My Voice is in My Sword: Understanding Shakespeare Through Combat Theater
Mercutio and Tybalt. Edgar and Edmund. Hamlet and Laertes. The fights, duels, and other “cooperative violence” in Shakespeare can be a thrilling denouement or a moment of absolute heartbreak, and they are a fun challenge for any fight director. But a good fight director also knows that these moments of violence are not isolated from the text— the text feeds the violence, and the violence feeds the text. Join us to learn not only the technique and skills required for a safe and effective stage fight, but also how that fight fits into the world of the play and how Shakespearean stories are impacted by moments of physical conflict. Whether you’re a director, humanities teacher, or just a fan, anyone at all can benefit from this unusual perspective on The Bard. In addition to stage and book time, we will have a guest lecture from a Shakespearean dramaturg and scholar, and visit a youth Shakespeare group here in Santa Fe. Physical action is a key component to this course, but all abilities and levels of commitment are welcome.
all schedules subject to changes
Course Faculty
Ambrose Ferber
Ambrose Ferber landed his first role when he was five, playing The Injured Boy in a Commedia Dell’arte his father wrote. Since then, he has performed on stages throughout the southwest, most recently as the titular role in Cyrano de Bergerac in Fort Collins, Colorado, for Openstage Theatre. In the early 2000s he appeared in Henry IV, Part…