MELBOURNE: Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th September 2025

Acclaimed director Iain Sinclair joins fight director Lyndall Grant for an exhilarating weekend of Shakespearean fight scenes.

WHAT IS IT?

A unique new opportunity to dive into Shakespeare’s fight scenes, from context, to character, to combat performance.

Shakespeare’s plays can be combat-heavy, with fight scenes expertly crafted to impact story, reveal character and delight the audience. They also can be technically complex to perform, by the time you detail the text, the characters, the story-arc… and then also the add fight choreography and performance. Done well, Shakespearean scenes are highlights of a play that are impactful and memorable… done badly and they are guttingly unremarkable (or memorable for all the wrong reasons).

In this exciting new workshop, Iain and Lyndall will guide you through key aspects of approaching Shakespearean fight scenes, and how we blend the verbal and physical conflict to unlock your best performance. You will explore technical and artistic considerations for narrative, character, language and text, and how we combine this with safe and effective techniques for performing stage combat as part of the character’s journey. The weekend will culminate in the development of a full Shakespearean fight scene.

By the end of the workshop, you will have solid tools that to apply directly to your work in the industry, and let your fight scenes impact the audience as they were intended. And, well it will be just a wonderful chance to really exercise your acting muscles (all of them) in a room full of like-minded creatives.

WHEN IS IT?

Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th September 2025

10:00am to 6:00pm

WHERE IS IT?

Dancehouse Carlton, Upstairs Studio

150 Princes St, Carlton North, 3054

HOW MUCH IS IT?

EARLY BIRD: $495 (+GST) Register and finalise payment by 1st August 2025
CCONCESSION: $525 (+GST)
STANDARD: $555 (+GST)

HOW DO I JOIN IN?

Bookings are now open. Spots are very competitive – we have strict capacity limits and places sell out quickly. So register early to save your spot (and get the Early Bird price).

Simply fill out the online registration form below.

A minimum 50% deposit is required to complete your registration.

SIGN ME UP

After you register you should receive a confirmation email. An invoice will be then sent to you within 2 working days. If you don’t hear from us at all then check your junk mail, then get in touch.

Please note that we’re not able to reserve your workshop place without a deposit payment. Your spot is only fully confirmed on receipt on full payment, and any payments made are nonrefundable.

Do I need any experience?

This workshop will cater to all levels of experience. However, we will be moving quite quickly, so those with industry experience or training, and/or those with experience with stage combat may find their feet a little quicker. Either way, we heartily encourage you to be bold and dive in (“strong and wrong”). If you are not sure whether this is right for you, please get in touch.

About your tutors:

IAIN SINCLAIR (he/him): Director

Iain Sinclair is well recognised as one of Australia’s finest directors of actors in performance. He graduated from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and King’s College London, where he specialised in directing actors and developmental dramaturgy. Since then Iain has had a rich and successful career alternating between new plays and the classics, and has directing for companies across independent and main stage productions.

Iain is currently the Head of Acting at Melbourne’s 16th Street Actors Studio. Prior to this, he was the Senior Dramaturg at Playwriting Australia and a prolific Theatre Director in Sydney. Early in his career, Iain was AD to Cate Blanchett when she was Artistic Director at Sydney Theatre Company and AD to Max Stafford Clark when he was artistic director at Out of Joint in the UK. He has been a visiting artist and teacher at major institutes like NIDA, VCA and La Salle College. Iain’s directing credits include Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons for Sydney Theatre Company, Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge for both STC and Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian premiere of Milked by Simon Longman at fortyfivedownstairs, and a dynamic production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet for Melbourne Shakespeare Company. His extensive directing work also includes productions for companies such as Ensembles Theatre, Belvoir, Queensland Theatre, Griffith Theatre and The Old Fitz Theatre.

Actors working alongside Iain are regularly nominated for Best Actor awards here and overseas, including Best Actor awards in Los Angeles and in Australia, alongside a compelling 34 total award nominations and 4 wins for Best Play. Beyond his directing, Iain’s expertise as a dramaturg has been invaluable in the development of new Australian writing and the insightful interpretation of classic plays.

LYNDALL GRANT (she/her): Fight Director, Actor

LYNDALL GRANT (she/her) 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 teacher and Management Committee member for the Society of Australian Fight Directors, and certified Dramatic Combat teacher with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.  Lyndall currently teaches stage combat at the Victorian College of the Arts, 16^th Street Actors Studio and National Theatre Drama School.  

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 2016.  Lyndall was an actor and movement captain in Melbourne’s production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from 2018 to 2022

Recent fight/movement credits include MJ the Musical , The Picture of Dorian Gray (Michael Cassel Group); Oscar (The Australian Ballet); Rusalka (West Australian Opera); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, A Christmas Carol, Sunset Boulevard, Groundhog Day The Musical, Death of A Salesman, An American in Paris, 2:22 A Ghost Story (GWB); Beauty and the Beast (Disney Australia); Never Have I Ever, The Robot Dog, Cost of Living, Topdog/Underdog, The Almighty Sometimes, 37, My Sister Jill, A Very Jewish Christmas Carol, Is God Is, Sunday, As You Like It, Berlin, The Lifespan of a Fact, The Architect, Cosi, Torch the Place, The Lady in the Van, Astroman, Lillith the Jungle Girl, Straight White Men, Melbourne Talam, Macbeth, Hungry Ghosts (Melbourne Theatre Company); Cruel Intentions the Musical (David Venn Enterprises); Nosferatu, Looking for Alibrandi, Atlantis, The Return, Because the Night and Cloudstreet (Malthouse Theatre); 37 (Queensland Theatre Company); Sunday, Is God Is, Lord of the Flies, Cosi (Sydney Theatre Company), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?, Blackout Songs, The Way Things Are (Red Stitch); Il Viaggio A Reims (Opera Australia); Things I Know to Be True (Theatre Works); Milked, True West, Two Remain, Punk Rock (45 Downstairs), The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Royal Haymarket, U.K.), Alice in Winterland, The Wind in the Willows, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe (Rose Theatre Kingston, U.K.), Henry IV Part 1 (St. James Theatre, U.K.), Romeo and Juliet (Melbourne Shakespeare Company).

JOSH BELL (he/him): Assistant Fight Director

JOSH BELL (he/him) is a journey-level fight director, actor and theatre-maker based in Melbourne. Under the mentorship of Lyndall Grant he is an assistant fight director at Captivate Action, and is a member of the Society of Australian Fight Directors. He has a BFA in Theatre Practice (Acting Company 2016) from the Victorian College of the Arts.  Josh has regular teaching engagements teaching stage combat to students across public workshops, university and secondary schools – including Collarts, Grace Acting Studios, National Theatre Drama School and Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.

Fight credits include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Slay Theatre); Hamlet, The Whale, Julius Caesar, 12th Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Melbourne Shakespeare Company); Powder Room (MC Showroom); Crocodile Fever (TART Theatre Collective); The View From Up Here (The Voice in My Hands, Theatreworks); Gundog (Three Fates Theatre); Cloud 9 (VCA); Everyone is Famous (Riot Theatre); The Cane (Red Stitch Theatre); The Human Voice Project (Periscope Productions); and Stockholm (Et Tu Theatre).

We look forward to seeing you there!

Got questions? Get in touch