ning training in slow motion and gradually increasing the speed, the stu-
dent learns the moves more accurately and has more control over them
when the speed is increased. This teaching concept is similar to that em-
ployed in many Asian styles of martial combat.
Stage combat is a collaborative process; by working together students
learn the fundamentals and help each other in understanding the material.
With both partners taking care of each other and doing their best to make
each other look good, a fight will be safe and effective. As in any physical
activity, it is important to warm up before beginning exercises, and it is
very important to breathe and stay relaxed while executing the techniques.
Certain rules should be followed. In any fight there is a victim and an at-
tacker. The victim is the person being attacked and the attacker is the per-
son trying to injure the victim. To avoid actual injury, stage combat has de-
vised a system whereby the attacker cues the victim before attacking. Dale
Anthony Girard has distinguished two kinds of cues: “a) A placement of
the arm and/or weapon that reads as a specific attack to a specific target.
Leaving no question as to the direction of the attack from its point of ori-
gin to its intended target. b) A prearranged signal for someone to perform
a specific action” (1997, 483). The victim then reacts in an appropriate
way (e.g., if he is supposed to duck, he does), and only then does the at-
tacker finish her move (e.g., trying to cut off the victim’s head). This
process is called Action-Reaction-Action: the initial action of the attacker,
the reaction of the victim, the remaining action of the attacker.
During any stage fight the victim is always in control. For example, if
someone is being pulled across the floor by the hair, the victim is moving,
and the partner performing the role of assailant is creating the illusion of
doing the work. Turning again to Girard, “It is important to remember that
the physical conflict on stage is an illusion; at all times each combatant
should be fully in control of themselves and their weapons” (1997, 6).
Since safety is the most important aspect of stage combat, students should
always work at their own speed. Only when one is comfortable with the
techniques and routine one has learned should the tempo be increased. A
slow accurate fight is much more interesting and exciting to watch than a
fast, sloppy, and essentially dangerous one. Nothing breaks an audience
member’s suspension of disbelief quicker than the thought that one of the
actors may actually get hurt. A good fight is a safe fight. As William
Hobbs, fight director for The Three Musketeers (1973), The Princess Bride
(1987), and many other films, once said, “One cannot make rules regard-
ing creativity, but only regarding technique and safety” (1980, 65).
Stage combat at its worst is a set of moves performed by actors on a
stage. At its best, it is a living confrontation between characters in a strug-
gle for supremacy within the life of the play. To make a fight more than just554 Stage Combat