The Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened LanguageMonetary award to playwright: $3000 for works with a running time of at least 40 minutes.Submissions must be in a heightened version of the English language in order to provide a meaningful challenge to the actors. This includes, but is not limited to, works using meter, verse, rhyming schemes, pidgins, creoles, and code-switching.***The 2022 Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin Rolling World Premiere Award will facilitate five rolling world premieres for the winning play at the following theatres: Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis, NC Black Rep, The Ensemble Theatre in Houston, St. Louis Black Rep, and Westcoast Theatre Troupe in Sarasota. The award was created to assist in Black Theatres working together to discover and nurture the next generation of great African-American playwrights.***For our third season, the Denizens Theater Company will be exploring the theme "Fear the Future", an examination of how people react to and navigate change. This includes:-Personal vs Social changes-Re-entering the world, post-covid-All the ways tech helps or destroys-What it means to be on the "right" or "wrong" side of history-What stays the same as things change.-How change ties into race, identity, politics, relationships, revolutions*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ****** UNARMED STAGE COMBAT ***“It’s okay, just slap me. I don’t mind.”Those words strike fear into the heart of every fight director I know.Right now there is a trend that I have been seeing, one which might be called an attempt at "realism" in theatre, or more likely a money-saving attempt by a theater company to cut the "staged" part out of staged combat moments. In other words, when it comes time to slap someone on stage, directors, actors, producers, choreographers, whoever are becoming more and more comfortable with really doing it.I have met very few fight directors who approve of this measure, so my only way of justifying it is to say that theaters are less and less willing to hire a fight director for a show. A notion that I get suspicious about especially at Equity theaters where they are required to do so. Often I find the director is trained, or even "trained" and does it for his or herself. Now I'm not one to doubt the abilities of someone, but as a fight director, I will simply say this: I hope you're the Michael Bennett of staged combat if you're going to play that card.More...https://www.neddonovan.com/blog/the-art-of-the-stage-slap-a-call-to-arms
***Actors are often taught that all one needs to do to safely slap someone in the face is to cup the hand slightly, keep the fingers and wrist very relaxed, and go for the fleshy part of the cheek. It is true that most of the time it causes no injury, which is why many assume that it is safe. But when this contact technique goes wrong, the results are devastating.In a perfect world, the slapping hand will strike at exactly the same spot every single time, but that is simply unrealistic. If the hand is perfectly flat, the hand is also tense, therefore has become rigid. When a hand is relaxed, the palm forms a slightly shallow cup shape. When that cup strikes the cheek, the air inside becomes pressurized and searches for release in the line of least resistance, which makes that satisfying popping sound as it slips by the fleshy skin of the cheek. However, if the hand drifts a mere inch closer to the victim, the ear is now inside the coverage of the hand. The pressurized air is still looking for a means of escape, and it’s found it – right down the ear canal. At the bottom of the canal is the tympanic membrane – the ear drum – which easily bursts. If the membrane doesn’t heal properly [all too common even with immediate medical attention] or if an infection develops [which is highly probable] the actor can expect temporary or permanent, partial or complete, hearing loss in the affected ear. Even one finger tip tapping the ear canal can pop an eardrum.More...https://weaponsofchoice.com/extras/stage-slap/
***
It’s important to remember that few people want to fight. What they want is to win. Acting a fight requires careful investigation of all the beats leading up to the moment violence becomes a necessary tactic. Often the moments before and after a burst of violence are just as if not more important than the violence itself.Good acting is vital to playing a fight. The moment a character shifts from using their words as weapons to using their fists is similar to the transition from text to song in musicals. In both cases, speaking alone is no longer enough to accomplish one’s objective, so a dramatic shift is necessary.Consider the following questions before you embark on the physical elements of a fight.How many times does my character try not fighting?What is the trigger that causes my character to fight?Does my character know how to fight?Has my character ever fought before?How is my character different at the end of the fight? What has been learned? What has changed?More...https://dramatics.org/slaps-punches-and-kicks/
