I absolutely love doing stage combat with my students and have been trained in all the various weapons myself. It's a great way to engage students and entice new students into the program. Kudos for doing it!
I have incorporated stage combat into numerous shows, even many that technically don't call for an actual physical fight. Really any show that has a decent conflict scene has the potential for some sort of stage combat, you just need to be creative. There is the obvious with Shakespeare but don't be afraid to think outside the box either. We did The Odd Couple by Neil Simon several years ago and were able to turn the scene where Oscar chases Felix around the apartment into a fun slapstick combat scene using household items. A mop was used like a quarterstaff, a fork used like a knife, a chair to fend off the "attack", etc. You can actually get quite inventive with everyday items and it makes for a fun scene for the actors and the audience.
We did the same thing with Arsenic and Old Lace. There is a scene where Jonathan is trying to avoid being arrested and I created an entire four person stage combat fight sequence to incorporate into that scene. It was mostly unarmed combat with a chair and a couple fake guns thrown into the mix. The audience loved it.
Another show we did was Brother's Grimm Spectaculation. Fun show and easy to double cast if necessary. I created several mini fight sequences in this show just because we could. Any time there was a conflict / disagreement it was a potential for a combat scene: wolf vs. grandma, dwarf vs. witch, elf vs. actor planted in the audience, and even a small fight between two of the narrators happened at one point.
The possibilities are endless, just look for conflict within the script. Much of the time you can justify a combat scene to enhance the conflict. Have fun and good luck!
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Jillian Lietzau
Lutheran High School
CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-04-2022 07:25
From: Sawyer Nicoles
Subject: small cast plays with fight scenes
hello! I was wondering if anyone knew of any good plays with stage combat for a small cast? we only have about seven kids in our theater, but they worked so hard in our last production that I would love to be able to have them do something else this year.
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Sawyer Nicoles
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