Of swords and Shakespeare

Bringing the dance of sword fighting to the WSCC stage

March 10 2007 Ludington Daily News

Before Star Wars brought light sabers to the arena of stage combat, a weapon of choice for many centuries previous was the sword.

In the upcoming production of “Queen Lear: A Celtic Tradition” the sounds of broadswords colliding in combat will clang through the air of the Center Stage Theater at West Shore Community College.

Director Rick Plummer describes his adaptation of “King Lear,” what many call one of the greatest of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, as “a lean version” that reduces the original five-act play into two acts, cutting the time down from what could be three-and-half-hours to a more modern two-hour show.

“I hope what we have done is maintained the towering language of the piece and the magnificent characters,” he said, as well as the themes Shakespeare explored in “King Lear.”

And it features sword fighting with a twist. Typically men do the fighting, but “Queen Lear” features a cast mostly made of women, so in this production women will fight women and women will fight men, and, yes, at least once, men will cross blades with one another.

“Shakespeare knew what side his bread was buttered on,” Plummer said of the fights.

Violence was a big part of Elizabethan England, so sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat is frequently featured by the Bard. “Shakespeare packed fighting into his plays,” Plummer notes.

In recent weeks, the WSCC cast has been rehearsing the fights, and at least one night solely was given over to mastering a form of combat no longer common on the streets of the world.

Using broadswords made of aluminum and designed to have a satisfying ring for the audience’s enjoyment when the blades crash into one another, pairs of actors in rooms 425-426 of the WSCC Rec Center feinted, passed, crossed over, lunged and practiced their fights.

“Tonight we are choreographing our fight scenes with our blades, three-feet long pieces of metal,” said Renee Humrich, a warrior captain, after running through one fight. “I guess the trick is make it look real, to remember your lines — although they’re not lines this time, they’re movements. And stay safe.”

In essence, she said, the fight scenes boil down to “dancing with your partner.”

“It’s just like dance,” Plummer agrees. “Each step is broken down.”

Each fight is blocked and set just as if it was a dance — a dance with a three-foot sword that is being thrust at a partner/opponent.

“Each combatant knows where each opponent is going and coming from,” Plummer said.

“I took fencing in college,” John Gerts (Duke of Cornwall), said. “This is the broadsword, so it is totally different. I love fencing. It’s really playing chess … You’re trying to anticipate a move, do a feint and counterfeinting and countermove and get that person off guard and slash into them. You’re trying to out-think them. You’re more out-thinking the other person than you are just slashing away, and that’s the mistake people think is happening. It’s a very thoughtful process.”

The actors walked through their fights, at times in slow motion almost, one move at a time, to make sure both knew what the other would do. Plummer, who is a certified actor combatant through the American Society of Fight Directors, at times consulted the script of the fights, and demonstrated moves.

All the time shouting, grunting and clanging of other actors echoed around the room — the sounds of men and even more women in glorious combat.

“I’m the warrior who kills Cornwall,” the spirited Jenna Sanders says, perhaps with a bit of glee ringing in her voice as true as the sound of crashing swords, “and then I get killed. It’s fabulous. I always wanted to learn how to sword fight. Having women sword fight makes it a little more exciting. In all the buccaneer movies you see the men sword fighting, but now it’s got the girls kicking butt.”

Cody Hodges (Edgar) and his fight partner Matt Dutton (Edmond) also are new to sword fighting.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Hodges said. “It looks like the show, with these sword fights, is going to be pretty nice.”

“This production has been a very interesting one for me because it’s my first, authentic Shakespeare show,” Hodges said. “I think the show is one of the most intense shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Sword fighting was pretty intense and I think it will look pretty nice on stage and I think audiences will just eat it up.”

Sierra Britton (Duke of Celtica and a warrior) sees some practical advantage to learning sword play.

“My brother has a sword, so I know they’re a lot heavier,” she said, “but I’ve never fought before. It’s pretty fun.” She laughed and said now she can challenge her brother “and win.”

Seventeen-year-old Kelly Machiniak, dressed in a pink top, said she found learning to sword fight “interesting” and a lot of fun.

But it is also work. Humrich could be heard saying at one point following a fight, “I found my new aerobic exercise.”

When Machiniak giggled during one part of a fight, Humrich challenged her. “Stop laughing; you’re a warrior.”

The fight continued with loud clanking and when over, Humrich praised the young warrior. “That was great — really good.”

“It’s just an area of theater that is interesting,” Plummer said of the sword fights. “You’ll notice there’s a lot of women doing the fighting … and they’re taking to it.”

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