The Society of American Fight Directors and Their Impact

While Stage Combat seems like it’d be a “fun thing” to do, it is also particularly dangerous for the unskilled performer. It is not uncommon to hear of an actor getting their eye gauged out by a small sword, or even having a performer hit in the head by a quarterstaff. Such accidents are the result of untrained individuals not paying attention and not knowing how to perform a fight safely.

Luckily, around the world there are organizations that strive to standardize stage combat with the hope of creating a safer environment for theatrical fights to take place.  Such organizations include, Fight Directors Canada, The European Certificate of Skilled Performance Combat, and more. One organization that is particularly relevant to American Stage Combatants is the Society of AmericanFight Directors. 

The Society of American Fight Directors was founded in the mid 1970’s by David Boushey, Erik Fredricksen, Joeseph Martinez, Bryon Jennings, and Rob Colbin. All five of these gentlemen had trained extensively in various areas in Europe before joining together to form the SAFD.  After incorporation, the society was originally intended to be a network of Fight Directors. However, soon four tiers of membership were created and the society saw its first of many reformations. Now the SAFD  was teaching stage combat and soon began hosting events and sending out annual newsletters nationwide. This pulled the attention of the general public to the organization. Throughout the years, the SAFD has seen many re-structuring’s, rapid growth in membership, and continual improvements to the techniques its instructors teach.

Because of the SAFD and other similar organizations, many things have changed over the years which have improved the safety level of all performers fighting on stage.  For example, stage combat terminology has become more standardized. This makes communication between Fight Directors and Combatants easier and more concise. Additionally, there are more specially trained actors in the stage combat scene. This is particularly critical because it means that more people know how to fight on stage and less people are getting hurt trying to figure it out. The key words here are "less people are getting hurt". The safer the actors are when performing stage combat, the more fights there can be. Another reason good training is important is because the better trained the combatants are, the better the fights will appear to the audience. If you have two very trained fighters, they can perform highly complex choreography while still being safe. On the other hand, if two actors are not trained, they are more likely to hurt one another using even the simplest of techniques.

While every country seems to have it’s own variation of stage combat technique, the fact that there are national standards makes a huge impact on the profession.

Reference:

Society of American Fight Directors (2011) History of stage combat and the Society of American Fight Directors. Retrieved from: http://www.safd.org/about/history