With regard to staged violence, the final product that is performed for the audience is always choreographed and no part of it is improvised. However, in the beginning stages of rehearsal play is helpful.
- The actors need to trust eachother. Play in a safe environment gives permits trust.
- The actors need to familiarize themselves with the weapons. If we start with choreography from the start, then it will never be more than a series of planned moves. Good stage combat is like good dance: the audience should believe it is spontaneous.
- Everyone is different. Some actors will have knee problems, or a previous wrist injury, and everyone is a different height. Play will show me what feels natural and optimum for the actor instead of imposing cookie-cutter choreography.
Entertainers Work and Play
However, what the audience sees is our work, not our play. A good comedian writes jokes and routines, memorizes them, and performs them in the way he thinks will have the funniest delivery. Bad comedians improvise. When a gag flops, a good comic can go back to his script and try something different with his set-up or punchline and see if the result is better or worse.
It’s the same with stage combat: the performance originates from play, but it is work that can be precisely replicated. Safety is the reason we choreograph. For fighting games to be safe, the players have to be slow, and obey certain rules. To make a fight convincing on stage, the fighters need to appear to be trying to kill the other: fast, desperate, and usually not rule-bound. We can’t improvise that. So we plan everything.
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