MELBOURNE: 21st to 25th April 2025

A week of throwing yourself into STAGE COMBAT and ACTION for theatre, motion capture and film – this year with world leading Fight Director, Kevin McCurdy.

WHAT IS IT?

One of our favourite workshops! The FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT Stage Combat Intensive is your chance to train one of the most exhilarating areas of acting… full time… for an uninterrupted week. And this year we are THRILLED to be hosting U.K. Fight Director Kevin McCurdy, who is one of the world’s most respected Fight Directors for theatre, film and TV.

Kev is easily one of the most sought-after fight directors in the UK, working continuously across London’s West End, the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is a UK Equity-registered Fight Director who has been teaching stage combat for around 30 years, and professionally fight choreographing for nearly 25 years across stage, TV and film projects around the UK and internationally. Kev is the resident fight master at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (where he originally trained as an actor), and co-founder UK’s Academy of Performance Combat. He is a leading figure in shaping the landscape of how we work with dramatic combat, and now the Fight the Good Fight intensive is your opportunity to indulge in working with him full-time for a week!

Dramatic combat or ‘stage combat’ can involve anything from a ‘simple push’, to a ‘scuffle’, to a full-scale sword fight. It is essential that these moments are safe while still being dramatically effective, so that we don’t get clunky, unrealistic and unsafe fights that jolt the actors and audience out of the story, and terrify the everyone (for the wrong reasons). Being trained in stage combat frees you up to tell the story you want to tell, and to commit to your performance and enthral the audience without the fear of anyone getting hurt.

This workshop is an industry-based experience with Kev in collaboration with Captivate’s internationally-recognised Australian Fight Director Lyndall Grant. The training focuses on bringing out your best work across a range of weapons and unarmed combat, across a range of genres and time periods, and with a range of techniques. So… you will be thrown into action, movement, conditioning, fitness, form, historical context, theory, acting and technique. The result? You will widen your skill base, widen your casting range, and enter a network of highly passionate and creative performers. That is, you will be playing with one the most fun aspects of performance!

WHEN IS IT?

21st to 25th April 2025. 10am to 6:00pm

WHERE IS IT?

MELBOURNE

Dancehouse Carlton

150 Princes St, Carlton North, 3054

WHO IS IT FOR?

This workshop is created for anyone with an interest in the performing arts – actors, dancers, circus performers, stunt performers, directors, stage management, other creative and crew… or someone dipping their toe into the Arts for the first time.

Captivate actively advocates for and supports diverse and equitable work and learning spaces. We also fiercely protect safe work and learning spaces for all of our participants. If you have any concerns or questions please get in touch with us.

DO I NEED ANY EXPERIENCE?

The course will cater to all levels of experience – from absolute beginners to experienced performers wishing to further their craft.  We also cater to all levels of physical fitness and abilities – although of course the more in-shape you are, the more you can get out of the week.

HOW MUCH IS IT?

EARLY BIRD: $635 (+ 10% GST) Register and finalise payment by 31st Jan 2025
CONCESSION: $655 (+ 10% GST)
STANDARD: $695 (+ 10% GST)

HOW DO I JOIN IN?

BOOKINGS ARE NOW OPEN! This workshop always sells out quickly and we have strictly limited places, so do sign up early to grab your spot and take advantage of the Early Bird Rate. Simply fill out the Course Registration Form, and transfer a deposit to hold the registration (minimum 50% of workshop fee).

SIGN ME UP

After you have registered, you should receive an information email from us in the next 2 business days. If you do not receive an email, check your junk mail, then send us an email to make sure we received your registration.

A deposit of at least 50% of your course fee is required on registration and your spot will be fully confirmed on finalisation of all course fees. We accept online transfer or Square Online Payments (2.2% admin fee), so let us know what is the easiest method of payment for you. Payment details are listed on the Course Registration Form and are provided in your information email on registration. Due to high demand for course spots we are not able to hold a place without a deposit payment. Please note that any payments made are not refundable.

COVID-Safe Learning

The health and safety of our students, tutors, venue staff, all of our family and friends, and the wider community is absolutely vital. Both Captivate and Dancehouse are dedicated to running this course strictly within the most up-to-date Government-advised COVID-Safe guidelines. This includes requiring covid-19 vaccination prior to attending the course (or a valid medical exemption). Students and tutors will be asked to stay home if they have shown any signs related to a COVID-19 infection, or are a close-contact of someone with an active COVID-19 infection.

About your tutors:

KEVIN McCURDY (he/him)

Kev is an Equity Registered Fight Director of 24 years and co-founder of The Academy of Performance Combat.

