| Department Stage Combat Policy |
Rehearsal Time
Each minute of stage fight time receives
ten hours of rehearsal with the Fight Director.
For example, if the running time of the fight
or fights is two minutes, the combatants
will be given 20 hours to rehearse with the
Fight Director.
This will largely correct the practice of
casting students in stage fights that have
not as yet taken the stage combat courses.
This time requirement might be satisfied
with a longer rehearsal period in number
of weeks, days, hours, or at irregular times.
A good way of working is conducting a secondary
rehearsal while the director is working the
main rehearsal.
Choreography
Only a qualified Fight Choreographer may
create the fights. Students deemed to have
talent in this area would be permitted to
do the choreography under the direct supervision
of a qualified Fight Choreographer. The Fight
Choreographer is Ron Hubbard or a guest artist
brought in from outside UAB.
Only the qualified Fight Choreographer will
do any change to the choreography. If the
choreographer is a student, changes to the
choreography can only be done in the presence
of Ron Hubbard or a guest artist fight choreographer.
Fight Captains cannot change choreography.
Students cannot change choreography. Directors
or faculty cannot change the fight choreography.
The risk is too great.
Any changes in choreography
will require
more time for rehearsal.
The amount of this
time will be at the
discretion of the Fight
Director.
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Scheduling
Like the dances in a musical, the fights
should be choreographed
within the first
two weeks of rehearsal.
This is especially
important if any
of the combatants have not
had the stage combat
courses.
Fight Call
Before every performance, dress rehearsal,
and run-through (one or all acts), the combatants
must be given enough time to run the fights
twice in their entirety.
This time must also include a proper warm-up
and stretching time.
Changes in Design
Two weeks before the show opens is the deadline
for changes in any designs that will affect
the fight choreography.
Plays Not Film
Directors are asked to remember that the
live stage cannot possibly do the things
commonly and easily done in film. Keep the
concepts to producing for the theatre, not
the cinema.
The human body can
only take so much
pounding
and rubbing against
materials like stage
floors and wood.
Either use pads in
the costumes,
or on the stage,
or don't ask for
the effect.
Even young bodies
are still just flesh
and
blood.
Space
The rehearsal space should be ready to go
for the warm-up/stretch-out phase of rehearsal.
The floor needs to be clean and free of debris.
The props and weapons set and the set pieces
in place.
Safety
The combatants should have the appropriate
foot ware from the beginning of the choreography
phase. This means foot ware that is both
non-skid and is similar to what will eventually
be worn. The rehearsal costumes should approximate
the final costumes and be available from
the beginning of the choreography phase.
Set pieces for choreography should be given
priority.
Surfaces
Any fighting surface must be non-slippery.
Lights
Lights cannot be in the combatant's eyes.
They definitely cannot be in the wings.
When we, as the faculty, cannot meet these
requirements we should pick another show.
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