I bought to take a seat down and speak with actor, combatant and battle director Benedetto Robinson. Throughout his various profession, he has labored as an motion performer from Ohio to New Hampshire, and North Carolina to Georgia. He wrote and starred in Dracula: The Failings of Males, produced by Havoc Motion and returning to its second venue, The Atlanta Shakespeare Firm, this fall.
His work as battle director within the ASC’s Romeo and Juliet was a triumph of storytelling, and he was gracious sufficient to supply his experience and perception to these considering fight for movie and stage, battle choreography and what it means to be an actor combatant.
What drew you to stage fight? Give us a quick historical past.
Once I was like fifteen, my mom was volunteering on the Kids’s Theatre of Maine they usually had this partnership with this theatre known as Acorn that specialised in Shakespeare and I began taking courses with them as a result of I preferred appearing quite a bit. And one in all their courses was this rudimentary stage fight class…and I discovered quite a bit about myself, and quite a bit about appearing and I kind of discovered the issues that I loved to do as a bodily human being…This was a great way to train that I didn’t hate or didn’t hate myself doing. I began there after which I didn’t do it for years.
In my junior 12 months of school, we needed to take a stage fight class. Each one in all my classmates was like “Ugh, that is so dumb.” I beloved it. My instructor occurred to be an authorized instructor with the Society of American Battle Administrators. I kind of apprenticed with this man, his identify is Jeff Jones. He nonetheless lives and works exterior of Raleigh North Carolina. By way of him, I bought launched to what it’s to do that professionally.
Speak about being an actor combatant. What alternatives has it opened in your profession?
Earlier than I reply that straight, I’ll speak just a little bit about why it’s that I’ve determined to proceed doing this. As a result of we reside in a society now [where] plenty of our leisure comes from the consumption and digestion of dramatized violence. That is one thing that I discovered from a really expensive good friend of mine, Jake Guinn: it is extremely essential that we take accountability for the photographs of violence that we depict.
As a result of in a society like ours in Western society, which is concurrently so divorced from and so intricately certain up in violence, within the information and the media, I feel there’s a really actual hazard of treating violence as one thing that’s high-quality, that is ready to be, , trivialized. The violence in the true world is something however that…and so, the work of an actor combatant and battle choreographer is to responsibly current violence in a means that serves the story and serves, maybe the digestion and deconstruction of what we consider as entertaining violence. And take a look at the associated fee and results of that in a means that’s palatable as a result of it’s via theatre or movie, however is however treating it with the respect that it requires.
Now what that appears like within the day-to-day as a battle choreographer, as an actor who performs preventing is…generally you’ll be on a job and everybody within the room is like “effectively, we don’t want a battle choreographer”…after which it turns into your job to advocate for the presence of 1. As a result of it may be, truly, actually harmful.
One of many worst accidents I’ve ever heard inform of occurred in a stage fight class the place they have been utilizing blunt swords…and these two younger actors have been doing their choreography in a short time…and their instructor was like “OK you guys have to decelerate and proceed to concentrate on the hazard of this” they usually have been like “Oh, it’s blunt, it’s not going to harm us”…they have been going quick and one actor slipped the tip of his blunt sword into the nostril of the opposite and pierced his mind.
He’s nonetheless alive. However that’s a extremely horrifying harm….and so, it’s essential to remind each room that you simply’re in that there’s a want for somebody to run this safely. And when the time comes, if you have to be so lucky to be that particular person within the room, it turns into your accountability to facilitate that security and to do it in a means that continues to be thrilling and in service to the story and respectful of the stakes of the violence. And that’s a sophisticated puzzle that I actually prefer to attempt to resolve.
You latterly choreographed fights for Romeo and Juliet. How did you utilize fight to help and help the story?
So, this can be a factor that I see quite a bit…oftentimes I’ll see a interval piece…the place the motion of the story is halted and area is given for this third social gathering factor that’s the sword battle, that has nothing to do with anything, that’s tremendous flashy and enjoyable–and that’s carried out and we return to the story. And I didn’t need to try this.
It comes all the way down to the title of battle director. I feel folks usually put plenty of emphasis on preventing and never plenty of emphasis on the director. To me, it’s simply as essential for a battle director to learn and digest and develop into intimately acquainted with the script and the story as an entire as it’s for the director, or an actor within the piece. The violence–it’s irresponsible to current violence that doesn’t have any bearing on the story.
In Romeo and Juliet, a few issues caught out to me. There’s this large battle to start with…the place all these teenagers battle on the street with swords and no person will get harm, and it will get damaged up by the royalty, proper? You’ve bought a bunch of individuals with deadly weapons not hurting one another…ain’t none of them need to be preventing and hurting one another. There’s bought to be a component of posturing in that…So there’s this concept that this preventing is about social standing, till one thing shifts and it turns into one thing far more critical and sinister.
What are some common misconceptions about stage fight?
The most important one I run into within the room…is that, and I don’t know why that is, as a result of whenever you rehearse a play you are taking plenty of time to do a dance quantity…plenty of time to stage a scene, however in terms of battle choreography many administrators are like “OK, you might have quarter-hour to do that entire prolonged sword battle.”
The period of time that you simply’re given within the room to current one thing that must be actually actually sharp and well-rehearsed could be very very small.
I’d encourage of us within the trade who should not preventing professionals to liken the time that it takes to create an concerned piece of battle choreography to the time it takes to choreograph a really concerned, company-wide dance quantity.
The place would you prefer to see the trade develop in terms of preventing chores?
I wish to see it transfer in a course that’s much less I hate to say self-serving and self-showcasing–I wish to see it transfer…extra into an area the place it’s cohesive with the storytelling of the piece…. Within the theatre, there’s a sturdy threat for it to develop into about a person’s ego…The product inevitably suffers….We inform these tales to show a lens of reflection on the human expertise. And if that’s not the purpose…then what are we doing right here?
What’s one thing you would like you had been informed earlier in your fight profession?
Every thing is at all times a course of…no matter it’s you do there’s some extent in your schooling, normally comparatively early the place you’re like… ‘I do know every little thing about this, I’m so good at this.’ And normally, that’s the place you cease.
It’s important to continue learning. The minute that you simply cease changing into a scholar…and begin changing into somebody who claims authority over it…that’s the minute you develop into unsafe within the room. In case you are unable to maintain that learner’s spirit you’re going to harm somebody.
If [combat and choreo] is one thing that you simply’re considering as an actor… it has opened many doorways for me in my profession as an actor. It’s a means right into a sure area of interest of what we do. As a result of it does require a skillset.
To search out out extra about Benedetto Robinson, go to his Instagram or take a look at his web site at benedettorobinson.com
This text initially appeared on Casting Networks.
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Written by Rachel Frawley
