Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Fight Master Magazine The Society of American Fight Directors Winter 2008 The Fight Master, Fall/Winter 2008, Vol. 31 Issue 2 The Society of American Fight Directors Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/fight Part of the Acting Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the Theatre History Commons THE www.safd.org FFall/WinterIGHT 2008 JournalJournal of of the theM Society Society of ofASTER American American Fight Fight Directors Directors Dynamic Gunplay The Sounds of Violence Towards A Dramaturgy of Stage Combat David Boushey: Closing Distance Swashbuckling for the Silver Screen PRSRT STD FORWARDING &RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED US Postage PAID Bartlett, IL Permit No. 51 THE 2009 NATIONAL STAGE COMBpresentedAT byWORKSHOPS The Society of American Fight Directors and The University of North Carolina School of the Arts July 5 - July 24, 2009 INTRODUCTION TO STAGE COMBAT (ISC) Immerse yourself in introductory courses in all eight disciplines recognized by the Society of American Fight Directors. Explore stage violence ranging from unarmed combat to sword and shield battles! Enrollment is open to professionals, college and high school students who are over 15 and have completed 9th grade. $1350 - Full tuition (High School students) $1250 - Full tuition (College students/Professionals) $830 - Room & Board ACTOR/COMBATANT WORKSHOP (ACW) Dive into the foundations of SAFD training with an emphasis on Rapier & Dagger, Unarmed and Broadsword disciplines. Students will be eligible to take Skills Proficiency Tests toward SAFD Actor Combatant status on the final day of the workshop. Enrollment is open to adults 18 and over. $1500 - Full tuition $830 - Room & Board ADVANCED ACTOR/COMBATANT WORKSHOP (AACW) A select group of qualified actors, trained in a variety of disciplines, will be challenged at a highly sophisticated level. Participants will study technical and theatrical applications of advanced weapon styles, with scene work as an integral part of the training. Students will be offered renewal testing and additional Skills Proficiency Tests toward Advanced Actor Combatant status. $2150 - Full tuition $830 - Room & Board Discounts available for all members of AEA, SAG, AFTRA and the SAFD! For more information, go to: www.safd.org College or high school credit available! The 2009 Action Film Workshop • Directors • Fight Arrangers • Actors • Editors • August 1 – 15, 2009 North Carolina School of the Arts Winston-Salem, NC The AFW is an Action Film Boot Camp that offers hands-on instruction and practical experience in action filmmaking, with a focus on fight arranging, stunt-player/acting, cinematography and post production. Students receive training from working professionals through a variety of camera studio exercises and on-location production work. Each exercise demonstrates another component in the craft of action film work. Last year's students complet- ed 5 short films in 10 days! Our student/teacher ratio of 3 to 1 means you’ll never be turned loose to work it out alone. Teaching professionals monitor all exercises and film production. Each workshop produces a variety of short films and action sequences that are screened at a local theatre as an Action Film Festival. The screenings are open to the public. All students receive a professionally produced DVD of their work. "Our mission is not only to train you but to make you look good in the process!" Who Attends the Workshops? The AFW attracts participants from around the globe including students, post grads and working professionals who want to broaden their skills in action film- making. SAFD and BASSC actors and fight directors, college teachers, theater & TV directors, stunt-players, screenwriters, cinematographers, film & TV editors are all included in past workshop alumnae. Prices and Information: • Deadline to apply: June 1, 2009 • • Application fee: $250 (due with application) • Actors/Stunt Players - $150/day (includes housing) = $2,250 ($750 deposit due 6/1/09) (Balance $1,700 due 7/1/09) Directors - $175/day (includes housing) = $2,625 ($875 deposit due 6/1/09) (Balance $1,750 due 7/1/09) Fight Arrangers - $200/day (includes housing) = $3,000 ($1,000 deposit due 6/1/09) (Balance $2,000 due 7/1/09) DP’s and Editors - $125/day (includes housing) = $1,875 ($625 deposit due 6/1/09) (Balance $1,250 due 7/1/09) Housing: Students are housed in campus apartments. Housing is double occupancy, gender specific, air-conditioned, two bedroom, two bathroom, laundry & full kitchen. Apartments are furnished (with linen, and kitchen supplies). Discounts: Current SAFD, or BASSC members in good standing receive a 10% discount on tuition (not housing). The AFW also offers 3 day Weekend Warrior Workshops. Check the site for dates and locations. www.actionfilmworkshops.com 11 Features 10 Dynamic Gunplay 14 The Sounds of Violence 22 Towards a Dramaturgy of Stage Combat 23 23 David Boushey: Closing Distance 27 