Reflection Paper

This is my final reflection paper for my capstone project. Some of it is rehashed from the blog, but if you're interested, give it a read. It has been quite a ride, and this is not the end of my blogging days. Enjoy!

I Came; I Saw; and I Learned

               To say that this senior capstone project was a learning experience would be a complete and total understatement. From it starting out as something completely different and walking in not knowing what exactly I was going to be doing, to the difficulties that arrived as the project went on, I think I’ve learned and grown more from this project more than anything I’ve done here at BW. And while the end result is also something that is difficult to define, I’m very proud of the work I did, and really hope to apply the lessons I’ve learned to projects I take on in the future.

               This project started out as a completely separate job within a completely separate production. Initially, I wanted my senior capstone to be serving as fight captain for Romeo and Juliet. While not getting that position was a difficult pill to swallow at first, it lead to this great opportunity I was given—to choreograph myself for the first time in my life. When Anjanette asked me fight choreograph for Performance Ensemble, I was hesitant at first because I didn’t trust my skill level or expertise to be able to actually put together a fight. At that point I considered myself an actor combatant and a fight captain—someone who performs and maintains what someone else creates. However, I thought back to a few semesters ago when Anjanette had told us to write down our five year goals in Audition Techniques. Ambitious me had written down to fight choreograph a production at BW. That was probably one of the last goals on that list that I actually thought would come true, and here the opportunity was being laid out in front of me. So I took it.

               From the first rehearsal, ideas were pouring from my head. Before we started, Les had us read an article called “After Postdramatic Theatre” by Bernd Stegemann which commented and analyzed the ideas behind post-dramatic theatre. Already, my head was buzzing. I had to sit down and deeply dissect the article before I fully understood it, and what it gave me was a better understanding of what we’re going for as we create devised theatre. Post-dramatic theatre challenges the conventional ways of portraying drama, and deconstructs concepts of character, plot, and story. Pioneers of post-dramatic theatre felt that traditional drama had outgrown the complexity of reality, and that the best way to then “mimic” or imitate reality was to go against expectation. I consider myself to be one who thrives off story; that’s why my favorite aspect of fighting is portraying the story. What this caused me to ask the cast of Performance Ensemble was how CAN you do theatre without story, if our purpose is to imitate and/or educate on the human condition?  Do you really need characters, plot, etc. to truly educate, or can you just hit the audience with seemingly nonsensical symbols and expect them to be wowed?

               While all of this was very intriguing to me, it did lead to a bit of an issue. How do you infuse a fight choreographer into a piece such as this? Fights take time and planning, and most of that planning has to come from figuring out what to story is you’re going to tell.  Also, since there’s not plot, how was I supposed to know what to prepare for? Which scenes or characters I was supposed to use? When talking to Anjanette from the beginning, we always said that we would “just figure it all out.” And as the process started, I was okay with that, but I believe it was this lack of definition that led to me having difficulty serving my purpose in the production.

               I made a choice this semester to hold down not only one, but two jobs while I worked on this show and went to school. One was a weekend job; one was a few nights during the week. I thought I would be okay because I made sure I was able to be at rehearsal at least one night a week. But this process moved very quickly, quicker than I realized, and before I knew it, decisions where being made around my contribution to the piece that I was not involved in. First off, a major fight was going to be changed to a tap piece. I thought to myself “That’s ok. It’ll be interesting, and after all, this is a devised theatre piece.” But then they started to shape the opening fight between the two families, and what I had hoped to be more of a mass battle was now a movement piece with a thirty second section for me to insert a fight. My entire capstone was being boiled down to thirty seconds. I wasn’t happy, but at the end of the day, I couldn’t say anything about it because I felt it was mostly my fault for not making myself more available. Also, because I wasn’t around, I didn’t feel I was able to speak up and give tips on how to perform others parts of the movement piece safer because the cast and artistic staff hadn’t built up a relationship with me. There was probably also a lack of communication on both sides of the coin that made it hard to develop the ideas for the fight all together, but again, I blame this on not defining to role of fight director early on in the production. I have absolutely no hard feelings toward anyone, however. Actually, I’m extremely grateful for to them for reasons that will become clear later.

               All of this aside, I am very proud of all the work I did do on the piece. Tracing it back to the start, I loved being able to share aspects of my art form to this wonderful group of people. It started with the initial discussion I had with everyone about dueling and the idea of honor in the Italian Renaissance. I found two amazing books on the subject of honor and dueling in sixteenth-century Italy: The Point of Honor in Sixteenth-Century Italy:  An Aspect of the Life of the Gentlemen, and The Sixteethn-Century Italian Duel: A Study in Italian Renaissance Social History, both written by Frederick R. Bryson. I spent time dissecting and pulling quotes from these very dense texts to help give the cast an impression of the cultural idea of honor. First, we handed out copies of the “bite your thumb” scene from Act I of R&J (Anjanette’s idea, not mine, to give credit where credit is due.) We assigned parts, and had people read it out loud twice. It helped put me back into the mindset of the play, and give the cast a sense of what we were dealing with. I then asked the very simple question “What is honor?” I got a few slow answers of integrity, virtue, and what others think of you? I used these as a jumping off point to go into my findings from the books. In my own words, I boiled down these ideas, which were based on Aristotle and various writers and thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, to this:

               “Honor is the perception of virtue from others, endowed by humanity, and not nature. A truly               virtuous man does not have honor. He is a hardcore altruist, as opposed to the honorable man’s    softcore altruism. Good reputation vs. doing the right thing.”

The discussion began to liven up. Ideas where thrown back and forth, including a reference to the movie Mulan. I then asked another question “What does honor look like today?” From here, the discussion was taken from me, as the cast began to equate honor with everything from rape to terrorism to going to church as a child. My ideas of honor were challenged as I began to think about how I am constantly worried about how I am perceived by others, and I fear someone having the wrong impression of me and being seen as “dishonorable.”

