Summer Drama
Gerald Freedman, Dean

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THE NCSA SUMMER STAGE COMBAT PROGRAM (SSC) is a fast-paced, three-week intensive program of classes that will physically and mentally challenge the aspiring actor, dancer, director, stage manager, teacher or choreographer, safely introducing him or her to an exciting and explosive aspect of the actor’s craft – theatrical violence.  Each of the three Summer Stage Combat classes place emphasis on a non-violent approach to stage violence as well as the actor’s rights and responsibilities when required to perform fight scenes.  Select members of the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) teach all Summer Stage Combat classes.

Students in the Summer Stage Combat program will be in class at least six hours a day, five days a week.  Typically, each day will begin with an appropriate physical warm-up, followed by classes in two disciplines in the morning and two further disciplines each afternoon.  Related films and additional workshops by guest artists are a unique feature of this program.  All of this requires a considerable amount of discipline, commitment, flexibility and stamina from all participants. 

Introduction to Stage Combat focuses on familiarizing students with the essential requirements for performing safe, effective stage combat.  Students will learn to perform fundamental techniques in the eight basic “fight” disciplines recognized by the Society of American Fight Directors.  Although these classes cover SAFD basic skills, the introductory classes do not offer SAFD skills testing.  The emphasis is on the development of technique and the process of the work rather than the performance.  Focusing on accuracy, safety, and the fundamental techniques needed to protect the actor and their instrument when engaged in dramatic physical encounters, the summer intensive provides opportunities to explore and develop these important skills.

Introduction to Stage Combat will cover a variety of classical and contemporary weapon disciplines with emphasis on development of the student’s personal command and understanding of their body in relation to theatrical physical conflict.  The goal of each class is to provide a safe foundation of technique while emphasizing and encouraging each student’s personal development and artistic exploration.  Styles of stage combat to be covered will include:

Actor Combatant Skills Proficiency was founded originally by the Society of American Fight Directors as the "Actor Combatant Workshop", 2007 marks the first time that this course is at the North Carolina School of the Arts. It is an intensive course focusing on training students in the compulsory techniques required for the SAFD Actor Combatant Skills Proficiency Test in unarmed, rapier & dagger and broadsword.  Students will spend over thirty hours learning to safely perform fight choreography in each of these three “fight” disciplines.  Additional classes will also introduce students to several other weapon styles recognized by the Society of American Fight Directors.  Although the primary focus of this course is the learning of techniques and choreography containing the compulsory techniques required for the Society of American Fight Directors Skills Proficiency Test, the class also focuses on developing suitable partnering skills and expanding the artist’s imagination and ability to use these skills to make their stage combat work more connected and truthful.  Working in a studio format, students will explore character objectives and beat work within the fight, and are coached/rehearsed through their fight scenes.  The course concludes in a presentation of the fight scenes for adjudication by SAFD fight masters.  

Dale Anthony Girard (NCSA Director of Stage Combat Studies): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0320646/
Dale is an award winning Fight Director, Choreographer and author of the stage combat manual Actors On Guard.  He is a Black Belt in Taekwondo, a founding member of the North Carolina Stuntmen’s Association and one of only thirteen recognized Fight Masters in the United States by the Society of American Fight Directors.  Recent credits include the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Carolina, Piedmont Opera, Pioneer Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, Triad Stage, and the Chautauqua Opera.  Recent film credits include “The Key Man,” “Fall Down Dead” and “Junebug.”  As a master teacher, Mr. Girard has instructed classes and seminars in stage combat, acting, and dramatic movement at colleges and universities throughout North America.  Now based in North Carolina, he serves on the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts as Director of Stage Combat Studies.  Previous teaching experience includes Yale’s School of Drama, the National Theatre Conservatory and the Hartt School.

J. David Brimmer (Broadsword):
N.Y. Theater  Almost an Evening, (NY premiere) Ethan Coen one acts, Atlantic Theater, Neil Pepe dir.;  Spring Awakening, Atlantic Theater and Broadway, Michael Mayer dir.;  Come Back, Little Sheba, (MTC revival) Biltmore Theater, Michael Pressman, dir.;  Crimes of the Heart, Roundabout Theatre Company-Laura Pels Theater, Kathleen Turner, dir.;  The Lieutenant of Inishmore, (NY Premiere) Atlantic Theater and Broadway, Wilson Milam dir;  Blackbird, (NY premiere) Manhattan Theater Club, Joe Mantalo dir.;  The American Pilot, (NY premiere) Manhattan Theater Club, Lynne Meadow dir.; Bug, (NY premiere) Barrow St. Theatre, Dexter Bullard dir.; Killer Joe, 29th St. Playhouse (NY premiere) & Soho Playhouse, Wilson Milam dir..
Touring/Regional  Jekyll & Hyde, National Tour, David Warren dir.; The Taming of the Shrew, Dallas Theater Center, Richard Hamburger dir.; Othello, Hartford Stage, Karin Coonrod dir.; Camelot, Shubert Theater, Boston, Gabriel Barre dir.;  Speed the Plow, Center Stage, Daniel Fish dir.
Teaching Tisch School of the Arts, Yale Schools of Music and Drama, The Stella Adler Conservatory, The Lee Strasberg Institute, Atlantic Theater, and The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Guest Instructor).  He has also had the pleasure of working with Stella Adler, Franco Zeffirelli, Joe Chaikin, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Joseph Papp.