Swashbuckling for the Silver Screen 4 Fall/Winter 2008 The Fight Master On the Front Cover: (L to R) Bill Christ as Augustin Feraillon and Sam Gregory as Carlos Homenides de Histangua in conflict in the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2005/06 season opening production of A Flea in Her Ear. Georges Feydeau’s hilarious French bedroom farce directed by Artistic Director Kent Thompson. Fight Choreography by Geoffrey Kent. Photo by Terry Shapiro. THE FIGHT MASTER Fall/Winter 2008 Departments Vol XXXI,Number 2 6 28 www.safd.org Editorially Speaking Put to the Test Miscellany 6 7 34 35 36 40 Contributing Graphically Advertised Suppliers & Directory Membership Writers Speaking & Regional Services Application Workshops The Fight Master Fall/Winter 2008 5 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Raymond Delgato is a freelance writer and EDITORIALLY instructor of voice living in Florida who has an No avid interest in swordplay and culture. Photo SPEAKING Available his issue explores audience reactions to various forms of staged violence for film, television and the stage. Chris DuVal is currently employed at the Fight Master Dale Girard explores how one orchestrates the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as the Associate sounds of violence for stage, film and television, thus enhancing the Fight Director where he has spent the past ten T seasons working as an actor and fight captain. He viewer’s response. While this material has been covered at many of his workshops, he has agreed to let The Fight Master publish his paper has also acted, fight directed and guest taught at in order to share information on the impact of sound on staging regional theatres and universities throughout the violence. west. He holds an MFA in Acting, is recognized as a Full Instructor with Dueling Arts International and holds a 1st Kevin Inouye began with the SAFD with a passion for swords, mar- degree black belt in Aikido. In August of 2009, Chris will start a tial arts, armor and history. As his choreography assignments tenure track position teaching Acting Shakespeare, Voice, and expanded into film, he found himself being asked many more ques- Stage Combat at the University of Idaho. tions about gunplay than the weapons he had studied for his Skills Proficiency Tests. Thus he decided to take a look at the use of guns Dale Anthony Girard (www.imdb.com/name/nm0320646/) on stage and in film and offers some guidelines for gun safety, and An award winning Fight Director, Stunt what works on stage in contrast to what works in film for the Coordinator and author of the stage combat audience. manual Actors On Guard. His credits include pro- ductions at the Metropolitan Opera, New York Last March the White Sands International Film Festival opened with City Opera, Folger Theatre, Signature Theatre, Yale a presentation on Swashbuckling for the Silver Screen. This involved a Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Denver presentation on sword fighting along with two short films involving Center Theatre, Florida Grand Opera, American Repertory sword fights. Former Fight Master JR Beardsley along with Danish Theatre, Opera Carolina, Long Warf Theatre, Pioneer Theatre, Stuntman and film director Claus Hulak led a discussion moderated Studio Arena Theatre and Chautauqua Opera. Recent film cred- by Don Finn of Mali Finn Casting. Ray Delgato looks at the two con- its include “Eyeborgs,” “The Key Man,” “Fall Down Dead” and the trasting films which generated an intense discussion by those in critically acclaimed “Junebug.” attendance. With so many diverse opinions on what was actually seen and experienced, the reader may gain some insights into what Kevin Inouye is sole proprietor of Fight needs to be considered in staging fights for the general public. Designer, LLC, providing fight choreography, prop Meron Langsner offers some thoughts on the dramaturgy of stage weapons rentals, gun wrangling, and related serv- combat. Using assignments given to his students, Langsner briefly ices in Seattle, Washington. He has been recog- shares how to approach the script’s dramatic structure and analyze nized as an Advanced Actor/Combatant through what is needed. Part of his approach is also considering how alterna- the Society of American Fight Directors and tives may impact the script. trained with both the SAFD and the International Order of the Sword and Pen since 1998. And last, but hardly least, is Christopher DuVal’s colorful interview with David Boushey who in founding the Society of American Fight Meron Langser is currently a doctoral candidate Directors in 1977 is responsible for starting the whole interest in at Tufts University writing his dissertation on the staged violence and the concept of a fight director in the United representation of martial arts on the American States. Boushey shares some of his background in getting it all start- stage. Last season he was one of three writers in ed and addresses the direction the SAFD needs to take in the future.