Choreography and Educational Services
Stage Combat and Movement-based Choreography, Research and Education
from pre-production to performance
Fight Direction
Does your production feature multiple fight scenes which are integral to the plot? Are you looking for a choreographer who will be a communicative, fully-committed member of your production team? When mounting a show with multiple fight scenes or a great deal of violence scattered throughout, a fight director may be the best option for your production.
When you contract with an Eclectic Mayhem fight director, you will get the fullest extent of our dramaturgical and choreography services, including full collaboration with your production staff, attendance at production meetings, training sessions with actors, and a frequent presence at rehearsals. We undertake fight direction with an eye toward violent storytelling, working closely with the director to ensure that your production’s fights integrate seamlessly with the overall narrative of the show.
Does your production feature multiple fight scenes which are integral to the plot? Are you looking for a choreographer who will be a communicative, fully-committed member of your production team? When mounting a show with multiple fight scenes or a great deal of violence scattered throughout, a fight director may be the best option for your production.
When you contract with an Eclectic Mayhem fight director, you will get the fullest extent of our dramaturgical and choreography services, including full collaboration with your production staff, attendance at production meetings, training sessions with actors, and a frequent presence at rehearsals. We undertake fight direction with an eye toward violent storytelling, working closely with the director to ensure that your production’s fights integrate seamlessly with the overall narrative of the show.
Fight Choreography
If you just need a couple of simple fight elements for your production, our fight choreography service is designed for you.
Excellent for productions with isolated violence, this service involves a meeting with the director of the production and enough early rehearsals to set choreography and select a fight captain. Finally, the choreographer will return to check and “touch up” the choreography later in the production schedule. Basic choreography services also include actor training during rehearsals. Fight Choreography from Eclectic Mayhem will also provide the most basic level of our Violence Dramaturgy services.
If you just need a couple of simple fight elements for your production, our fight choreography service is designed for you.
Excellent for productions with isolated violence, this service involves a meeting with the director of the production and enough early rehearsals to set choreography and select a fight captain. Finally, the choreographer will return to check and “touch up” the choreography later in the production schedule. Basic choreography services also include actor training during rehearsals. Fight Choreography from Eclectic Mayhem will also provide the most basic level of our Violence Dramaturgy services.
Violence Dramaturgy
Not sure whether your Hamlet should carry a rapier or a broadsword? Uncertain which characters need to wear costume weapons? Don’t know whether to give your Jets and Sharks bowies or bali-songs? What exactly does it mean when your restoration-era British soldier jokes that "ladies are gained by platooning?" If you are concerned with using period-appropriate weapons, weapon carriers (scabbards, swordbelts, etc.), martial behavior and movement, Eclectic Mayhem can take the brunt of this research and provide whatever guidance your production needs in this area.
Dramaturgical services involve a meeting with your production staff to determine your needs, then another to return and present the findings of our research. This service does not, by itself, include any choreographic services, but is an excellent resource in period pieces that involve the wearing or discussion of weapons and violence. Whether you simply need a few questions answered, or detailed research supporting an entire production, we're happy to put our research skills and experience at your disposal.
Not sure whether your Hamlet should carry a rapier or a broadsword? Uncertain which characters need to wear costume weapons? Don’t know whether to give your Jets and Sharks bowies or bali-songs? What exactly does it mean when your restoration-era British soldier jokes that "ladies are gained by platooning?" If you are concerned with using period-appropriate weapons, weapon carriers (scabbards, swordbelts, etc.), martial behavior and movement, Eclectic Mayhem can take the brunt of this research and provide whatever guidance your production needs in this area.
Dramaturgical services involve a meeting with your production staff to determine your needs, then another to return and present the findings of our research. This service does not, by itself, include any choreographic services, but is an excellent resource in period pieces that involve the wearing or discussion of weapons and violence. Whether you simply need a few questions answered, or detailed research supporting an entire production, we're happy to put our research skills and experience at your disposal.
Movement Coaching and/or Direction
Available alone or in conjunction with any of our combat services, let us add dynamic physicality to your production.
The artists of Eclectic Mayhem delight in helping a director and actors create a physical language for a production. We are happy to help experienced ensembles research and rehearse period, cultural, or stylized movement, as well as coach novice casts in the fundamentals of stage presence and character development through movement.
Available alone or in conjunction with any of our combat services, let us add dynamic physicality to your production.
The artists of Eclectic Mayhem delight in helping a director and actors create a physical language for a production. We are happy to help experienced ensembles research and rehearse period, cultural, or stylized movement, as well as coach novice casts in the fundamentals of stage presence and character development through movement.
Props Rental
Eclectic Mayhem maintains a modest armory of stage-combat worthy and costume-quality weapon props, which we rent at an industry-competitive rate to theatre companies and other artistic projects in our local service area.
Please contact us to learn about our available stock, and see if we can help bring both safety and substance to the look and feel of your production's property needs.