k. Jenny Jones (Unarmed):
k. Jenny Jones, a Fight Master and Certified Fight Director of the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), stages fights and teaches throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her regional credits include Dracula (Actors Theater of Louisville); Of Mice and Men (St. Louis Repertory); Twelfth Night, Avenue X, Coyote on a Fence, and The Turn of the Screw (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Hamlet, MacBeth, Richard III, and Romeo & Juliet (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company); Moonlight and Magnolias (Human Race Theater); Cripple of Insihman (Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati); Don Giovanni (Portland Opera); Romeo et Juliette, Carmen, Tosca and the world premiere of Margaret Garner with Denyse Graves (Cincinnati Opera). A Master Teacher of stage combat, Ms. Jones is internationally known for her contemporary fighting style, and is the only woman in the U.S. inducted into the College of Fight Masters by the SAFD. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio where she performs, choreographs and is currently an Associate Professor at the College-Conservatory of Music.

Richard Ryan
Richard Ryan is an internationally acclaimed Fight Director. Recent film work includes SOLOMON KANE and THE DARK KNIGHT. Other film work includes STARDUST, THE GOLDEN COMPASS, FAINTHEART, DRONA and THE LAST LEGION. His best-known film work is TROY for which his Achilles v Hector fight (Brad Pitt & Eric Bana) was nominated for Best Fight in both Taurus World Stunt Award & MTV Film Awards. As ‘Master-at-Arms’ to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he accumulated over 300 stage credits and has worked for many major companies such as The RSC, National Theatre of Ireland, Royal National Theatre, Cheek by Jowl, English National Opera, Royal Opera House along with various West End shows and National Tours on projects encompassing a traditional diet of Shakespearean and Jacobean plays to new contemporary works to a live show in Thailand where he staged a battle with eighty actors and four Elephants.

Angela Bonacasa (Coordinator)
Angela is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors, and has worked across the country as both a stage combat teacher and fight director. She has served on faculty at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, the Actors Gymnasium, and taught private classes throughout the city of Chicago.  She has also taught at schools in New York, Seattle, Florida, Texas, Indiana, Colorado, and North Carolina, where she is a regular guest artist at the North Carolina School of the Arts.  As a fight director, she has worked in Chicago, New York, and many places in between on productions such as Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Richard III, Cyrano de Bergerac, The House of Bernarda Alba, History of the Devil, Fuddy Meers, Seashore, and the Jeff Recommended productions of The Oresteia and Sueno with Greasy Joan and Co.  Recent credits include Peter Pan with the Penobscot Theatre Company, and Macbeth with the Theater at Monmouth.

Mike Mahaffey (Assistant Coordinator):
Mike has acted, taught and fought his way from coast to coast, from the Carolinas to Washington State to Southern California.  He is currently on the stage combat faculty for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles.

Favorite productions: Romeo & Juliet, Woyczek, Orphans, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Pirates of Lesbos, As You Like It, True West, Wait Until Dark, Dial M for Murder, Terra Nova, Henry IV Part One, and "Espada", a unique sword/dance piece set to argentine tango music. Mike’s work has also been seen at the English Theatre of Frankfurt, the National American Shakespeare Company and was fight director for the smash Seattle fringe hit Money & Run, an action-adventure comic serial based on TV action series of the 1970's and 80's. 
After moving to Los Angeles, Mike has enjoyed success as a stuntman and actor, appearing in The Chronicles of Narnia and the History Channel’s “300: The Battle of Thermopylae” as well as working fights behind the camera for “Revelations”, “Bowling Green”, “BUSHLeague”, “Harmony Bar” and “Crown of the Forest”. 

Favorite Roles: Mercutio (Romeo & Juliet), Touchstone (As You Like It), "Sister Nick" (Money & Run), Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Baloo (Jungle Book), Noodler (Peter Pan) and Cookie the Pirate Chef (world premiere of Zorro! The Musical).

Faculty subject to change.

All students classified in grades 12 or below are eligible to earn high school credit; college students earn college semester hours.

Introduction to Stage Combat Credit Hours
All students classified in grades 12 or below are eligible to earn high
school credit; college students may earn college semester hours.
High School – three-quarter (3/4) units
College – three (3) semester hours

Actor Combatant Skills Proficiency Credit Hours
College – four (4) semester hours