Zoom Lecture Series: Fighting in Romeo and Juliet

Violence in Motion announces the first in our Zoom Lecture Series: Fighting in Romeo and Juliet.  As provincial guidelines currently prevent us from being able to fight in person, we realized this is a great opportunity to talk about how we approach fight, and discuss those things that so often get brushed over.  Join Jamie Treschak, Julia Dyan, and Brianna Love as we talk about the fights in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Time and Place

Our lecture will take place over zoom at 7:00pm EST on Sept 23rd, 2021.  Tickets are $10, and open to all industry professionals and students.  Opera singer? Dancer? Theatre Actor? Clown? Film/TV crew member? Producer? Join us on September 23rd.  

Shakespeare and Fighting

Shakespeare lived in a violent time.  A time that, if you could afford it, you carried a sword on your hip.  As such-- Shakespeare’s text is full of exciting clues for the actors, directors and fight directors-- if only you know where to look.  We are excited to break down this play as fight directors, talk about those hidden gems-- and how they can influence our work as actors as well. Plus-- turns out Julia and Brianna both have the same dream role in the show.  Can you guess who?

Questions and Answers

There will be a question and answer period at the end of the lecture.  We hope to be able to answer every question, however as time is limited, please email your questions in if you’d like to make sure Jamie, Julia, and Brianna can answer it!  Feel free to ask about Romeo and Juliet, Fight Choreography/ Fight Direction, how to approach violence as an actor….really if you have a question about fight in the industry, we will answer it to the best of our ability.  

Fight Theory

As we always say: you can only fight as fast as you can think.  Knowledge is an important tool for any actor, fighter, or stunt performer.  A lot of fight knowledge is talked about in relation to choreography, these lectures will give us a chance to share the knowledge we have gained, not by teaching you choreography, but by actually talking about how to begin approaching a fight.  No one starts with a punch-- we all start with the text.  After all, violence is a tool to tell the story.  

In Person Classes 

We are keeping a close look at all provincial and national covid guidelines.  We can’t wait to be able to fight in person once again and will start in person classes as soon as we can get back to doing what we love.  I cannot tell you how much we all appreciate the support from all of our students over the past 18 months.  Safety is at the heart of what we do.  For now, our drop in classes are not possible. We can’t wait to get to fight with you all again.

“These violent delights have violent ends” -Act II, scene vi