I wanted to get these ideas of honor in their heads as I went into the next part, which was sharing information on the culture of dueling. In the second of Bryson’s books, which deals specifically with the elements of a duel, he details out an order to things. The basic “order” of things goes as such: an insult, the mentita (or giving of the lie), the challenge, the preparation (including the choosing of the weapons), and then the eventual combat. Now this is a gross over simplification of things, but it gives you the basic gist of how a quote “legal” duel took place during this time period. I say that because the duels fought in R&J go through very little of the process, which would typically include paperwork and legalities, and I believe that raises the stakes of these duels even more.

               As I had been reading through these steps, I remembered that I had heard a similar order of things before as it pertained to dueling, and that came from Dusten Welch, our combat teacher’s, comedy sword fighting duo the Dueling Fools. Having seen them perform once before, and having watched some of their videos I realized I had watched a few before that consisted of the two characters going through the order of things before their duel. So, I pulled the cast into the computer lab and played them the following two videos, so that they could put get some more historical background and, of course, laugh.

               From here came teaching the entire cast weapons basics, in case they were called upon to use them in the show.  Granted, this is my first time ever having to be a teacher in this type of situation. It was interesting to say the least. I worked very hard to put together an outline for the class, and get access to the weapons. On the day of, I was very limited on time, which I understand given that there was so little time for this piece to be pulled together. What I thought would be a three-hour block ended up being an hour and a half. Secondly, I had sixteen people in one room, which is a lot whenever there’s only one of me. I had difficulty seeing everyone, and couldn’t give as many corrections because of this and the time limit. There were some focusing problems, which required me to eventually raise my voice. I guess I’d taken for granted the automatic seriousness that most of my colleagues in this field have towards the art form, and will need to emphasis if I do this again that yes, this is all very fun, but there has to be focus and seriousness because we are dealing with a dangerous medium here. Additionally, I was asked some very interesting questions that I’d never heard of or thought of before, many of which I had no answer. I had to boil it down to having them just trust me because this is the way I’ve learned. If I was more experienced and further down the line in my training, I may have been able to deal with these questions, but alas, I am not and this is all a part of the process. At the end of the night, I was a little bit worried, and took my concerns to Anjanette. She gave me some basic teaching advice which I took to heart, and she assured me that I was doing fine.

               The logical next step of this process was to start to choreograph the fight. At this point, I’d been given my five fighters and the parameters of my scene, and it had become abundantly clear that the ideas I’d crafted to that point were going to have to be abandoned. Initially, I had this grand plan to have the actors generate their own choreography, to keep in the theme of the actor-generated piece I was working on. This was the idea I had initially crafted in order to teach myself how to choreograph for the first time, and if I had more time with the cast and the rehearsal period was longer, I probably would have done it. Instead, I had to dig into my own previous training, as well as ask a lot of advice from my friends in the stage combat world, to be able to begin to put moves together that would tell the story of these characters. Once I dug in, it was actually easier than I thought. I made certain choices based on actor’s ability, such as giving less moves to an actor with less sense of the weapons. I also made in-jokes and choices based on analysis of the character itself, like giving “Tybalt” a punto reverso, and making him the more aggressive character in the fight. The process of teaching the choreography was a challenge because at the end of the day, most of these girls don’t have much fight or movement experience. There were a lot of repeated corrections, and some instances of forgetting choreography. Also, lack of time and absences made it’s difficult to be productive. The girls are very enthusiastic, though, which was a plus and kept me going.

               Once we were able to drill the choreography, the girls really came into their own, and I was extremely proud of them. Also, once we got in tech, they looped my section of music to make it longer, so the girls were able to take their time and it didn’t feel like the fight was being rushed over, which was a main concern of mine. Opening night came, and when the fight started, I sat up in my seat, ready for anything. It started, and I won’t lie, I started tearing up. They rocked it! All the intentions and targets were clear, no one went up on anything, the timing and spacing worked out, and overall, they sold that fight like pros. The reaction and feedback was incredible, and all the hard work that went into putting that little piece of fight choreography together seemed completely and totally worth it.

               The production as a whole was incredibly moving, and I made a point to tell the cast before tech that they had really created something special. I saw all of their fingerprints on the piece, and that is what truly made it beautiful. And thinking about it all now, my fingerprints were on it too. Maybe not as many as I’d hoped, but they were there and not just in the fight section of the show. We all had an impact on everything that happened in the piece, and everyone, myself included, should be extremely proud of what we were all capable of putting together.

               Tacking onto this experience, I infused a lot of what I learned from Performance Ensemble into the movement piece I presented at Testing Ground. I put together a movement study that evolved into bits of my fight choreography, utilizing methods of creating movement that I learned from watching Anjanette work, as well as my previous experience in Sara Whale’s Improv and Choreography class.  I wanted to do something with my initial ideas I’d had for Performance Ensemble, and really be in control of the end result. The end result was basically a loose depiction of a friendship gone awry. Interestingly enough, most of the feedback from the audience consisted of asking what the storyline was. So, I guess, in a way, I’ve come full circle. I started wanting everything to have meaning when it came to telling a story, and I ended leaving people asking themselves what the piece was trying to tell them. In a way, that was a victory for me, personally and artistically.

               So what were the lessons learned? One— it is essential in any production, in any capacity, to define your role, even if that means you end up contributing less than you intended too.  Two— one must have a greater amount of patience when teaching others, especially if it’s a style of movement that they are unfamiliar with. And three—what you get out of a production is what you put into it. This can be said for almost everything in life, but here it is extremely true. I wish that I had truly realized this much earlier on than my senior year, but with every passing day as I reflect on my time here at BW, I believe this. Luckily, my time here isn’t over. I have an entire other production next semester, Dark of the Moon, to hone my skills and apply the lessons I’ve learned, and I can already see myself changing as an artist as I start up this process again. A capstone is supposed to be the culmination of all that you’ve learned while earning your degree, but I think it’s actually taken completing the capstone process for me to realize what the culmination of my time here was really meant to teach me. From here, there’s only really one thing I can do – Fight on.

