Stage Combat

For our production of Narnia, all cast members have been assigned one or two roles. I was assigned as the Staged Combat Director/ Choreographer, and the tech guy that does sound effects.

I was assigned for stage combat director because of my previous experience and training in staged combat, being the person with the most amount of knowledge and discipline in the art it was only natural id be up for the task. It took some time before we got into the staged combat side of the performance but it was worth the wait. I have choreographed fights for all cast members, they are for the most part quite short, however that is because we don’t have much time to do our performance (we have a time limit of 30 minutes) however if elongating the fights is possible ill do my best to do that and teach my fellow cast members.

This is the choreography I’ve made so far:

I have worked with all the cast to ensure they know proper etiquette during staged combat rehearsal..

I have taught the cast their fight choreography and filmed them performing it, this is the evidence:

That is Saeem’s and Alex Morgan’s Fight sequence, and the first fight we will be showing off in our battle scene. The process of making this fight was rather simple and straight forward because both Saeem and Alex have had some past experience with staged combat so they already knew the basics and the etiquette for a staged combat rehearsal. They did not mess about and got straight into it. I had to demonstrate how to do certain moves and teach them the proper way to use the words to get that metal on metal sound you hear.

Reece and Aidan’s Fight sequence took some time to choreograph however we got there in the end, it’s still not perfect and there is definitely room to improve however its a very solid start. Since only Reece had a little bit of staged combat experience in the past I had to still help them both out with their moves and parry’s. They were quite unfocused and unorganized at first however I managed to get them to focus up and work a bit harder.

Aidan’s and Lily’s Fight was quite easy to choreograph since its so small, however Lily was unfocused and was messing about at the start, so I told her off and got her to be more focused on the task at hand. Once she was it was smooth sailing.

I had to fill in for the White Witch so this is just Rubens Choreography at the moment. Ruben has had little to no previous experience in staged combat however he is a fast learner and was easy and pleasant to teach. He did not mess about and just got on with it. There is room for improvement but considering all that was done in one day i am proud.

This is Saeem’s and Alex Morgan’s little fight sequence before scene 7 (Battle scene)

It’s a fight between Maugrim the wolf and Mr. Beaver, so whilst choreographing it I attempted having them be animalistic in the way the move, sound, and act. As of now we have changed this fight, however its good to see the process of the finalized piece.