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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0963  Friday, 5 April 2002

From:           Karen Peterson <kpetersonkranz@yahoo.com>
Date:           Friday, 5 Apr 2002 05:18:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject:        Learning Sword Fighting

Interesting article in this week's *Chronicle of Higher Education* about
a Canadian theatre department's swordfighting course.  It's online but
password restricted, so I've pasted it below for any who may be
interested.

NOTES FROM ACADEME

Touché, eh?
By JANICE PASKEY

Calgary, Alberta

The 12 women and 5 men in Mount Royal College's senior theater class
straggle into the large classroom, shaking off frosted clothing, their
sabers in hand.  "Your sword is over there by thy stuff," one student
quips. Outside it's 15 below, sunny, still, and bitter. A panoramic view
of the Rocky Mountains unfolds in the distance. But inside the class is
warming to its task, sword fighting, guided by Jean-Pierre Fournier, one
of Canada's leading fight directors and head of acting at Mount Royal's
theater program.

Mr. Fournier's goal is to make fighting almost second nature for his
students, so they don't fall out of character when they have to fight.
"Actors are pacifists," he explains, carefully drawing an array of
swords and daggers from a leather sword case. "They need the technique
to get comfortable."

An imposing man who favors black clothing, Mr.  Fournier was once a
competitive fencer, and is now known as an expert stage trainer in the
small sword: épée, foil, and saber. Though deep-voiced and firm with his
instructions, he is approachable, his students say, and preoccupied with
teaching. He is also a raconteur of the first order, full of juicy
stories about fights perfectly executed or fights gone horribly wrong.
One of his mentors, Paddy Crean, he recalls, was fired as the fight
director of the film Hamlet, after insisting that Sir Laurence Olivier
perform some less-dangerous moves. "Back then, the only person who
supported Paddy was Paddy," says Mr.  Fournier. "There's a huge
consideration given to safety today."

A few students practice some moves, amid playful banter. "That's called
'almost taking out an eye.'"

"That's called 'oops.'"

While the mood is light, the play is controlled: Mr.  Fournier has made
it clear that there are two ways to really screw up in this course, and
one is to hurt someone by not following safety guidelines; no tips of
swords or blows near the face, no jewelry. The other is to be late to
class more than twice. Shannon Gillette comes flying in a few minutes
after 10 a.m., her hair aloft owing to some plucky styling product, the
cold falling off her. "You're late, you're supposed to be warmed up,"
says Mr. Fournier. "Maybe I already am," she quips. Mr. Fournier is
unmoved. He's heard it all over the years: the '82 Mazda that wouldn't
start, the bus missed by only two minutes, and so on.

"We have to introduce them to the realities of the workplace," says Mr.
Fournier. "If they show up late for auditions or to rehearsals, they'll
never get hired."

Mr. Fournier, known as "J.P." to his students, offered the first
university course in stage combat in Canada in 1974 at the University of
Alberta, then brought the course to Mount Royal College four years ago.
He is also a veteran fight director for stage and film, one of the
pioneers in Canada. But today he's working at the most basic level with
novice student actors who will learn how to sword fight, slap, kick, and
punch.  While the majority of American bachelor-of-fine-arts programs
require stage combat training, and it is a required course in the
two-year diploma program here, for most Canadian theater programs it's
optional. "I think it will be great for my résumé. If people see you've
studied fighting, it's a bit of an edge," says Julie Rogers, who prefers
sword fighting to unarmed combat.

Today Mr. Fournier is teaching the students how to hold the sword,
either pronated or supinated -- that is, palm downward or palm upward --
depending on the style of fighting. He passes on some historical tidbits
about how left-handers were forced to wield their swords with their
right hands in medieval times because lefties were deemed marked by the
devil. But lefties won't be required to switch in this class. The
students spread out, and Mr. Fournier calls out various commands:
"advance," "retreat," "lunge," "arrest." A few dozen bodies and body
types bring distinct variations to the instructions. Mr. Fournier walks
around checking stances, requesting deeper knee positions, raising the
tips of the swords and chins.

