Why We Fight... Direct.

So while Greg takes note of the daily updates, blogs, info and Dwight has all things movies and martial arts covered, I will be writing a monthly/bi-monthly blog on various thoughts on the Fight World called:

Broad Eye for the Fight Guy

soon to be rechristened as Musings from the Motherland

I thought I start with why stage combat and fight direction are essential to the theater world.

They are… but maybe not in the way you think.

We all know that when any act of violence happens on stage having a fight director to choreography, create a illusion, perform a little magic, toss some pixie dust on helps out the production. He or she will keep the actors safe (hopefully) and make it look cool (also, hopefully). But many times theaters do not work with fight directors. This can be because they don’t have the money, don’t see the use, don’t understand what we do, gotten burned.

This is unfortunate because the skill set possessed by any decent fight director is going to give an invaluable perspective to a theater company. And not just in scenes that call for some sort of violence but for their entire productions.

Let me give you an example.

A couple of weeks I went to see TimeLine Theater Company’s production of The Farnsworth Invention with my mom. I had been wanting to see this play for a while because it is written by one of my favorite contemporary writers – Aaron Sorkin. Being a huge fan of all things Sorkin I loved the play. And the production was very well done, set in an alley seating style with audience members on opposites sides of the playing space.

For those who don’t know the play it deals with the invention of the Television by Philo Farnsworth and the subsequent political/business battle between him and David Sarnoff, the country’s first media mogul and head of RCA. Much of the play pitts these two against each other in a fantastical setting considering there is no proof that the two actually met face to face. For any good theatrical production you need drama (duh) and this play did not disappoint with both Farnsworth and Sarnoff going back and forth at each other battling over the rights to the creation of television. Long story short Sarnoff won because he was more powerful, had more money and thought like a businessman as opposed to Farnsworth who had no money, wasn’t polically giftend and most importantly thought like a scientist. They duke it out over the course of the play going back and forth, arguing incessantly and, to their slight detriment, shouting. A lot of shouting.

When my mom and I exited the theater and started discussing what we had just seen, as theater goers are wont to do after seeing an interesting piece of theater, one of the first comments my mom made was that she thought they shouted too much, especially TimeLine Artistic Direct PJ Powers in the role of Sarnoff. Nothing against Mr. Powers or his performance, it was quite good, but what happened was it made a harsh listening experience. This is unfortunate because part of the joy of anything written by Aaron Sorkin is the musicality he is able to create with his texts.

Now what does this have to do with stage combat and fight direction?

Imagine if you will two combatants, let’s say Prince Hal and Hotspur from Henry IV part 1, battling it out with two big broadswords. And instead of a nuanced carefully crafted fight they just bash each other over the head again and again and again. Cut 5, Cut 5, Cut 5, Cut 5 and on and on and on. After 10-15 seconds of that an audience will immediately tune out. The actors could have amazing chemistry, commitment, presence and it wouldn’t amount to dick because all the audience is getting is a one note over and over again. Now, martially bashing an opponent over the head repeatedly might be a good tactic if you were the stronger fighter and could keep up that barrage (see Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi) but theatrically it is not interesting.

Back to The Farnsworth Invention, the drama between Farnsworth and Sarnoff is the same as the battle between Hal and Hotspur just on a different scale. Sure Mr. Powers’ Sarnoff can overpower and overwhelm Rob Fagin’s younger and physically smaller Farnsworth but it becomes uninteresting to the audience after a while. We don’t hear the finely crafted language provided by Mr. Sorkin. All we hear is bash, bash, bash. While an average audience member might not realize why they disliked some of Mr. Powers performance, a properly trained fight direct could and should.

Fight directors choreograph the violence that erupts when words are no longer an option. They work at the highest of stakes in a play. I mean, the stakes don’t get much higher when I’m trying to kill you with a three foot piece of sharpened steel. The skills that a fight directors posses in order to create those high stakes moments can and should be applied to fights that aren’t physically violent.

That’s why we call ourselves Fight Directors. We direct the fights. And in fights the combatants use different tools and tactics to achieve their objective. Those tools are not always a three foot piece of sharpened steel. They can be a finely crafted insult, a witty comeback, an overwhelming argument.

The more and more theaters around the country begin to realize the value of a fight director the more theater we will have that is both fun and fascinating to watch.

Plus, we’ll all start getting more work.

And be able to bash people over the heads with three foot pieces of ‘sharpened’ steel.