The 3 usual questions #1: Are those real swords?

The title of this post comes from my days of touring children's theater - which were many, included 11 states, and sent me everywhere from a monster truck arena in Cheyenne, WY, to an extremely poor school in the border town of Nogales, AZ, where the audience spoke mostly Spanish. But I digress...

After performances, we did a Q&A session for the student audiences, and there were three questions we almost always got. I thought I'd answer those three questions in relationship to Macbeth.

So, #1 - are those real swords? Yes, and no. In general, stage swords are not tipped, i.e. not sharp, so no, they aren't 'real' in that sense. However, they're really made of metal, and they really weigh what real metal weighs, so if used correctly(incorrectly?), you can definitely bruise a person, or injure small body parts like noses, eyes, and fingers.

The other thing to know here is that stage fighting is not improvised - it is choreographed as closely as any dance, and rehearsed prior to every performance at a 'fight call' to ensure everyone's safety. Fight choreographers use angle and body position to create the illusion of actual physical contact, or when a move is performed with contact, we target areas of the body which are able to take it (typically large muscle groups), and pull punches a bit, then sell it w/a big reaction.

All this being said, I'm really excited about the fights in this show - I've got two broadsword fights and what we've done so far looks terrific. There are moments of real bad-assery for both Julia (Macduff) and myself, as well as some horrible horrible injuries.

Questions #2 and #3 in later posts. Stay tuned!