Testing Ground

The end the semester is nearing, and Testing Ground is tonight. My piece has changed form considerably since I first thought about doing this, but it’s ended up in a place I like. First off, I couldn’t get as many people as I wanted to do the piece, so a lot of my ideas ended up not being doable. But I ended up with two very hard-working girls who have been very willing to go along with me on this short journey. I decided to start the work by leading the girls through a visualization, in a similar manner to how Anjanette assisted the cast of Performance Ensemble in creating work. I started them on the ground in shavasana, or relaxation pose.  Audibly, I led tried to lead them through a journey based on friendship and betrayal. It was a calming and focusing experience for all of us involved. It got my wheels turning, and let me connect with the girls and the material. Once we finished the journey, I had them recreate it through movement, and this movement has become the basis for the beginning of the piece. While they were a little hesitant at first, both my girls have embraced this organic creation of movement/dance, and have both offered up great ideas to help expand the piece. With the rest of the piece, we’ve played with some ideas of fear and survival to lead into a section where they recreate portions of my choreography from Performance Ensemble, but this time without weapons. It’s actually fascinating to watch because while they’re mimicking sword movements, it’s with their hands and arms, so in a way it looks like hand to hand combat. I’m very excited to present it tonight. What I’m going to ask the audience for tonight is for feedback on how I could proceed from here with the piece, if I would chose to for any reason. How I could make the beginning more dynamic, what could I do to continue the piece after the fight, and how I could I work more on incorporating my combat training into dance. I’m also interested to see what other pieces will be presented. This will probably be one of my final blog posts before the end of the project, but I may continue with this blog as I continue on in my combat training. I’ll also try to post some video soon of Performance Ensemble. Stay tuned.

Tech, Opening, and Fighting On

Tech was upon us, and at that point, I was still feeling very overwhelmed and unsure about the fight. For one, the previous week I’d had a rehearsal scheduled that only three of my girls ended up attending because people were leaving for Fall Break. I was upset and so was Anjanette, mostly because there wasn’t a lot of notice, and we were in this last push to get everything put together for the final show. I was trying to resist calling extra rehearsals outside of tech, but I had to put in at least one because I needed to drill them as much as possible. The bright side was, the girls who did show up worked extremely hard trying to fix their issues, and I saw them both taking a lot of initiative to solve their problems themselves. Also, I’ve watched Natalie form into a great fight captain, and trusted her to run fight call when I couldn’t be there.

We came to Monday before tech, and it was the first time I saw the show in its entirety. We worked the spacing of my piece before and during the run, but for the most part, I sat back and watched everything that they had created come together. I have to say, it was an extremely emotional experience. The show had so many funny, moving, deep, cathartic moments, and I frequently found myself in tears. I shared with the cast my feelings after the run. As someone who started this process with them and then ended up getting further removed from it, it was so amazing to see what they created. Each and every one of them had their mark on the piece, and knowing that all of the words, movement, scenes, and emotions came from inside of them caused this cathartic experience. I knew that some of them had struggled in getting the show to the point it was, and they still had a long way to go, but I wanted them to know they had an effect. And were going to have one on everyone they would perform this piece for.

I crammed in a rehearsal to get the fight up to tempo and to work some traffic patterns and everything started to fall into place. Also, once we got in tech, they looped my section of music to make it longer, so the girls were able to take their time and it didn’t feel like the fight was being rushed over, which was a main concern of mine. I showed Dusten a video of the fight, and his reaction was very positive. He gave me a few tips, such as encouraging more vocals, that I passed onto the girls.

Opening night. I ran fight call, gave a few last corrections and tips, and then called the girls in for a huddle. I was so proud of them, and was thankful for the time they were able to put in in addition to all of the other elements of the production they had to work. I drilled them for a reason: I wanted everything to be safe, I wanted them to feel confident, and I wanted to make them look good. With one last hug, I sent them on their way. It was out of my hands.

The show started. Seeing it with all of the tech elements in place made it even more powerful. Eventually it came to my piece. The movement that Cleo, the assistant director and choreographer, had put together was very well-done, and I truly saw that I had served my purpose within the piece. Everything flowed nicely, and it was a very dynamic moment that elicited a lot of reaction from the audience. When the fight itself came, I sat up in my seat, ready for anything. It started, and I won’t lie, I started tearing up. They rocked it! All the intentions and targets were clear, no one went up on anything, the timing and spacing worked out, and overall, they sold that fight like pros. I turned to Cleo afterwards, and gave her hand a squeeze. I had done, they had done it, and the show was a success. I got through my first experience as a fight director, an experience that will definitely inform my work as  I continue on in this field.

The reaction after the show was very enthusiastic. Adam enjoyed the fight, Anjanette’s husband was a big fan, and a friend of mine with previous combat experience said she really appreciated the clean choreography. A video does exist out there, and I will try to post it when I get it. I gave all my girls big hugs, and everyone celebrated a job well-done. I wasn’t able to be at the next performance, so I left it in Natalie’s hands.

All my fighters, except Audrey, who left early.

Now, I’m still planning on putting something together for Testing Ground, so this project isn’t over yet. I have three or four girls that I plan on working with, and even with the limited time frame, I want to put something together. Sara said it can be two to three minutes of material for all she cares… it’s all about works in progress. My plan right now is to approach the piece by exploring the relationships between the characters I had in my fight: Sampson, Gregory, Abram, Mercutio, maybe even Benvolio. I will infuse the choreography sans weapons into the piece, and maybe utilize the shavasana exercise I had planned early on into how we begin creating movement. We shall see. Fight on babes J

Hard Times

I haven’t written in a while, mostly because I’ve been struggling a little bit with getting this fight on its feet. It’s been an interesting few weeks, so I’ll try to recap as best as possible.

               It started with my first rehearsal with just my five fighters. I finished teaching them what I hadn’t gotten to the first day, and then we worked through a piece of basic choreography that eventually became the beginning phrase of the fight. I was told at my next rehearsal that the fight was being put into the context of a larger movement piece that represented the flash between families at the beginning of the show. They gave me a specific part of the music to work with… a part that lasts a total of 30 seconds. I started to get worried here. I’ve been feeling the whole time that I’ve been getting farther and farther away from the piece because my work schedule has limited my availability, and then being only given a small amount of time to work with, with fighters that I didn’t get to choose myself… I just started to feel very out of control.

