Creative ways to help actors acquire stage combat techniques

When my mindset is stimulated and engaged the capacity to deepen and broaden my skill set is enhanced – Creative ways to help actors acquire stage combat techniques

“When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity. The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow – you are not understanding yourself.” Bruce Lee

Around 1998 I was exploring and advocating for a different form of delivery in stage combat from purely an acquisition of techniques to a process-based form of tuition. What do I mean by process-based?  In simple terms: utilising seemingly unrelated exercises, movement patterns and forms of exploration to gain insight and understanding of the combative arts; think ‘wax on / wax off’. My objectives and goals were still the acquisition of the skill stage combat. However, my pathway to that procurement of that skill set was geared towards concepts and principles. This line of enquiry eventually became the backbone of my MFA.

Why would I do this? The primary driver: Actors in an acting institution environment are adult learners and often have no combat knowledge and or experience. As such I generally observed actors had an inability to get their heads around combative techniques and sequencing that were extremely foreign to their bodies. As a result, the agitator in me was railing against subjecting creative people to learning techniques by mechanical rote. What I started out with was a simple enough objective – develop a process-based approach. But as my method and pedagogical development evolved it became convoluted.

What exacerbated my development was that stage combat itself was evolving. This blossoming evolution of stage combat was in hindsight a wonderful time in the development of modern stage combat. My observation of the progression of stage combat can be attributed to several major factors.

•       The number of practitioners around the globe was growing at a rapid rate


•      Those new teachers of stage combat were coming out of their exposure to stage combat via acting school as opposed to traditional pathways; that of the fencer/actor


• The inclusion of the study and application done on old fighting manuals and systems was booming – the likes of Payson Burt and Brad Waller spring to mind.


•          Industry demands through various styles becoming fashionable (Krav & Kali as an example)

The skill set itself had started to become vast and unwieldy. So much so that the current dilemma faced by any stage combat guild or society developing a stage combat syllabus is the daunting task of how to deliver so many martial systems. Which is why for me the old notion of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced may need to be rethought – but I will leave that for another blog!

There was a time where we, by we I mean western theatre stage combat teachers just had; unarmed, rapier & dagger (I’ll include case, buckler and cloak here), small sword, quarterstaff, sword & shield and old school broadsword. It was simple and linear. The complication of the vast number weapons systems galvanised my personal pursuit. Simultaneously my study with the work Brad Waller was doing highlighted to me I was on the right path. 

The field of study is now too wide and diverse for any simple stage combat system. The conclusion I came to was that I needed a martial systems-based approach combined with a movement process-based methodology. So now I focus on common martial concepts across all systems, the ranges of movements expressed through these martial forms combined with the extended development of gross and fine motor skills through patterns and sequencing. 

Which meant I renewed my objectives and goals when teaching stage combat. Primary goal: develop an actor who can be placed in any cultural, stylistic or timeline demand and have an adaptable platform that can acclimatize to the needs and demands of both the story and the fight director. Secondary goal is to create an inbuilt safety operating system in the actor. Based on these deeper approaches to movement forms and combat systems. This approach is about developing an actor who is operating at a higher safety frequency and recognises when things are not right or not safe. A pre-emptive mindset that recognises glitches in a choreographic matrix through heighten situational awareness. Eye contact, cue and safe distance are great as a baseline safety, but those basic introductions to safety understandings are making big assumptions that actors can function well under pressure and when things go wrong. They don’t factor in unsafe anomalies. Baseline plus glitches equals informed decisions.

As a comparison exercise let’s look at someone like Dr. Keith R. Kernspecht a sports scientist and combatology expert who has been practicing martial arts since 1958. In a paper he presented to the Ido Movement for Culture - Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology he was presenting an argument on the ideas surrounding self-defence. What was interesting to me in Dr. Kernspecht paper was his advocation for developing “non-specific training in general, basic capabilities such as consciousness, flexibility, balance, physical unity, sensual perception (especially tactile), timing, sense of distance and most particularly the development of fighting spirit and familiarisation with the effects of adrenalin is of great importance for the development of a self-defence capability.”  

Here we can see someone also on a similar journey. Looking for a simple system. A system that is adaptable and applicable, fluid not fixed. Fluidity and simplicity are what I am chasing. Systems of combative arts and forms of movements that allows me to fully explore myself and my students too, stretch my abilities and enhance my capabilities rather than being locked into a number of set siloed stage combat syllabi. 

to be continued...