Thirty years ago, Mr. Fournier was himself on the receiving end of
groundbreaking training in stage fighting. After earning his first
degree in theater at the University of Alberta, Mr. Fournier's career
took a turn when a director saw a Trinidadian stick fight he had
choreographed. He was asked to begin a course in stage combat at his
alma mater, and began advising local productions. Mr. Fournier went on
to apprentice at the Society of British Fight Directors in London,
returning to work as an actor and director at the Stratford Festival, in
Stratford, Ontario. After moving west to stake out a claim as the area's
sole fight director, he earned an M.F.A. at the University of Alberta.
He has directed dozens of plays, and been the fight director on several
local films. For years he had to lend out swords to students, but stage
fighting seems to have finally turned a corner: This year Mount Royal
purchased a large assortment as instructional aids.

Staging fight scenes has become increasingly sophisticated, and there
has been a recent push -- embraced by Mr. Fournier -- to make them more
historically accurate and reflective of character and plot. So in any
major stage or film fight these days, there is usually a specialist like
Mr. Fournier directing the fight scene. That direction, and the skills
of the actor, determine the success of such scenes, and those scenes in
turn may determine the success of a movie. Mr. Fournier cites a fight
directed by the British fight director William Hobbes in Rob Roy between
Liam Neeson and Tim Roth. "It's one of the most exceptional scenes
because there's a strong use of character, completely different styles
together. Neeson is large with a heavy broadsword, and Roth is a small
man fighting with a quicker rapier.  There is a fighting sequence, and
right after, the men stalk each other. It's like a chess game. We think
of fencing as chess speeded up."

Now he takes the class through more sophisticated sequences and
introduces parries, or ways to block your opponent's sword. The swords
click and clang, as the students try it out, laughing at misses,
determined to make it work. "If I can do it and I'm 108, you can do it,"
he tells them. (He is 53.) Between thrusts, he regales them with gory
stories.  Did you know, he asks, that during the Crusades, fighters
thought that body temperature was the best way to temper a blade? So,
enemy heads were lopped off and blades stuck down the body core. There
is a collective groan of appreciation for this gory trivia.

In the end, though, the most useful fighting for actors involves the
hands. Before beginning the unarmed lesson, the students are instructed
to remove all jewelry. "If you have a belly ring, tape down the belly
ring," says Mr. Fournier's assistant, Meg Cook.  "I've seen one ripped."
Another groan all around.

Now the class will rehearse a scene from The Rimers of Eldritch, by
Lanford Wilson. The play has minimal fighting, with only a few slaps and
one attempted rape. But perfecting that slap between Ms. Rogers and Joel
Smith will take an hour and a half. Says Mr.  Fournier: "They'll get a
sense of discipline, a sense of precision, their reflexes will improve,
they'll learn to work with a partner, and to learn generosity, and
patience, because you have to be able to put up with your partner's
inadequacies."

In a few months, the students must choreograph a four-to-six-minute
stage fight and pass a written exam. They will also stage the play Tom
Jones, where some will get to put sword fighting to public scrutiny.
Then the students will disperse. Ms. Rogers has an agent in Vancouver
and is going there with a classmate in search of film work. Her parents
have pledged six months' support. Her scene mate, Mr.  Smith, is
planning to audition for the National Theater School in Montreal.

But right now they need to master the smack. On Mr.  Fournier's cue,
they begin. Ms. Rogers is nervous about hurting her partner, and starts
off by slowly grazing his face, then moving her hand back. Then,
beginning above her shoulder, she swings diagonally, just missing Mr.
Smith's face, and he, with his back to the audience, claps his hands
then throws his head back and groans. It's disturbingly real, but Mr.
Fournier asks the pair to go through the motions a little quicker and to
change their angle to the audience slightly. "Angle is very important,
but reaction is more important, because with a good reaction you can
often sell a bad move."

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

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