Swords and Shakespeare

Amber Wolfe will be teaching  at the upcoming summer session for the High School Intensives. She explains "Acting the Shakespearian Fight."

Any kind of physical fight within a play is simply an extension of the story.  If your fight doesn't help to tell they story, why have it in the play?  In this week-long intensive we will be exploring both Shakespearian text and swordplay and how they intersect. 

I'm a text geek.  Once I learned that Shakespeare wrote so many little hints and helpers into his text I was really hooked.  I use techniques from John Barton's Playing Shakespeare to really explore text in a way that is useful to actors.  How do we as actors help the audience to understand Shakespeare --or any complicated text? 

Rapier/Single Sword work:

Training in basic sword safety, technique and learning/creating choreography.  We'll be using epee bladed rapiers.  These are light swords and easy to work with for beginners.  There's nothing like havin' a sword in your hand and knowin' how to look cool using it!