TRAVERSE CITY -- The victim is always in control.
Whether kicking, slapping, punching, pulling hair or choking, the perpetrator follows the cues when actors are staging a combat scene.
No kidding and no shortcuts when illusion and safety merge in a choreography of violence.
Sixteen students in the Traverse City College Prep Academy's drama class put coaching into action last week during workshops conducted by two members of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. In pairs, they practiced the techniques and concluded the four hours of training by creating a short skit Wednesday that incorporated four moves built around a story line.
Instructors Dion Johnstone and Jeffrey Wetsch watched each presentation closely, critiquing as needed and having the students try again.
"Never do it by rote, you have to be thinking each time you do a fight," said Johnstone, of Toronto. "It's then the skill of staying in the moment, making decisions each and every time you do it."
Added Wetsch in a familiar refrain: "Above all, it's about being safe."
A grant by the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts and the MSU Federal Credit Union Institute for Arts and Creativity funded the workshop. Actors and teaching artists from the company will be in Michigan through Nov. 17, working with students and the public in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Lansing and Traverse City. Regional visits included stops last week at Traverse City West Senior High, Interlochen Arts Academy, Traverse City Christian School and Benzie Central High School as well as the Traverse City Children's Theater and Northwestern Michigan College.
Leland High School music and music theater teacher Jeremy Evans relished the "wonderful experience" for 22 of his students. A team featuring a Stratford actor and a director conducted two sessions in his classroom, working on text, subtext and ensemble movement using a scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
"It was really great for them to get a different perspective, somebody else's perspective besides just mine," Evans said. "They were very patient and had some great new tools that they gave the kids, great new warm-ups."
Initially dubious, Auston Head, who has acted in school plays since the fifth grade, was a convert after the two-day workshop at the College Prep Academy.
"It turns out it was very, very interesting," reflected the junior. "Most challenging was remembering all the steps."
The thoroughness and precision of Wetsch and Johnstone's coaching -- they noted that each second of a combat scene requires at least an hour of planning and rehearsal -- provided students a window into the professional theater world. The overall experience provided Minda Nyquists's students a "chance of a lifetime," she noted, one that could have a lasting impact.
"It's made a lot of sense to me and it's opened up my eyes to theater and how stuff works," said Chelsey Phelps, a junior at the academy. "It's not just going into the theater and throwing together a production."
For more information on the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada, see www.stratfordshakespearefestival.com.
Print this story
E-mail this story
