Poor, unregarded blog, I do apologize.

I was at a workshop on Shakespeare led by Geoff Bullen of RADA, who is quite an energetic teacher and full of antic dotes and stories, he's kind of amazing to watch. Anyway he said something that caught my attention regarding battles. He suggested that any director would do well to start with the conceptualization of the battle scene, provided of course that the play you are speaking of has one. Because, he suggested, how you deal with that will tell you so much about where your head is regarding the rest of the play. It reminded me of my second favorite Shakespearean stage direction, the first of course being the one in Winters Tale, "exit pursued by a bear". Second prize goes to Henry V's "enter the French army". Oh Thanks, Bill! It only took you four words and a little bit of ink, and now I've got to go out and find a whole f@#*ing army! So yes, what's the battle. Interesting question.

Geoff also told of an encounter with B.H. Barry, one of the greatest fight choreographers of the stage, ever, whom I was fortunate to cross paths with during the mounting of THE BALLAD OF SOAPY SMITH at the Public Theatre, and I feel something else but anyway. Geoff asked why the name B.H. because he had found out that the man’s first name was indeed Barry and his sir name was something else. B.H. answered that Barry was the man from a working class background who wouldn’t do the things that B.H did. He had created a self that was more daring. We all need those heroic versions of ourselves, and they most definitely exist, we must simply give them permission to act.