Kev teaches at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has been a guest instructor at universities in Oklahoma and Missouri and on workshops in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Canada.

Upcoming fight choreographing projects include: Rigoletto at WNO, Othello at RSC and Little Foxes at Young Vic.

Upcoming directing projects: The Fight at Dylan Thomas Theatre, Swansea.

Theatre & Opera includes: Sister Act (UK tour, London Palladium & Dominion Theatre); Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); The Phantom of The Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre); Bajazet (INO tour); Carmen, The Barber Of Seville (Garsington Opera); Mandela, Hamlet, Nora- A Doll’s House, The Homecoming (Young Vic); Rigoletto (Royal Opera House); Jitney (Old Vic); Guardians of The Galaxy (Secret Cinema); Trouble In Butetown (Donmar Warehouse); Brokeback Mountain (Soho Place); The Wizard Of Oz (London Palladium); Othello (National Theatre); The Tempest (RSC); Tambo and Bones (Stratford East); Carrie The Musical / Julius Caesar (Richard Burton Company); Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic); Enemy Of The People (Duke Of York’s Theatre); Stranger Things (Phoenix Theatre); Out Of Season (Hampstead Theatre); An Officer And A Gentleman (UK tour); Player Kings (Noel Coward Theatre & UK tour); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre); Red Pitch (Bush Theatre & Soho Place); One Man Two Guvnors (Everyman Open Air Festival).

TV & Film includes: The A List S2 (Netflix); John Carter Of Mars (Walt Disney / Pixar); Protein, Scopophobia (Broadside Films); The Lady Of Heaven (Enlightened Kingdom); Until I Kill You (Amazon Prime); Bariau (S4C Wales)

Directing: The Saliva Milkshake; The Glass Menagerie; Making of a Motherer; Jekyll And Hyde The Musical; The Welsh Dragon; The Fight (World premiere)

LYNDALL GRANT (she/her)

Lyndall is a Fight Director, Movement Director, actor and Motion Capture Specialist who works in Australia and Internationally for stage and screen.  She is a senior instructor for the Society of Australian Fight Directors, and certified Dramatic Combat teacher with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat. Lyndall trained as an actor as London’s ArtsEd School of Acting, before specialising in fight performance and physical performance.  She began working as a fight director in London in 2010. In 2013 Lyndall established Captivate Action Ltd. in the U.K., as the first company to specialise in training and performance in action and Motion Capture, and brought this company home to Australia in 2015. Lyndall currently teaches Stage Combat at the Victorian College of the Arts (The University of Melbourne) and 16th Street Actors Studio, and was recently a guest instructor at the Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshop in Canada. She taught extensively in workshops and institutions across the U.K., and in Norway, Sweden and Vienna.    Lyndall was a performer, aerialist and Movement Captain in Melbourne’s production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from its opening in 2019 until 2022.

Recent fight/movement directing credits include:  Rusalka (West Australian Opera); Groundhog Day the Musical, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Sunset Boulevard, Death of a Salesman, 2:22 A Ghost Story, An American in Paris (GWB); The Picture of Dorian Grey (Theatre Royal Haymarket, London – Michael Cassel Group); Beauty and the Beast (Disney Australia); Grease the Musical (Crossroads Live); The Almighty Sometimes, Topdog/Underdog, 37, A Very Jewish Christmas Carol, Is God Is, My Sister Jill, Sunday, As You Like It, Berlin, The Lifespan of a Fact, Torch the Place, Cosi, Storm Boy, The Violent Outburst that Lead Me To you, The Architect, The Lady in the Van, Hungry Ghosts, Vivid White, Macbeth, Minnie and Liraz, Melbourne Talam, Lillith the Jungle Girl, Straight White Men (Melbourne Theatre Company); 37 (Queensland Theatre Company); Atlantis, The Return, Looking for Alibrandi, Because the Night, Cloudstreet (Malthouse Theatre);  Is God Is, Lord of the Flies, Cosi (Sydney Theatre Company); Blackout Songs, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf (Red Stitch Actors Theatre); Il Viaggio a Reims (Opera Australia); Milked, Punk Rock (45 Downstairs); Things I Know to Be True (Theatre Works); No Exemptions (Shift Theatre); Alice in Winterland, The Wind in the Willow, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Rose Theatre Kingston, U.K.); Lohengrin (Melbourne Opera), The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Royal Haymarket, U.K), Henry IV Part 1 (St. James Theatre, U.K.). 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Got questions? Get in touch