Column – RMA Presents “Shakespearean Theater, Broadway, Opera, Film and Ballet”
By David Michonski
Bob Rimmer opened the April 24 presentation of the Retired Men’s Association by introducing B.H. Barry, who for 60 years has been a teacher, choreographer and director of staged “stunt fighting.” Barry has been responsible for the staged stunt fighting in dozens of shows for the Royal Shakespeare Theater, over 40 Broadway shows, opera, film and ballet. During his career Barry has been awarded an Obie for Sustained and Consistent Excellence in Stage Combat. He also received a Tony for Lifetime Achievement, a Drama Desk for his fights in “Camelot,” and an award from the Outer Critics Circle in recognition of his six decades career. Barry has been at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Julliard, Yale, Temple University and New York University. Barry notes that, “A fight director helps create the illusion of violence, but must make the actors feel secure.”
Barry took us through his early childhood in England where he was an only child. His father left the family when Barry was two. Because they had no means of support, his mother and he moved into his grandparents’ home, where he was raised. With no TV, radio or other means of entertaining himself, he used his imagination. From the day he played Aladdin in school, he wanted to be an actor. But he had to leave school at 15 to help support his family. In 1958 he was supposed to go into the armed forces, but they suddenly ended conscription, which to him was a gift of two years. He tried to become an actor, but after two years he returned to engineering. Nonetheless, he enrolled in drama school, where he was trained by Errol Flynn’s stunt double, and he started teaching how to do stunt fighting for all the drama schools in England.
He met someone who taught sword fighting and they worked together to make sword fights more realistic. He made up all the fights for 64 productions of “Romeo and Juliet.” He was a founding member of the Society of British Fight Directors, and they started work on making fights much more realistic. He taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and he was then invited to teach at drama schools in America. He ended up getting hired for Broadway shows and worked on over 40 of them. He taught Richard Burton as Mark Antony how to strangle Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor).
How does he approach a staged fight? First, he reads the script. Then he asks “why does the playwright give it this name?” He then asks the actors what they want to display in their characters. Then, he takes this information and turns it into a choreographed fight. Interestingly, Shakespeare’s works give no choreographic instructions; they say only “there is a fight.” He noted that the safety of the actors is always paramount.
Barry did the fight scenes in “West Side Story” and he noted that in that play you have to choreograph the fight to the music versus to the story. Interestingly, he auditioned to act in “West Side Story,” but didn’t make it.
He also had three fight scenes where things went wrong. He noted they can be dangerous. Barry closed by showing an amusing video with Conan O’Brien who took a course on staged stunt fighting with Barry. Barry coached him on how to kick with his legs, kick in the crotch, hit in the face and get a kick back. And the video showed them sword fighting with theatrical swords. He also showed a video of “Showdown at Chi Chi’s” in which he staged a fight and how to slam a head into a chair and blow through a wall.
In the Q&A portion, he was asked his opinion of the events surrounding the recent movie “Rust,” in which a crew member was killed. He explained in great detail what he goes through whenever guns are on a set. He also surmised that in “Rust,” the stage hands did target practice before they started filming and failed to take the ammunition out of the gun. He thought the armorer, who was just convicted and sentenced to prison, did not do her job.
He ended with a demonstration using RMA members Bob Bishop and Bob Rimmer seated in chairs facing each other. He showed them how to defend themselves and attack each other. He tried to show them “objectives” that he always had to teach actors first. Then, he gave them each a sword with which to practice and separated the two so no one would be hit by the sword.
The talk can be viewed by going to the RMA website at https://greenwichrma.org, and clicking on “Speakers.”
The RMA’s upcoming presentation, “The Illness and Death of Ludwig van Beethoven,” is scheduled for 11 AM on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Beethoven has long held a unique place in musical history because of his groundbreaking compositions, produced in the face of significant personal struggles. This medically-oriented lecture focuses on the circumstances surrounding Beethoven’s illnesses with an emphasis on his final illness and death, in the hopes of shedding light on the intersection of his life, work, and legacy.
Benjamin Lebwohl is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and serves as the Associate Clinical Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and as the Director of Clinical Research at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. He is Past President of the Society for the Study of Celiac Disease, and collaborates with investigators in the United States and abroad in epidemiology, patterns of care, natural history, and therapeutics. He has co-authored more than 350 peer-reviewed publications. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, and past research funding includes the American Gastroenterological Association, the Celiac Disease Foundation, and the American Scandinavian Foundation.
Dr. Lebwohl is the Chair of the Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration. He maintains a clinical practice and is heavily involved in medical education, teaching regularly on topics including celiac disease, evidence-based medicine, clinical decision making, pseudoscience, diarrhea, and colorectal cancer screening. He is a member of the cello section of the Westchester-based Excelsior Symphony Orchestra
To stream the presentation by Benjamin Lebwohl at 11 AM on Wednesday, May 8, click on https://bit.ly/30IBj21. This presentation will also be available on local public access TV channels, Verizon FIOS channel 24 and Optimum (Cablevision) channel 79.
Note: The views expressed in these presentations are those of the speakers. They are not intended to represent the views of the RMA or its members.
RMA speaker presentations are presented as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees, regardless of gender. Any member of the public who would like to receive a weekly email announcement of future speakers should send a request to members@greenwichrma.org. The RMA urges all eligible individuals to consider becoming a member of our great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer, and community service opportunities which the RMA offers to its members. For further information, go to https://greenwichrma.org/, or contact members@greenwichrma.org.
