After an awesome Minnesota Show, the Dueling Grounds by and large took some well deserved rest over the winter months, many of our cast took time to work old fights at local libraries much to the joy of those watching. Multiple shows are being choreographed for the Siouxland Renaissance Festival June 4th and 5th in Sioux Falls South Dakota, as well as prepping things for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
more to come!!!!
Friends and fans, it is that time of year again when the Renaissance Festival Podcast begins to calculate the best of all of the Renaissance Festivals. If you have seen our fights out at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and enjoyed them please go to this link and nominate us for “Best Stage Combat Group”
http://renaissancefestivalmusic.com/awards/
Thanks
Remember, the first rule of marshalling is to keep the audience safe.
There are several ways to acheive this:
-KNOW the fight. If you know where the fight is going, you can anticipate where you’ll be needed.
-Work with your fighters so they understand your cues, such as “you’re too close to the building” or “a kid just got through the line and he’s coming your way.”
-Develop a way to halt the fight safely if necessary “Meegan! The King approaches!” (By starting with a fighter’s name you get their attention more easily.)
-Know what’s going on outside of the perimeter of the fight so you can anticipate patron traffic (is another show just letting out, are you near food booths at lunchtime, is a large group of pre-teens headed your way, etc).
-You MUST stay aware of the fight, knowing where they are physically in the space and sequentially in the fight, so never stay 100% turned away from the fight.
-However you MUST stay aware of the audience. So never stay 100% turned into the fight.
-The best way to meet both requirements is to be continually moving within your space, looking to the fight, then the audience in all directions, then back to the fight, and so on. Never get so focused on either just the fight or just the audience that you lose track of the other.
-Be aware of “audience creep.” In a crowded area the audience will feel people behind them and instinctively move forward to relieve the pressure.
How to handle the audience:
-Vocalizations must be loud enough to get their attention, firm enough to make it clear you mean what you’re saying, and short enough to understand quickly. “My lady! Swords!” while gesturing is often enough.
-Inviting the audience to form its own perimeter is good. Getting people to sit down forms a natural barrier that is more difficult to cross. Kids are good for this, and it keeps them in place so they don’t dart into the fight. Or ask them to help you “you’ve got a front row seat here, don’t let anyone stand in front of you.”
-Try to engage the audience “I’ll bet you that Roma wins!” “Meegan’s a quite talented fighter.” Things to personalize the fighters or that encourage the audience to cheer for a particular fighter are good. Make sure you know the fest names of all fighters involved.
-If you do need to stop someone who refuses to listen:
-NEVER get into a pissing contest with them.
-NEVER stop them from a position of anger. Be calm and matter-of-fact.
-Do not touch them unless they are in IMMEDIATE danger or they touch you first.
-DO block them physically with your own body. Better you get hurt than them.
Marshalls behavior around the fight:
-Know who you’re cheering for, and why.
-Do not interject yourself into the scene. Don’t step on fighters’ lines, or give verbal cues to the audience as to what is coming up. If a punch to the face is the next move, don’t say to the audience “Oh, I bet he’s going to punch her in the face!” If the fighter’s line is “I’ll get you for stealing my supper yesterday!” Don’t say “I’ll be she’s mad about him stealing her food.” And never never never become physically involved in the fight yourself. At all times although you are superficially there to root for someone, your primary purpose is to keep the fight safe.
-If you see part of the fight that looks potentially dangerous, discuss it with your fighters immediately after the fight so they can correct the problem.
-Just like fighters, marshals should NEVER drink alcohol within 8 hours prior to the fight. As a marshal your legal job is to keep people from being injured. If something goes wrong, you want ZERO alcohol on your breath. (See below for more on this.)
What if something goes wrong and someone gets hurt:
1) The head marshall will be carrying incident report forms and will have determined ahead of time these items, and discussed them with the appropriate individuals:
-Who will stay with the injured person.
-Who will find Safety Services.
2) All other marshalls will immediately begin to get names and contact info from everyone you can. “Please do not leave the scene until one of us has gotten your info from you.”
-As part of this marshals should also be creating a minimum of a 10 foot perimeter around the injured person to create both privacy and space for medical personnel to manuever.
3) As soon as possible WRITE down your own memories of what happened so that it is documented while fresh in your mind.
4) There is a Scott County Sheriff on site. Ask to be breathalized as soon as possible. As a marshal you are legally liable to protect people. You want it proved that you were sober at the time of the incident.
Below is an article I wrote for the MRFFriends website. It was written in the fall of 2001.
During the Renaissance, men settled their disputes, upheld their honor and defended their property through fighting. If they had no weapons available, they used their fists. The Neanderthals would use their hands, use bone or wood to make weapons eventually it would progress to swords and then to guns and other weapons of further destruction.
Our faire, unlike the Renaissance, performers will often create an illusion of violence called stage combat. This art form has many different categories: unarmed, single rapier, rapier and dagger, rapier and buckler, quarterstaff, small sword, found and miscellaneous weapons to name a few.
With all life, there is an ebb and flow. Stage Combat has been around for many years at various Renaissance Festivals. At the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, Minnesota, there was a stage combat troupe established in the mid-to late 80s and from that group, a stage combat school, En Garde Unlimited! Inc. was established. Eventually, the official group of En Garde Unlimited! began to outreach to other venues and to this day, some do fight coordinating and choreography for local and national films.
Cappa Ferro Productions brought stage combat back the the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and offered the chess game and street fight at MRF. Their performances were well attended and appreciated by the audience. A separate stage combat school, They Fight, was taught by Don Preston, an SAFD instructor, but he moved onto London, England to teach. Others stepped up to continue on behalf of They Fight, but began to teach on their own as well.
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The Dueling Grounds membership is currently working on fights, and performances for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
Thank you for your interest.