggestion, permission (or even knowledge), they submitted it to the Short Mystery Fiction Society for consideration for a Derringer Award for short mystery, and now I am one of five finalists. Here's a place to see the full list. Even if I don't win, being on a short list with Ellery Queen and Alred Hitchcock Mystery Mag writers is very flattering.

Just a cool thing. In the Irony Department, Ellery Queen's editors turned down the selfsame story...

Fight Scene

2007-03-20T16:20:56Z

Sure, movie fights are cool, but if we stage folks could edited, cut away, and add special effects we could do that too, right? Take away the film guys' toys and then see them try...or so I thought.

Check this 4-minute uncut, unedited Steadicam sequence from The Protector.

Looking North

2007-03-19T17:44:19Z

Sigh.

I find once again that my attention at work is diverted; I troll the Internet, downloading pictures, checking out measurements, and fantasizing about what it would be like. It happens every year about this time: I start checking the home realty listings in Alaska.

Call it Post-Iditarod Letdown or Oncoming Spring Depression, but it happens right around the time the Great Race finishes and I store my dogsled for another season. I start cruising MLS listings in Anchorage, Juneau, and Seward, I dabble with wage calculators, move planner checklists, and even school listings. I research how many interpreters are in Anchorage (15, and only 10 with national certs).

Moving to Alaska is one of the major reasons I got involved in interpreting in the first place, because it's a portable skill. I have wanted to move there for years, and Melissa and I have longed discussed the "five-year plan" to do just that. We're thinking Anchorage, Juneau, or somewhere on the Kenai Peninsula--nowhere too far toward the Interior, and no way anything like subsistence living!

I truly enjoy Chicago, and I love the connections, friends, communities, and (dare I say) roots that we have here. On one level, it seems frivolous to "throw that all away" just to move somewhere with pretty scenery. Yet I think I connect internally with Alaska on a deep level in a way I haven't experienced with Chicago, or even California where I grew up. I know living there would not be a Jack London dreamland, nor do I think that money issues and "real life" would be any less present there compared to here.

Part of me, though, wants to give Alaska as a gift to my daughters. I know that Chicago has a cosmopolitan and vibrant arts culture that would be great for Eleanor and Amelia, but there is lot to be said for clean air, wildlife, actual topography, and less hustle and bustle; a place where respect for nature isn't an esoteric concept and where mountains and bald eagles and forests and yes, even dogsleds, are a regular part of life.

What to do...what to do...

Troops

2007-03-10T04:52:51Z

OK, I'm not usually a guy who posts movies, but this made me laugh...and think of Mr. Fisher...
video

Another Dice Game

2006-11-17T19:07:16Z

All right, I play RPGs. And we use dice. I thought that was strange enough. But dice stacking?

All We Like Sheep

2006-11-03T21:56:22Z

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Perspective

2006-11-03T16:26:24Z

Not long ago, we sold our Jeep and bought a Hynudai sedan. Sometimes I think it's too small to carry what I need. Then I'm reminded that creativity can make up for lack of space.

The Big News

2006-10-11T21:02:55Z

In case we missed you with our mass-mail blast, Melissa, Eleanor, and I welcomed the birth of our newest family member, Amelia Grace, at 2:30 AM today. Mom and Lia are doing great.