Schedule

Each day will start with Stretching for the Fighter before moving into classes for half the day. The exact schedule will be finalized later but below are topics that may be covered. The other half the day will be spent in daily rehearsal of classical and contemporary scenes to prepare for the production. Class topics last year included:

Fundamental Principles of Historical and Stage Combat
• Various Styles such as:
                  - Unarmed
                  - Rapier
                  - Longsword
                  - Aikido
                  - Bar Brawling
                  - Multiple Opponents
                  - Ground Fighting
                  - Close Quarter Knife
                  - Tomahawk
                  - Smallsword
                  - Staff Weapons/Spear
                  - Sword & Shield
                  - Mezoamerican Unarmed and Maquahuitl and Chimalli (shield) combat
                  - Found Weapons - How to apply martial theory to whatever is lying about.
• “The Way to Their Heart” – How quickly someone will actually die when hit in certain spots, how to speed up that process, and practical application of how long you have to continue fighting before you die from a death blow.
• "Take a Stance!" - Examining different stances and how they are beneficial to specific combat styles.
 

Classes on Acting the Fight
• "Using Combat Theory to help make your fight more realistic" - How understanding the basics of combat theory gives your fight the appearance of actual intended violence.
• "Types of Fighters"- This class explores the three fundamental types of personalities exhibited by all people as they enter the fight, the manner in which they enter the fight, and how that effects their movement and actions. This chart is then coupled with a chart denoting skill and desire levels to give the actor a wealth of information for their character before the fight even begins.
• "Your Character Can't Speak" - Combat is simply the point at which words have failed the individual. This class explores how the actor can build the psychological explosion within their character and enter into the fight in a logical, believable manner. (Also good for fight director track participants to learn tips on how to bring their actor/combatants to that level).
• Choreographing a Fight to Include the Actor's Characterization.
• Coaching on your individual scenes.

Stagecraft
• Finding your angle - where the actions need to be performed based on the audience and planar geometry.
• Film vs Stage: How combat changes.- We will do a very short fight designed for stage and show how it looks on film from various angles, then do one designed for film and show how it looks on stage.
• Script analysis.
• "Seriously, Two Hours?" - what to do to make a fight safe and serve the play when you don't have rehearsal time.
• Combat for Film- We take a short fight and film it as it would be done in a film shoot- multiple takes, multiple angles.
• "I Saw Red" - working with bloodpacks and creating cheap blood. Possible work with pneumatic squibs.

Lectures
• How to work with difficult [fill in the blank] (actors, directors, techs, etc).
• The Duel and why it's so bad, so often.
• Auditioning - FD's learn how to run a fight call.  Actors learn how to be, what to do, etc.
• Review the tape - After videoing your fight we go over the good, bad and ugly.
• Basic history of fencing/Evolution of the sword.
• Code Duello- why characters duel over seemingly small things.
• Toxicology.
• General cultural history.
• Fighter notation.
• Business class- Contracts, Insurance, Negotiations, etc.
• How to professionally tell a director no and make it their decision to agree with you.
• The "Red Light Fever" - what to do when the fight is speeding out of control.