By MAUREEN JONES
Students have the opportunity to punch, stab and clobber one another in the stage combat class, Theater and Media Arts 325, offered at BYU.
The class offers students instruction in rapier, dagger, unarmed fight, and the quarterstaff; a six-foot pole.
Students also learn how to perform in a fight scene and with different techniques of fighting, said D.C. Wright, a part-time faculty member and instructor of the class.
Not only can students learn techniques of stage fighting, they can also become certified as actors and stage combatants through this class, Wright said.
Gregory Hoffman, a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, along with Wright are conducting a workshop for six students in the class. The workshop is designed to help these students prepare to certify with the Society of American Fight Directors, so they may professionally stage fight.
“This class is essential for any dramatic arts program,” Hoffman said.
All acting majors are required to take this class before graduation, Wright said.
Many enroll in this class more than once and the class is not limited strictly to theater majors, Wright said.
Liliana Romero, a senior from San Fernando Valley, Calif., majoring in theater and the T.A. for the class, said she has taken the class four times.
“I have learned to become in tune with the physicalities of acting through this class,” she said.
Joielle Adams, a junior from Lebanon, Pa., majoring in theater, said she has used what she has learned in this class with her work in stage management.
If she is aware of the actors’ techniques in stage fighting, the actor wil feel more comfortable and safer in managing them on stage, Adams said.
“This class gives me exercise. It’s also a fun way to get to know people in a different kind of violent way,” said Joel Wallin, a senior from Bakersfield, Calif., majoring in theater.
Wallin is one of the students who will certify next month. He said this is his fourth semester taking this class, and he feels he is ready to take the test now, because it is cheaper than not taking it through the class.
More females than males usually sign up for the class, Wright said.
There is not a lot of demand for women to stage fight as actors, but the class gives valuable experience in acting and technique despite this fact, Romero said.
The class was first offered to students in 1994, Wright said. Since that time, he said BYU has grown more excited about the program.
It is now a required class for theater majors with an emphasis in acting to take prior to graduation, he said.
Since 1994, the amount of equipment available to students has increased, Hoffman said. This offers a larger variety of skills to learn.