               I ended up talking to two separate people about my concerns. The first one was Dusten, who explained that there are times in our careers as fight directors, if I were to choose to go down this path, where we won’t have much input. We may be brought in from the beginning, or only have a few hours to put something together. And there are times when we just have to accept that as fact, do our part, and move on. I understand that completely, and I know that the creative team for Performance Ensemble has a vision for the show. This is just where they’ve chosen to put me, and that’s ok. However, in terms for continuing to think of this as my capstone project, I’m not so sure.

               The other person I talked to was Sara Whale, one of my dance teachers and the person I took Improv and Choreography from. I told her about my worries, and she gave me a suggestion for an alternative. We’ve talked for a while about having me do a dance piece incorporating aspects of stage combat movement, and I originally did have an idea in my head for a piece to do at the upcoming Testing Ground presentation of new works. She suggested I take what I’ve put together for this fight, and make it into my own piece to present at Testing Ground. Though I haven’t fully made a decision yet, I’m leaning toward this because it means I can take the end product into my own hands. I wouldn’t use weapons, but flesh out the movement into something bigger. Adam thinks it’s a good idea, so it would just be a matter of finding the right people, and putting it all together.

               With that said, I still have Performance Ensemble to worry about. With some help from some friends and teachers, I started designing the shape and putting together the moves by myself, something I was originally scared of. I have five fighters, so there is a pair of two and then a group of three that fight together. The pair is Tybalt and Benvolio, the trio is Sampson and Gregory vs. Abram. In the context of the piece, they do the dialogue from the “bite your thumb” scene earlier in the movement piece, and then do the fight in a later section. I’m hoping to have someone come in as the Prince to break up the fight so that it reads smoothly. I’ve really enjoyed this process, as I’ve found ways to incorporate moves based off the characters stories and the abilities of the actors.

               The process of teaching the choreography has been a challenge because at the end of the day, most of these girls don’t have much fight or movement experience. There have been a lot of repeated corrections, and some instances of forgetting choreography. Also, lack of time and absences mean it’s difficult to be productive. The moves are taught; it’s just about drilling them now, and getting them up to speed in time for the show. The girls are very enthusiastic, though, which is a plus and keeps me going.

               It’s time to buckle down, and get the work done. I’m having Dusten look at video of fights to give me tips, and just need to keep my head in the game. Fighting on is the only way to get to the end J

"Isn't This Counter-Productive?"

Last Wednesday, I had my first rehearsal with the cast where I starting teaching them weapon basics, and it was…. Interesting. Challenging, but enlightening. I knew that it would be hard, and did feel like I was in over my head at times, but overall, the reaction was positive.

               It broke down like this. First, I had put together an outline to go off of, and submitted it to both Dusten, my stage combat teacher, and Adam, the Chair of the Department and my capstone advisor. That outline looked something like this:

History of the Weapon

Parts of the Weapon

On-Guard

·             Stance

·             How to Hold Weapons

Defenses

·             Rapier Parries – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5a, 7

·             Dagger Parries

·             Blade Paths

Offenses

·             Cuts – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

·              Thrusts

Safety Speech

·             Distance

·             Eye Contact

·             Targeting

·             Casting the Energy

·             CDA or CRAP

Partnering

·             Pairing Up

·             Rapier Parries

·             Dagger Parries

·             Same Side Parries

·             Cross Body Parries

Footwork

·             Pass Forward/Back

·             Advance/Retreat

·             Cross/Slip

·             Thwart – Diagonal/90

·              Lunge

Choreography

·             1 5 2 3 5 2

*Additional Time

·             Parallel, Cross, Reinforced Parries

·             Pris de fer – Croise, Bind, Envelopment

·             Slashes

·             Punto reverse/mandriti

Now, half of this outline only makes sense to me, and trust me, my personal notes were even worse. Now, thought this may look well-rounded and well thought out… only made it through a little over half of it. Why? Multiple reasons.

               First off, I was very limited on time, which I understand given that there’s so little time for this piece to be pulled together. What I thought would be a three-hour block ended up being an hour and a half. Secondly, I had sixteen people in one room, which is a lot whenever there’s only one of me. I had difficulty seeing everyone, and couldn’t give as many corrections because of this and the time limit. There were some focusing problems, which required me to eventually raise my voice. I guess I’d taken for granted the automatic seriousness that most of my colleagues in this field have towards the art form, and will need to emphasis when I do this again that yes, this is all very fun, but there has to be focus and seriousness because we are dealing with a dangerous medium here. Additionally, I was asked some very interesting questions that I’d never heard of or thought of before, many of which I had no answer. I had to boil it down to having them just trust me because this is the way I’ve learned. If I was more experienced and further down the line in my training, I may have been able to deal with these questions, but alas, I am not and this is all a part of the process.

               At the end of the night, I was a little bit worried, and took my concerns to Anjanette. She gave me some basic teaching advice which I will try to take to heart, and assured me that I was doing fine. They had to move on to continue their run of the piece, so I left and began to form a plan for the next time. As of earlier this week, I’ve been given five fighters, so automatically, that makes the rest of the process easier. I was worried because of the challenge of teaching the weapon that I would maybe have to abandon some of my earlier plans, but I think that I can salvage it now that I know who I’m dealing with. I plan to finish the rest of the training, which isn’t much when it gets down to it, then have them play with a stock choreography phrase that was loaned to me by Dusten. Next, I would like to have them do a shavasana exercise that I had originally planned to help them get into the mindset of the fight, and then continue on to start devising the choreography together.

I’m available more next week, so I’m hoping to finally get this thing on its feet. It’s been difficult because of my jobs outside of school, which limit me to coming to only one rehearsal a week. And I feel like I’ve been getting a little disconnected with the project itself, while still focusing on my role within it. I know everyone is stressed and overwhelmed, especially with R&J opening soon, but I’m having my worries that I’m trying to quench by just continually revising my plan. Fingers crossed. Until next time, fight on J

What is Honor?