Please contact us to learn about our available stock, and see if we can help bring both safety and substance to the look and feel of your production's property needs.
Educational Services
Workshops and Seminars
Are you providing a series of theatre-related workshops, either as an addition to your theatre season or as a part of your educational or outreach program? Are you producing a show involving fights and want to give your actors some extra training? Why not include a Stage Combat workshop?
Give us a few nights in your rehearsal schedule to train technique and performance, and your actors will soon be more confident and more proficient when swinging steel or throwing punches!
Stage Combat workshops can be incredibly popular, not to mention a great deal of fun for everyone involved! They’re always a huge draw, and we can teach to a wide range of experience, from children to established professionals. We can tailor our services to your needs, ranging from short one-or-two-day introductory workshops to multi-week residencies.
Past workshop topics have included:
Lectures and demonstrations
Do you have students interested in knowing what kinds of theatre jobs exist beyond “actor” and “carpenter?” Would you like to add a bit of visual interest to your class discussions of Shakespeare's literature or Restoration-era society? Interested in knowing more about the process of creating theatrical violence? We can provide an inside look at one of the most exciting and unique aspects of a career in theatre: fight scenes!
We can fit a lecture and Q&A session into your course schedule, letting students find out a bit about what it’s like to be professional performers and choreographers. How about giving your Shakespeare students the thrill of a lifetime (or at least the semester) when Mercutio and Tybalt erupt into a duel in the middle of your classroom! Let us know what plays your students are studying, and we can bring the performance to you. Don’t forget, it’s not all Henry IV, MacBeth and Hamlet; the Bard's comedies also have some fights (Twelfth Night is great for showing that ladies get to fight, too)!
Give your students a “behind the scenes” look with our customized lecture and demo presentations for theatre, literature, and history classes. We’ll demonstrate some of the ways we produce the illusion of violence safely, revealing some of our trade secrets in the process. Lectures on both historical and contemporary practices of stage combat are also available, and all lectures and demonstrations are customizable to your curriculum needs. From Shakespeare to S.E. Hinton, we've got you covered!
Are you providing a series of theatre-related workshops, either as an addition to your theatre season or as a part of your educational or outreach program? Are you producing a show involving fights and want to give your actors some extra training? Why not include a Stage Combat workshop?
Give us a few nights in your rehearsal schedule to train technique and performance, and your actors will soon be more confident and more proficient when swinging steel or throwing punches!
Stage Combat workshops can be incredibly popular, not to mention a great deal of fun for everyone involved! They’re always a huge draw, and we can teach to a wide range of experience, from children to established professionals. We can tailor our services to your needs, ranging from short one-or-two-day introductory workshops to multi-week residencies.
Past workshop topics have included:
- Falling for the Theatre -- a two- to five- hour long workshop exploring various methods by which actors can fall when the character requires it: slips, trips, faints, and more!
- Rolling with the Punches -- a two-hour workshop focusing on the fundamentals of falling down and throwing a basic stage punch or slap
- Fierce Fighting, Safely -- an afternoon-long workshop focusing on the fundamentals of control and basic techniques of using stage swords.
- Slow Motion Makes Everything Better -- A workshop geared towards introducing concepts of stage combat choreography to theater directors and scholars, with an emphasis on collaborative work between choreographer, director, and cast.
Lectures and demonstrations
Do you have students interested in knowing what kinds of theatre jobs exist beyond “actor” and “carpenter?” Would you like to add a bit of visual interest to your class discussions of Shakespeare's literature or Restoration-era society? Interested in knowing more about the process of creating theatrical violence? We can provide an inside look at one of the most exciting and unique aspects of a career in theatre: fight scenes!
We can fit a lecture and Q&A session into your course schedule, letting students find out a bit about what it’s like to be professional performers and choreographers. How about giving your Shakespeare students the thrill of a lifetime (or at least the semester) when Mercutio and Tybalt erupt into a duel in the middle of your classroom! Let us know what plays your students are studying, and we can bring the performance to you. Don’t forget, it’s not all Henry IV, MacBeth and Hamlet; the Bard's comedies also have some fights (Twelfth Night is great for showing that ladies get to fight, too)!
Give your students a “behind the scenes” look with our customized lecture and demo presentations for theatre, literature, and history classes. We’ll demonstrate some of the ways we produce the illusion of violence safely, revealing some of our trade secrets in the process. Lectures on both historical and contemporary practices of stage combat are also available, and all lectures and demonstrations are customizable to your curriculum needs. From Shakespeare to S.E. Hinton, we've got you covered!
|
The Allegheny Alley FightThe Allegheny Alley Fight is a SAFD-Sanctioned regional stage combat workshop held at the Community College of Allegheny County South Campus, just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.
The Eclectic Mayhem team is working closely with the CCAC South Campus Theatre Department to coordinate this highly-anticipated event. For more details and to register, please visit the Allegheny Alley Fight website at http://alleghenyalleyfight.weebly.com/. |