Streamers: Fight Direction - Rick Sordelet

Take four young guys - add race, sex, class and war - and you are sure to end up with physical violence.

The fights in Streamers are intense, bloody, and shocking. I'm not one to suspend my disbelief easily but it took a lot of effort to stay in my seat the first time we ran them full tilt onstage this week. OK - so I really didn't manage all that well. I hate blood. I left the room twice. I really hate blood. Once I tried to get over it by donating - I passed out in the waiting room. Duh. ANYWAY...

Stage fights and combat are very complex things, intricately choreographed and intensely rehearsed. They are run every day, before every show.

To be safe you need an expert called a fight director. Period. Stop. Get my point?

If you want them to be safe - AND look thrilling, AND serve the action of the play and the vision of the director, AND feel very real, then you need Rick Sordelet. We've been lucky enough here at the Huntington to work with Rick for MANY years now. He has some film credits, dozens of Broadway and Off-Broadway credits, and I'll bet HUNDREDS of regional credits for fight direction. That's Rick in the photo - showing off his Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence at the Lucille Lortel awards this past May.

This post started with a simple Google search: Rick Sordelet fight.

The things you take for granted! I had no idea. If you don't have all day try these two links. First - a Talkin' Broadway interview from 2000 when Rick was working on the Scarlet Pimpernel (he had just finished filming Hamlet with Campbell Scott). Second - see Rick talk about his work in a video filmed during rehearsals for Broadway's Lestat.

Thanks Rick!

PS> Don't worry - none of the blood you'll see on stage actually comes from the actors. Some of it comes from Hershey's chocolate - and that, my friends, is a story for another post.