I had my first discussion with the cast of Performance Ensemble tonight, and I have to say that I am so lucky to be working with such intelligent, active-thinking people as a part of this project. They’ve already put together so many ideas in such few rehearsals, and this is already shaping up to be an incredible piece. But I had no doubts based on my impressions of the piece last year, and my admiration for Anjanette and her way of working. I came in with my basic agenda, and she let me take it on, participating in the discussion herself as we discussed one of the most interesting themes that I believe is present in Romeo & Juliet… honor.

               As I stated in my last post, I found two amazing books on the subject of honor and dueling in sixteenth-century Italy, and have spent the past few days dissecting and pulling quotes from these very dense texts to help give the cast an impression of the cultural idea of honor. First, we handed out copies of the “bite your thumb” scene from Act I of R&J (Anjanette’s idea, not mine, to give credit where credit is due.) We assigned parts, and had people read it out loud twice. It helped put me back into the mindset of the play, and give the cast a sense of what we were dealing with. I then asked the very simple question “What is honor?” I got a few slow answers of integrity, virtue, and what others think of you? I used these as a jumping off point to go into my findings from the books. In my own words, I boiled these ideas, which were based on Aristotle and various writers and thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, to this:

               “Honor is the perception of virtue from others, endowed by humanity, and not nature. A truly virtuous man does not have honor. He is a hardcore altruist, as opposed to the honorable man’s softcore altruism. Good reputation vs. doing the right thing.”

The discussion began to liven up. Ideas where thrown back in forth, including a reference to the movie Mulan. I then asked another question “What does honor look like today?” From here, the discussion was taken from me, as the cast began to equate honor with everything from rape to terrorism to going to church as a child. My ideas of honor were challenged as I began to think about how I am constantly worried about how I am perceived by others, and I fear someone having the wrong impression of me and being seen as “dishonorable.” I recorded the entire conversation, and may try to post it on here if I can figure it out.

               I wanted to get these ideas of honor in their heads as I went into the next part, which was sharing information on the culture of dueling. In the second of Bryson’s books, which deals specifically with the elements of a duel, he details out an order to things. The basic “order” of things goes as such: an insult, the mentita (or giving of the lie), the challenge, the preparation (including the choosing of the weapons), and then the eventual combat. Now this is a gross over simplification of things, but it gives you the basic gist of how a quote “legal” duel took place during this time period. I say that because the duels fought in R&J go through very little of the process, which would typically include paperwork and legalities, and I believe that raises the stakes of these duels even more.

               As I had been reading through these steps, I remembered that I had heard a similar order of things before as it pertained to dueling, and that came from Dusten, our combat teacher’s, comedy sword fighting duo the Dueling Fools. Having seen them perform once before, and having watched some of their videos I realized I had watched a few before that consisted of the two characters going through the order of things before their duel. So, I pulled the cast into the computer lab and played them the following two videos, so that they could put get some more historical background and, of course, laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMceFwQAyZM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ph6qBPgOQ

               And that’s where I ended my time at rehearsal. I had originally planned to discuss another topic after I showed them the video, but I ran out of time, so that will have to be saved for another rehearsal. Anjanette is giving me more of a shape of what she wants, and we discussed how to include some of the ideas spawned from today into the piece. In the meantime, the plan is to start teaching them weapon basics next Wednesday, and continue on in the process. It’s time for me to now not think about dueling for the first time in a few days. Fight on J

Do You Bite Your Thumb at Me, Sir?

The semester is in full swing, and Kleist is constantly buzzing at night as all three fall shows rehearse simultaneously. It’s an exhilarating feeling to be a part of the action, and everyone is working so hard already. Rehearsals started for Performance Ensemble Wednesday before last, and since then I’ve been trying to put together a game plan for how to assemble the fights within the show. Since the first rehearsal, I’ve only been able to pop back in a few times to talk to Anjanette and Les about my ideas, but from what I’ve seen and heard, it’s a great group of people that have proven themselves already to be able to jump up and create beautiful work on the spot. I’m hoping this will help me later on in the process.

               From the first rehearsal, ideas having been pouring from my head. Before we started, Les had us read an article called “After Postdramatic Theatre” by Bernd Stegemann which commented and analyzed the ideas behind post-dramatic theatre. Already, my head was buzzing. I had to sit down and deeply dissect the article before I fully understood it, and what it gave me was a better understanding of what we’re going for as we create devised theatre. Post-dramatic theatre challenges the conventional ways of portraying drama, and deconstructs concepts of character, plot, and story. Pioneers of post-dramatic theatre felt that traditional drama had outgrown the complexity of reality, and that the best way to then “mimic” or imitate reality was to go against expectation. I consider myself to be one who thrives off story; that’s why my favorite aspect of fighting is portraying the story. What this caused me to ask the cast of Performance Ensemble was how CAN you do theatre without story, if our purpose is to imitate and/or educate on the human condition?  Do you really need characters, plot, etc. to truly educate, or can you just hit the audience with seemingly nonsensical symbols and expect them to be wowed? I recall having similar discussions during my Improv and Choreography class last May Term in terms of how to create dance choreography. What was even more interesting was that when we viewed a piece of post-dramatic theatre, a piece called No Dice put on by the Nature Theatre of Chicago, we were all intrigued and frustrated at the same time at the nonsensical, conflicting images and sounds we were taking in. It was seemingly random and haphazard, yet I couldn’t look away. I think the intrigue of post-dramatic theatre, and outwardly nonsensical works of art is that we as humans have an inner need to figure things out, to give what we’re seeing a justification, or reason, or… a plot. And that no matter what we end up putting on stage, the audience will end up taking something away based on the formation of this “plot” in their brain.

               Now, how does all this information fit into my role as Fight Director for this piece? Good question. I’m not positive exactly how this relates to how my ideas began form, but suddenly a process started to take form in my head. To preface everything here, I’m approaching this project as one who has never fight choreographed. I’ve put together small bits of dance choreography, but most of my fight experience up to this point has been created by another and executed by me. So, how does one create work when you’ve only been trained in how to do?

