Bonzuko Stage Combat Book

Jenn Zuko Boughn

Her book, Stage Combat: Fisticuffs, Stunts and Swordplay for Theatre and Film is the required textbook for Metro State and other stage combat programs in colleges across the country. She has been practicing and teaching the arts of stage combat since 1997, and Japanese martial arts since 1998.

I visit her website: bonzuko.com frequently for news, videos and inspiration.

Today, I'm gathering four of her posts in which she is teasing us with her next book.

Stage Combat Sequel Installment 1

Jenn's take on stage combat being an aside: underrehearsed addition to the performance that seems out of place even to the audience. She acknowledges this idea is an extension of a chapter from Dale Girard's book, Actors On Guard. Another great read, as an aside.

Stage combat is difficult, and when actors have to do something that requires a high level of concentration, the acting often goes missing. This leads to the act-fight-act in the same way that musicals frequently have act-sing-act divisions. But the fight should be an expression of your character in the same way that their walk, their gestures and their voice are.

Stage Combat Sequel Excerpt 2: GENRIFICATION

In this post, Jenn goes over genre and two categories that you should decide way before choreography begins:

Any combination is possible, and every choice delivers a unique flavour. Read her full post to investigate the nuances and some excellent examples.

I Do My Own Stunts

Are actors more macho and therefore better action-heros if they perform their own stunts? Jenn writes a great article from several angles:

• Stunt performers are specially trained for their dangerous job
• Actors who have even minor injuries can halt production
• Stage actors will always be more bad-ass because they have to do the fights in full

I Do My Own Stunts Part 2: Authenticity

In this follow-up, Jenn looks at the other side: if actors are choosing to put themselves in danger with inadequate training, is there a benefit to the acting?

I agree with her analysis: psychological realism and the Method Acting school is stunting to the imagination. "Try acting!" is a famous retort to those actors who put themselves through hell to try to feel the same pain as their characters.

In the end, actors would do well to do those stunts that they already have a high level of skill from previous training, not to learn to do a stunt or a fight for the project that they're working on. Robert Downey Jr. had years of Wing Chun experience before doing many of his own fights in Sherlock Holmes. That is commendable.

If that long-term training is not there, the performance of the stunt is not any more authentic... in fact, it will be apparent to the audience that the movement is weak or incomplete. Better to sub-in your stunt double for the fighting to match your character's level of expertise, rather than your own.

My own recommendation is that all actors should have rudimentary stage combat training for their own safety. And if you want to do your own stunts, don't wait to be cast for that opportunity, start training for it now.