Stage Combat Foundations Course
MELBOURNE: Thurs evenings. Next course early 2025 – combined with Certification Course.
A comprehensive 10-week course for performing stage combat at a professional industry level.
WHAT IS IT?
This course will give you the fundamental skills you need to safely and effectively perform dramatic combat for stage, screen and motion capture.
Fight scenes are some of the most exhilarating moments in a theatrical piece – for the audience and the performer. However, without adequate training they can also be genuinely scary moments in a piece – again, for the audience, and most definitely for the performer. Professional training in stage combat is vital to give you the freedom to do your job as an actor: tell a story, keep the character journey moving, engage the audience, and keep everyone safe. And let’s be honest, stage combat training is just a huge amount of fun, whether you intend to use it for work, as a hobby or for physical training.
This course will cover foundations in unarmed combat and working with a single sword.
We will romp through safety principles, stage combat illusions, physical form, efficient movement, falls and tumbles, acting technique, historical context, theatrical protocols – everything you need approach the work with confidence and inject it with excitement and dramatic intent. You will have to the opportunity to put your hard work to practice as the course culminates in a performance outcome.
Successfully completing the course will give you the ability to handle fight scenes across the industry; and will provide a foundation for further training for those who would like to advance further in the artform. You will improve your fitness, stage craft, movement ability and casting options; and spend 10 classes with a group of like-minded creatives having an really good time.
WHEN IS IT?
Thursday evenings. Next course early 2025.
6:30pm to 9:30pm
WHERE IS IT?
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 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 seasoned performers. The course is designed to accomodate those with little or no prior knowledge of the work. However we also encourage students who already have some stage combat experience to join us, to further your craft by honing the ‘basics’. We also cater to all levels of physical fitness and abilities.
HOW MUCH IS IT?
EARLY BIRD: $585 (+GST) Register and finalise payment by 15th February 2023
CCONCESSION: $615 (+GST)
STANDARD: $635 (+GST)
A deposit of at least 50% of your course fee is required on registration. Places are confirmed only on completion of full payment, which we kindly ask to be completed by 11th April 2024. Please note we are unable to hold places without a deposit.
We accept online transfer (no additional fee), PayPal (3% admin fee) and Square Online Payments (2.2% admin fee), so let us know what is the easiest method of payment for you.
This course has a place available with our TRAINING SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, which covers THE FULL STANDARD COURSE FEES. Application deadline 15th February 2024. More info here.
HOW DO I JOIN IN?
Bookings are now open. Spots are very competitive as we have strict capacity limits and this course sells out quickly, so register early to save your spot (and to get the Early Bird price). Just fill out the online registration form once bookings open, and we will reply with your registration confirmation.
Make sure you get a text box confirmation that your registration form has gone through as soon as you SUBMIT. If you do not hear from us within 48 hours, check your junk mail, and then send us an email.
About your tutors:
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, 16th 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 directing credits include: Beauty and the Beast (Disney Australia); Death of A Salesman, 2:22 A Ghost Story (GWB); Cruel Intentions The Musical (National Tour, DVE); An American in Paris (GWB); Nosferatu, Atlantis, The Return, Looking for Alibrandi, Because the Night, Cloudstreet (Malthouse Theatre); A Very Jewish Christmas Carol, My Sister Jill, Is God Is, Sunday, As You Like It, Berlin, The Lifespan of a Fact, Torch the Place, Cosi, Storm Boy, Astroman, 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); Il Viaggio a Reims (Opera Australia); Punk Rock (45 Downstairs); 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 Way Things Work (Red Stitch Theatre).
JOSH BELL (he/him) is a journey fight director, actor and theatre maker based in Melbourne. Currently under the mentorship of Lyndall Grant, he is an assistant fight director at Captivate Action and has been a member of the Society of Australian Fight Directors since 2018. He has a BFA in Theatre Practice as a member of Acting Company 2016 at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Josh recently taught at the 2022 SAFDi Nationals Workshop in Brisbane. He has taught stage combat and movement workshops for St Martins Youth Theatre; Melbourne Opera; Dreamhouse Theatre; Footscray College; Wesley College and for Captivate. He has also assisted teaching at the VCA and 16th Street Actors Studio.
Fight direction credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Melbourne Shakespeare Company); 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
