Tomorrow, Thursday May 25, 2011, is closing night for The Hobbit in London, Ontario. I had the distinct privilege and pleasure to be fight director on this show. Director Susan Ferley brought together a fantastic group of people, and made my job much easier (and I daresay, more exciting) for it!
Part of my excitement, though, was being able to use my studies from the past year and half in a professional environment. Now, it’s not difficult to get a room of 13 men to play-fight, but play-fighting with connection and intent, that’s the next step. The exercises we did in our first hour together were instrumental at establishing that process. One of the cast members specifically noted that the first day’s work made the rest of the time so much easier: “since we’d been in that personal space already, learning the fight choreography was not a big deal.” By establishing both a method of working and physical familiarity, we could get past those introductory stages get right to the intensity and intricacy of the fight scenes.