Open Forum

I'm launching a new theatre arts program this year at my middle school.  Exciting!  I'd like to include swordplay as part of my 8th grade Shakespeare unit (I'm SAFD trained and certified).  A few questions for folks who have gone there:

• Do you have a favorite vendor for swords?  I'm leaning towards the "basic sword" at weaponsofchoice.com, but would love to hear about your experience.
• How did you fundraise?  Kickstarter won't pay for weapons!
• What did you do about gloves?  Fencing gloves or gauntlets?  What sizes and how many pairs of each size did you order to cover your bases?

Thanks, community!  This is a fantastic journey to be on with my students!

Hi Bryce! I think this blog is a pretty interesting resource for stage combat, this page should help you find vendors:

Stage Combat Resources

As far as fundraising, what if you offered the local community a weekend/evening workshop to cover some basics of stage combat? Maybe one for adults and one for kids? It's an interesting, fun topic that interests people beyond the theatre world. Workshops and camps can bring in a lot of money for only a few hours of time and then you'll also be demonstrating how you'll use the tools and recruiting new audience members. 

As a practitioner of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) as well as a fight choreographer, I order HEMA gear from Purple Heart Armoury ( http://woodenswords.com ). Their equipment is used in competitive tournament environments all around the world and is safe for use on stage. Working with young kids and beginners, I would use their synthetic feders, but older kids may be responsible enough to use steel feders.

BTW, I never call the feders "weapons." They are not weapons or swords, but feders or sports equipment or props, maybe "simulated weapons."

ETA: I'm also starting a stage combat unit with my classes. We've covered some unarmed combat, and now we're moving on to feders, but guess what I'm using as feders the first few times...... balloon swords! You can teach all the basics with a long balloon-animal type balloon!

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Matthew Taylor
Elkins WV

Good blog post about fight choreography:

http://theatresafetyblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/falling-down-on-job.html