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A-level Stage Combat Course

Posted on 8 Nov, 2017 in 6th Form, About GMS

The A-level Drama students experienced a rewarding session from a visiting theatre expert, who taught them how to perform combat on a stage.

Review by Jake Holden

On Friday the 28th September, our Year 12 and Year 13 drama classes took part in a stage combat course, taught by Dave. During the day, we learnt numer ous techniques and methods of stage fighting; from kicks in the face to slaps in the face. We also learnt how to angle these actions to make it look legitimate and real, in order to really fool the audience. Furthermore, we also looked into slapstick comedy, and how to exaggerate our actions, and how these actions can be used to humour the audience.

My favourite part of the course was definitely creating a character from the way we walked. We completed this exercise numerous times, however, every time we used different parts of our body to determine the direction we walked in. One time we used our chin, sometimes our forehead, and another time our stomach. The way we walked would bring a character to our minds, and at the end of the exercise we explained to the class what our character looked like. It was a very useful exercise because it taught us how to form characters from just our movements as actors.

I also enjoyed forming a sequence of either stage combat or slapstick at the end of the course, and performing it to my class. Our team decided to create a slapstick piece base on competed for the love of a young man. We included the techniques we had learnt in the sessions. Other people in our classes created a mix of the two, two of them being combat pieces, both inventive and responsive to the teaching we had received from the Dave.

Overall, from the very useful and entertaining teaching we received, our class found his course very valuable and will use the elements of drama we learnt of in our future pieces. I as a student, thoroughly recommend it to any students trying to make their stage combat more realistic, or provide a slapstick aspect to their piece, it was definitely work the time.

Another Review (Anon)

Dave’s stage combat course was an eye opener. I found it incredibly rewarding and enjoyable. I would recommend this workshop to anyone wanting to expand their knowledge on stage combat, slapstick comedy and physical theatre.

The workshop we had with Dave from Trouble Maker Theatre Company was a great experience. He taught me about stage combat, which I can’t wait to use in my A-level performance. His knowledge and experience made me feel secure in what I was doing and made the whole session a so enjoyable. I would recommend strongly.