               Sidenote: Anjanette has asked me to focus on the opening fight as opposed to the Mercutio/Tybalt/Romeo duel later because the way the piece is shaping up, that scene is going in the direction of tap shoes. I loved devised work J

               First off, research. Currently, I’ve been trying to find more information of the culture of dueling within sixteenth-century Italy. Luckily, I’ve come across two books written by Frederick R. Bryson: The Point of Honor in Sixteenth-Century Italy:  An Aspect of the Life of the Gentlemen, and The Sixteethn-Century Italian Duel: A Study in Italian Renaissance Social History. This is helping me give context to the time period in terms of how violence played a role in the day to day life. Additionally, one of the most important aspects of a fight to me is not just technique and accurate use of the weapon, but that there is an accurate story being portrayed. For this, and other help in the realm of fight choreography, I’m obtaining a copy of Fight Directing for Theatre by J Allen Suddeth, a recognized Fight Master in the SAFD.

               Fun fact: so far, I've found that there's no real historical record of the biting of the thumb gesture. From what I can tell, it's origin is Shakespeare. That makes putting the gesture into context a bit more challenging, and as it is the impetus of the fight of the fight, we may have to get creative.

               My research will continue throughout the process of course, but next my plan is to have a discussion, or series of discussions with the cast of Performance Ensemble. I plan on giving them a background on dueling and the weapons, and then pose questions to them on concepts of honor and violence. I’m also trying to put together an exercise where I have them visualize a fight from start to finish with a fictional partner, and then see what develops from there. Anjanette leads them through similar exercises during most rehearsals, so I’m going to ask her for some assistance in putting this together. Overall, I just want them to realize that a fight is not just a series of moves. It is a conflict that becomes physical based on many psychological variables. A fight does not just happen.

               The next, and sort of the most daunting/crazy aspect of my plan right now, is that I want the actors to try to generate choreography. After all, this is what is referred to as an actor-generated piece.  But what’s that you say? How can a group of untrained actor combatants create choreography when they’ve most likely never picked up a weapon? Well, my first step to proving this question wrong is to drill them on the weapons themselves. We don’t have huge amounts of time, but I plan on spending at least one rehearsal, or however much time Anjantette can spare me, drilling basics with the cast. I’ve put together an outline for a basic Rapier and Dagger class that I’ve already had Dusten review, and hope that I can impart to them enough knowledge of the weapon to make the next step possible. I plan on then giving pairs of partners a starting position or move (or an ending or middle position position/move). Then, having them use the concepts of targeting, martial force, and storytelling, I want them to start piecing together choreography. I may give them actual characters, or I may just let them go until they decide who wins. I may do something like assign on character to be a fighter, and the other to be a nonfighter, and see what happens. It could go anywhere.

               Or it could be a complete disaster. And it very well might be. And if it turns out that way, at least I’ll have a place to start. As I learned from May Term last year, video everything. I could use what went right or didn’t go right as a jumping off point to solidify my own choreography, or maybe they will actually come up with something brilliant and my job will be cleaning up and making things safe. That’s my major purpose, though, to make things safe. The second I see something go wrong during this process, I will scratch it and change tactics because no one’s life or career is worth losing over my ambitious brain. This project excites me and scares me every time I think about, but dreams aren’t worth following if they don’t terrify you in the process. So this is where I’m at so far. Time to get to work, and start fighting the good fight. So fight on! J

Senior Year Starts

The school year has started! Obviously, I’ve fallen off with blogging after Nationals, mostly because I grew distracted with upcoming preparations for the school year, as well as enjoying my last weeks of freedom before the start of senior year. Here’s a quick update: All three of my SPTs went very well, though I made sure to document how I felt about each one before and after in my personal journal. Overall, I had a feeling that Tyson and I definitely didn’t fail any of them. About a week after we left, the results for the Basic workshop were posted on our SAFD profiles, and… I passed all three! Basic passes for all three of the weapons, which in my mind is a great place for me to start as I continue this journey as a combatant. After renewing my membership, which I will do once I acquire the funds, I will be officially considered an Actor Combatant. Excuse me while I cartwheel in excitement…

Ok, I’m back. Anyway, post-Nationals I went home feeling sad about having to leave such a loving and stimulating environment. I always have fear when I leave experiences like this that I will lose the magic and feeling of love that I have for the art form, but here I am over a month later and I’m still going strong. I made several decisions following Nationals concerning what I wanted to focus on my last year hear at BW. I choose to drop my music minor, which was a very tough decision, and instead focus on moving as much as possible. I picked up another dance class, I’m finding places for study martial arts in the area, I want to take an anatomy class next semester, and overall I just wanted to focus on my projects more than an overwhelming amount of schoolwork.   I couldn’t be happier with the decision.

As I start up this semester, I have quite a few opportunities coming up to continue to practice stage combat, the first one obviously being working on my senior capstone project as a part of the Performance Ensemble devised piece. After auditions, it was decided that I would concentrate on my role as Fight Director for the piece, as opposed to taking on a role within it. Anjanette Hall and Les Hunter have gathered together a fantastic group, and I can’t wait to start. Additionally, I am TAing for the Stage Combat class BW is offering this semester, assisting Dusten Welch, our choreographer from Henry IV and Romeo and Juliet and someone who has been very helpful to me throughout my journey these past few years. Our first class was yesterday, and I’m beyond excited to work with these great people and work with our brand new weapons from Rouge Steel! Also, I’m trying to find opportunities to shadow choreographers in the area. A full plate, and that’s not even the half of it!

So there’s a quick update. I plan on exploring some of the topics I’ve mentioned before soon, as well as talk a little bit more about the last weeks of Nationals before I delve into details of Performance Ensemble. Thanks for reading! Fight on J

Testing Day Tomorrow

I didn't get to do a Week #2 update because it's been so crazy here, but I promise once we're done and I'm back home with nothing to do but miss fight camp, I'll be posting some more about my experiences. For now, it's the night before we test in our weapons. It's been a long, exhausting, and frustrating road. My body and mind are both telling me what the hell are you doing, but they're also telling me that they don't want to stop. I'm excited/nervous for the tests tomorrow. Tyson, my SPT partner, and I have had hit and miss (pun intended) moments with each fight. Tomorrow could go any way. Our fight masters have been so supportive and helpful, and it's amazing about the outpouring of love and affections that is coming our way from the extended fight community. The only thing I know about tomorrow is that I have three killer scenes that I get to perform with an awesome partner in front of people I've come to know and love. If we fail, we fail. If we don't get  Recommended, we deal with it, and move on. But I want to have the time of my life tomorrow, and that's what I plan doing. I love this art form, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it that I have left. So wish us all of the broken legs! Fight on.

