Sword Fighting: A Manual for Actors and Directors

"Sword Fighting: A Manual for Actors and Directors" is a comprehensive new work on the art of creating realistic and exciting fight sequences for theatre, film and TV. Written and fully illustrated by Keith Ducklin in collaboration with acclaimed fight director John Waller, this essential guide for actors, directors and fight directors includes: advice on how to use character, costume, period and setting in the staging of a fight scene; analyses of the designs and uses of European military and civilian swords, from the knightly sword of the middle ages to the small sword of the eighteenth century; and step-by-step instruction on how sword-fighting techniques from different periods can be safely adapted for stage and screen fights. "Sword Fighting: A Manual for Actors and Directors" is the product of thirty years research and experimentation into traditional European martial arts by John Waller and his associates, and possibly the most wide-ranging and practical book on stage combat ever published.

About the Author :
Keith Ducklin has spent fifteen years as a practitioner of period fighting techniques, having studied with John Waller. He taught dramatic combat at some of England's top drama schools and directed many fights for the London fringe theatre circuit until 1994, when he became involved with the Royal Armouries Museum. He has fought in full fifteenth-century plate armour before both Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Prince of Wales, demonstrated medieval European sword fighting in Japan; and has made many television appearances demonstrating historical fighting styles. He is an accredited teaching member of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, secretary of the European Historical Combat Guild, and continues to train students of swordsmanship in Britain and America. John Waller has spent more than thirty years as an action arranger and historical consultant for stage and screen. For nineteen years he taught stage combat at drama schools including the London Academy of Music and Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His work on the uses of armour and weapons brought him to the Mary Rose and its archery finds. As Head of Interpretation for the Royal Armouries at Leeds he has helped to produce many specialist film projects. He is a member of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat and the Equity Fight Director's Register, and in 1999 founded the European Historical Combat Guild. His numerous stage, film and TV credits include, amongst many others, Martin Guerre, Elizabeth R, Dr Who, and Pride and Prejudice and Arms in Action.