Four theater students revived an organization to learn and practice stage combat skills.
Fight Club was previously run by the School of Theatre and taught by Luke Eddy, movement and stage combat instructor. The club stopped meeting in January because of difficulties finding a time everyone could meet together, said Duke Bartholomae, acting sophomore.
After a few months without the club, Bartholomae, Callie Dewees, acting senior, and Kylie Sullivan and Tessa Neeno, theatre and performance sophomores, took action.
“We are now a student organization with Luke Eddy as our supervisor,” Bartholomae said. “This means we can meet more often, and it allows students to share what they know about stage combat in a big wealth of knowledge.”
Hannah Hamel, acting sophomore, said, despite having a previous background of 10 years of martial arts experience, she is still learning new things in Fight Club.
“I look forward to getting experience, learning how to safely choreograph fights and going to The Boil,” she said.
The Boil is an annual stage combat workshop hosted by Tech Theatre Players at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. This year’s workshop will take place Friday and Saturday. Students attending the conference will travel by vans, Hamel said.
After attending the workshop last year, Bartholomae said he and his peers knew they wanted to continue Fight Club on campus. He said they plan to share what they learn at the conference with the student organization.
“I’m excited about being able to have this organization potentially grow into something much bigger,” Bartholomae said. “Most shows have some aspect of stage combat, so understanding how it works is really important.”
Fight Club is open to all students who want to learn more about stage combat. To stay updated, students may visit the “OCU Fight Club” page on Facebook for information regarding meetings and events.
Editor’s Note: Kylie Sullivan is a photographer for Student Publications. She did not participate in the writing or editing of this story.
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