Week #1 Update - Knives, Swords, Knees, and Captain America

So we have reached the beginning of week #2, and I have yet to keel over or cut off a limb, so therefore I will consider it a success. It has been a jam-packed ride, with constant classes and masterclasses. I’ve been meeting some great people, from fight masters to fellow classmates, who come from a variety of different backgrounds and skill levels.

The basis of my part of this workshop is that we are working toward passing our Skills Proficiency Tests (SPTs) in three different weapons: unarmed, rapier and dagger, and broadsword. You must pass three SPTs in order to achieve Actor Combatant status within the SAFD. Now these SPTs are not “certifications.” They are merely acknowledgements that you have completed 30 hours of training in a particular weapon, and successfully performed a fight scene for the public which has been adjudicated by a fight master. There are two types of passes: Basic and Recommended, basic being a general acknowledgement of skills, and recommended meaning that you are able to successful perform the weapon and act the scene. After all, we are actor combatants. Additionally, these SPTs are only good for three years before they have to be renewed.

Our days basically consist of four classes a day: the three weapons we test in, and then an additional class so we may gain hours toward other weapons. Last week was knife, this week will be quarterstaff, and the final week, we’re told, will be dedicated to working on our SPTs. Night classes vary. Tuesday, we did a class about acting within a fight, taught by Fight Director Christina Traister, choosing specific characters to embody as we performed neutral choreography. Wednesday was Captain America Shield, taught by NSCW Coordinator and Certified Teacher, H. Russ Brown. Yes, we learned how to punch shields as if we were Captain America. I wore my Captain America boxers and everything. I videoed the fight my partner and I eventually put together, so I will try to post it if I can. It was pretty epic. Thursday, we watched the Advanced Actor Combatants SPRS (Skills Proficiency Renewals), which I’ll discuss later. Friday was a class about the up and coming medium of motion capture, taught by Certified Teacher Andrew Ray (A Ray). We created characters physically, as A Ray instructed us on the process of a motion capture shoot. While it may not necessarily be something I’d want to pursue right off the bat, I’d never really heard about that area of stuntwork and acting before. All of the classes have been helping me think about more than just executing moves as I fight.

Of all of our regular classes, I’ve been having very different experiences with all of them. First off, I have found knife to be a fascinating weapon. I took one workshop in it last year, but it’s one of the weapons I have the least experience in. A Ray is also our teacher for knife, and has a very Zen approach to the weapon. I considered his class to be the most calming. Not exactly what you’d expect when you have a knife in your hand. From the first day, I’ve realized how much of an intimate weapon it is. If you think about, like we do here, in order to stab or cut someone, you have to get as close to them as possible. The weapon, an extension of us, is extremely short. The distance required to execute the style of the weapon is significantly reduced from that of any type of sword, and in relation to unarmed, you are literally cutting to the inside of a person, as opposed to hitting them on the surface. To quote A Ray, “It’s the one weapon that goes in and doesn’t come out the other side.” The movement, as I said before, was very Zen, so I venture to call this a very sensual weapon. These are just the musings of a first times student, so please feel free to discuss this with me further, as I’m always interested in dialogue.

Moving to swords, the contrast between rapier and dagger and broadsword makes for interesting transitions as we move from one to the other throughout the day. The first day with both weapons was an odd experience for me. Being that I’ve had more experience with broadsword, I figured I would slip into it rather smoothly. The opposite ended up being true, as I felt rather clunky and awkward as we went through the basics. On the reverse of that, I picked up rapier rather quickly the first day. However, as the week moved on, I found broadsword coming to me easier, and rapier requiring more thought. When it comes to these two weapons, the techniques to handle them are kind of the opposite of what you’d expect. You’d think a broadsword, what is considered a “heavy weapon,” would take more muscle. In actuality, the counterweight of the handle on a broadsword makes is flow rather nicely, and doesn’t take near as much effort to manipulate, as long as you stay relaxed and in control. Rapier, on the other hand, has been requiring a little more muscle to it in order to keep it in control. I like switching from one to the other. It keeps me on my toes. Also keeping me on my toes are Fight Master Scott Mann, my broadsword teacher, and Fight Master Michael Chin, my rapier and dagger teacher. I think it took me some time to adjust to Scott’s teaching style, and maybe that is why I struggled at first, but I’ve melded to his approach and am feeling strongest in this weapon at this point. He also has great stories from his history in stuntwork that help put what we’re doing into context in both film and theatre. I’d taken a R&D workshop from Fight Master Chin a few years ago, so I feel back into his methods fairly quick. He gave us a quick history in weapons our first day, which has helped me put weapons in historical context as we move forward in this workshop.

Lastly, unarmed has been quite an experience. I walked into this workshop feeling that this was my weakest weapon. I’ve never done it in a show, and any workshop I’ve taken, I’ve just felt a little awkward. I don’t come from a martial arts background, and I struggle when it comes to reacting to getting “hit,” probably because I’ve never actually been hit. Fight Master Dale Girard has been very good about teaching us techniques in a manner so that we know what we would be trying to do martially, and then how we are adjusting that so that we can do it theatrically without getting hurt. What I’ve noticed about myself, especially in unarmed, is that I am a very footwork oriented person. If the feet aren’t working, nothing’s working. So in unarmed, I’ve been taking it very slow in order to correctly position myself so that the move can be executed without the audience seeing “the trick,” as Dale calls it, and I’ve been lucky to have great partners who are willing to work with my pace. I’m starting to pick it up quicker, though, as the class goes on. We’ve also moved onto contact hits, including punches and kicks, so at least I’m getting a little experience in being hit. I’m still struggling with reactions, so I brought this to Dale, and he’s promised that we will be breaking those down as we start moving on. We’ll be doing falls and rolls later this week, so hopefully I can learn something that can later apply to dance as well.