***It has only been six weeks into the semester and I have learned a great deal in my Combat for Actors class thus far. Not only do I know how to throw a fake punch now (having taken karate in the past puts all these new skills into perspective—i.e.: Don't hit your scene partner!), but I have also gained some general rules to follow in life. Most of these are lessons I have already acquired through the years, but these five have particularly made an impact on my everyday life—as well as on my midterm scene as Kate from Taming of the Shrew.Life Lesson #5: Sell, Sell, Sell.The ability of making something look good even when it doesn't look great is a tremendous skill. Even if a punch doesn't look great, if you sell the impact, the action is sold. I hear a lot about plays that are not-so-well-written, but under certain circumstances, they can be transformed into remarkable productions. Being able to sell a scene evokes a kind of confidence unlike any other. Knowing that you've hit the mark, or brought an audience to tears or to their knees with laughter, is like a hit of caffeine or adrenaline into your system. However, it doesn't work in reverse: a wonderful play that isn't well-produced will not have good reception—same with a punch. A great punch that isn't sold is, well… Like my professor says, "A punch without a knap (the sound that sells an attack) is like a day without sunshine."More...https://www.theatermania.com/philadelphia-theater/news/five-life-lessons-ive-learned-from-stage-combat_63140.html
***“In Australia, we are really physical. We’re really open as people in general. We’re enthusiastic, we’re engaged, we’re energetic, and we have a great sense of humour. And, I’ve found there’s much more movement here, many more physical performances as opposed to talking heads. So, we should be really leading in areas like motion capture performance.”But part of the current problem, she suggests, is a lack of appreciation or understanding of what goes into a good, choreographed stage fight.Dr Grant recounts an anecdote that she believes highlights the lack of attention to craft. An actor, who shall remain nameless, went against her advice and insisted that an actress actually slap him in the face, refusing to use stage combat techniques, even though the story didn’t require a slap.To Dr Grant’s mind, this was largely down to ignorance about the craft and how it’s used. As well as a cultural tendency for some actors to want to come across as ‘tough’ – feeling that they don’t need ‘choreographed’ violence. The actress, however, was quite distressed at being asked to slap another actor.“He ended up saying ‘Well, if I can’t do an actual slap to the face, I want to take it out then’. So, I said ‘Great. I think that’s a great idea. Let’s take out that slap’, which didn’t need to be there in the first place.”More..https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/pulling-no-punches-the-underrated-art-of-stage-fighting
***Dear directors,If you ever hear yourself say the words “it’s just a slap,” please pause. Reflect. Then google “fight director [your city].”I understand the temptation not to. It’s one slap in a two-hour show. There’s probably someone in the cast who could figure it out. If they put together a good-looking stage slap, where everyone feels safe and in control, great! But if it doesn’t look good, you may be tempted to scrap it — or maybe there seems to be no way to hide a stage slap in the first place.I am writing to tell you that a contact (“real”) slap is not your only recourse. Hand meeting face on stage isn’t a real slap, anyway; it requires more control than a non-contact slap, and more rehearsal, not less. The motion is so close to being natural, it’s usually happening in an emotional moment, and there’s less than an inch of leeway in each direction: you don’t want to hit the ear in the back, the nose in front, the eye above, or the jaw below. If a contact slap is really the best choice, a fight director will take your actors through a series of lead-ups and help them communicate in order to keep them comfortable and safe — yes, both of them: the slapper needs confidence in the process as much as the slappee. It’s also entirely possible that a small adjustment to the orientation or hand placement will make a stage slap work.More...https://notgonnahityou.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/the-just-a-slap-fallacy/***A guide to slapping a character on stage. This video includes demonstrations and proper techniques for safety, knaps, and partner connection so that you can effectively and safely create the illusion of violence on stage.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jefgy6sM2iQ
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