If you have never had the opportunity to do stage combat, you are missing out. In fact, there are fencing classes out there open to everyone. Finish reading this and then go sign up for the next available class. You'll thank me. I promise.
First, it's a pretty good workout without any heavy lifting. Second, you get to play with swords!
Right now I'm in training for my next show: The Three Musketeers. Now, if you haven't read the book, that's fine, but you should put it on your list. I mean, it's a classic, people - get with the times...as it were. Anyway, the script is an adaptation that has some slight plot differences from the book, like the fact that D'Artagnan's manservant is actually his sister in disguise. This is an interesting twist on things because D'Artagnan HAS no sister in the original. So some obviously license was taken with the adaptation. It's also extremely cheesy. You think my acting as Jennifer is cheesy? It is but a mere squirt of E-Z Cheese to the Mountains of Gorgonzola, covered in drifts of parmesan, and surrounded by the Great Jarlsburg Plains that is this script.
But really, that's not the important thing. Or rather, it's apparent that since the writing is, as I believe I have said before: fluffier than teddy bear shit, that it is the action in this production that will be the main source of entertainment, as opposed to an actual plot or anything.
Now, our fight choreographer is this really cool guy Rick who knows lots and lots about stage combat and acting and theater and stuff. And a lot of the stuff he's teaching is not new to me, but it's always good to go over the basics every once in a while. Plus, there are a lot of people that have never held a sword before, so we all have to get on the same page. One of the things about this process that I think was actually pretty brilliant is that he gave us a sheet of paper with two identical stick figures, each surrounded by the numbers 1 through 9, and said "This is you fight choreography for the entire show." At first this was confusing. Usually, I am used to each fight being staged individually. But eventually the sheer, simple brilliance of it became apparent. Each number had a plus or a minus in front of it. Each number had a twin on the opposite side of the page, only inverse. So if +1 was on the right side, then -1 would be on the left side at the smae level. The + sign means attack, the - sign means defend. So, we paired off, holding this sheet of paper in our hand folded in half so we could only see one diagram, while our partner would be looking at the other, and went through the process of learning these nine basic steps.
And then we got to the part where we were thinking "Ok, but won't the audience get bored with seeing the same fight over and over?" That's when Rick started throwing in different things: Retreat when attacking and Advance when defending, travel from one side of the room to the other, switch hands, use an off-hand weapon, two vs one...and on and on. And suddenly, people who had only a few days before picked up a sword for the first time were now coming up with completely new and inventive ways to do basically the same moves over and over. It wasn't the What, it was the How. As in: What are we doing? We're doing the same 9 mores over and over again. How are we doing it? You have your choice of weapons, a grab-bag full of new moves and only the laws of physics to stop you - wing it.
We do this for 3 or 4 or even 5 hours about 3 times a week at this point...and it's never long enough. Just when we're really starting to come up with some interesting stuff, they send us home to, sensibly, get some rest. But I was never good at resting anyway.
Added bonus: really cute girls turn just damned hot when they're trying to kill you with a sword, even if it's just for pretend.
Happy Jenday and Happy Fighting!