As I stated before, Thursday we watched the AACW do their SPRs. These are students on the next level in this process. They have already acquired weapons through SPTs, and are working towards obtaining all 8 recognized weapons in the SAFD. They spent their first few days here learning the fights for their renewals. I’m glad we got the experience to watch that before we went into our process of learning our SPTs because it gave us an idea of what we were in for. SPRs are shorter that SPTs, and require less moves, so watching these fights got me both scared and excited for what was to come. All of the fights done that night were passed, but Fight Master Chin emphasized to us in class that there were several reasons why certain fights only got basic passes, such as bad partnering skills, high targeting, and other mistakes that should not be being made at the level the advanced students are supposed to be at. We’ve already started learning our choreography loosely some of our classes, with the fight masters infusing that learning experience into exercises. We were told today to start picking our partners for our SPTs, and I was able to find one who I’ve worked with well in the past here. Tyson is his name, and we’ve got an interesting ride ahead of us.

It’s been a struggle at times getting through this week, fighting through physical exhaustion, fatigue, and dehydration. I’ve also been experiencing a new type of injury I’ve never had before: knees. Around Friday, I started to feel an off twinge in my knee during knife class. By broadsword I was worried, so I asked to sit down. I didn’t want to be one of those people who ignores an injury only to further injure themselves because they didn’t take preventative measures. I was given ice, and examined by our First Aid Intern, Rachel Stubbs, and she told me my patella tendon was a little swollen. I got a knee brace, and was told to take small breaks during my classes to rest. It’s been a few days, and I’m still feeling it, though it does not feel worse. However, my other knee has been feeling the strain of compensation, so I’m babying both of them when I’m not in class. The worse part has been sitting out. I hate missing class, and it’s worse to sit there and try to absorb when you can’t do, especially in such a physical art form. It’s also difficult when you feel that sitting out makes you appear weak, and unable to handle the stresses of the art form. That being said, I’ve had an outpouring of support from the staff and my friends here. They understand this is a very difficult experience to get through, and they have all been there when it comes to nursing an injury. We fight over a stretch of about nine hours per day, and we do this six days a week for three weeks. I’ve never done workshops like this that are longer than two days. This is when your body will show itself. Today, one of the fight masters talked to me about this, and said that my knowing when to sit makes appear more smart than weak, so after that, I’m starting to feel a little bit better.

So after a day of rest yesterday, where I learned to crack whips from some friends, we’ve started on week two, and I’m ready to go. I’m making great friends, and picking up great bits of wisdom here and there about everything from Romeo and Juliet to Thai boxing. As H. Russ always says, EXCELSIOR!!!

 

Mildly Narcissistic Introductory Post

               For those of you hoping that this blog would reveal some wisdom on how to wear insanely high heels and slaughter the masses, I’m sorry to say you may be in the wrong place. My name is Rachel Hoffpauir, and instead this blog is the means by which I am documenting my experience this summer at the SAFD National Stage Combat Workshop.

               To put this experience into context, here’s a brief history. I hail originally for Paden City, WV, and managed to discover my love of theatre around junior high, predominantly due to repeated exposure to the movie version of the musical Rent and a deep seated need to live like the people I saw on the TV. I lived in an area where, at the time, there wasn't a lot of exposure to the arts, and ended up transferring schools before my freshman year of high school in order to follow my interest in theatre. I eventually graduated top of my class, and was lucky enough to get thrown right into the world of professional theatre. I spent my first summer out of high school as an intern at a place called Theatre WV, an outdoor historical drama located in the southern part of the state. An amazing experience which exposed me to more advanced theatre training and the rigors of summer stock, it was also here that I first saw stage combat put into context. Of course I’d taken workshops at various theatre conferences and camps, but here was where I first saw, for lack of a more eloquent term, how AWESOME stage fighting could be.

My freshman year of college took place at West Virginia University, though I eventually transferred for Baldwin Wallace University after finding it to be better fit for where I wanted to take myself as an artist. The following summer, I worked as a company member at another outdoor drama, Trumpet in the Land, and became assistant fight captain after volunteering on a whim. Going into my first year at BW, I found myself being pulled in multiple directions (acting, singing, dancing, business, etc.), but struggled to find a through line, a sort of common denominator or specialty that could pull all of these experiences together within a liberal arts education. That’s when I turned to stage combat again. I started going to workshops on my own time, plus taking any opportunity I could through my department to learn more about the world of stage combat, and also sharpen my skills. I’ll discuss exactly why I felt the draw toward combat in another post, but to sum it all up, doing combat just felt right. In fall of this past year, I was lucky enough to be cast as Douglas and Mortimer in my department’s production of Henry IV Part One. In addition to fighting extensively within the show, I served as fight captain. Doing that show helped solidify my want to attend this workshop, and work to gain my proficiencies and Actor Combatant status within the SAFD.

So why am I blogging? First off, I’ve found that chronicling your adventures through journaling or blogging helps enhance an experience, and also gives you something to be responsible to while you in the middle of a journey. Most importantly, however, I am going into my senior year at BW, and as a part of our course of study, we are required to complete a capstone project. I have been blessed with the opportunity to fight choreograph for an upcoming devised theatre piece based on the themes in Romeo and Juliet. Requirements for the capstone project dictate that we keep a blog. Since I figured that my experience here at Nationals will influence a lot of what that project will eventually be, I've decided to start the blog early in order to incorporate it into the final product. Do I know what this blog will eventually be? The beauty of it is that I don’t know. Being that my eventual project will be a devised piece, it can go any way, but in the meantime, I intend to explore any topic that becomes of interest to me while I’m here. Off the top of my head, I hope to include musings on fighting styles, history of the medium, gender, and the idea of storytelling within violence, as well as associated research. I've sacrificed a lot to get to this place, so I’m excited to make the most of it in any way I can. I could post five times a day, or I could post once a week for all I know, but this being a new experience, I’m ready for anything. So, extremely loyal followers, I hope you’re ready to strap in and go on this journey with me because it’s time to stop being polite and start throwing down J Classes start tomorrow!