After
lunch, the campers were treated to a fight choreography workshop with Jeremy, a
fight instructor who has previously acted on the Blackfriars stage, and
frequently as fight captain. Jeremy first explained that safety is fight
choreography’s number one priority. The key to safety is to maintain open
communication between the attacker and the victim, and to perform the
choreography at a slow speed until the actors commit the hits and moves to
muscle memory. Campers partnered up, and Jeremy taught how to check a safe
distance before commencing with fight moves.
Once separated into partners, the campers
learned Step One of pre-hit prep. Partner A (the attacker) was instructed to
reach out as far out in front as possible with his/her arm. Partner B (the
victim or defender) was instructed to put his/her thumb to his/her chest and,
forming the hand in the “hang loose” position, was to reach his/her pinky as
far out in front as possible. If Partner A’s hand could touch Partner B’s
pinky, then the partners were too close together and needed to move father
apart. Optimally, Partner A’s hand should almost,
but not quite, touch Partner B’s pinky. Step Two of pre-hit prep is eye
contact, which establishes that the attacker is ready to hit, and that the
victim is ready to be hit. After establishing safe distance and eye contact,
the campers were prepared to learn their first fight move.
Jeremy began by teaching a simple
proscenium slap. Partner A was to swipe at Partner B with the palm of his/her
hand (at the safe distance). Partner B was to respond as if he/she had been
hit, and produce the nap of the hit by clapping at the chest. The nap is made
by one of the actors at the instant of a choreographed hit to simulate the
sound of an actual hit. After learning the basics of the slap, the partners
practiced at Matrix slow-motion speed
for several minutes, and then were instructed to speed up when both partners
felt comfortable. Thereafter the haymaker punch—the same as the proscenium slap, only produced with a fist rather than an open hand—was taught, and the partners switched
roles to practice it. Several additional points about fight choreography were brought up after
the campers practiced the punch.
As Jeremy explained to the young actors,
the reaction to the hit is even more important than the hit itself. The
victim’s responsibility is to effectively communicate to the audience that
they’ve indeed been hurt, precisely how they’ve been hurt, and how badly they've been
hurt. The attacker aides the victim by producing a bigger prep—raising the fist
or hand higher and more dramatically—for a bigger hit. These rules, of course,
do not apply to real life. For instance, real fighting—such as fencing or martial
arts—relies on speed. Presentation, however, is the priority of fighting on the
stage. The actors are charged with telling a story, not fighting like real
fighters.
After going over these concepts with the
campers, Jeremy taught them an uppercut punch, which requires the
attacker, rather than the victim, to produce the nap. The campers practiced the
uppercut at the customary slow speed. When the group seemed comfortable with
all three hits—the proscenium slap, the haymaker punch, and the uppercut—Jeremy
gave them ten minutes to “choreograph” a fight scene using all three. Everyone
responded to this task with gusto. One pair even created a dramatic backstory
involving stolen cookies. The result was a (controlled) frenzy of hits and fake broken noses.
The workshop with Jeremy taught the
young actors that fight choreography, while exciting, is no joking matter.
Discipline, communication, trust, and focus are all required to ensure a safe
and effective fight onstage. The campers learned all of these elements to
better understand how fight choreography is treated in professional settings, such
as the Blackfriars Playhouse. Now, when they see a choreographed fight at the ASC, they will better appreciate the hard work that was required to make it effective.
-Lee Ann Hoover, Education and Dramaturgy Intern
