Theatre and Dance

The Stage Combat Minor

All dramatic literature is filled with conflict. Often that conflict takes the form of some kind of physical violence. Performers hired possessing the ability to perform these violent actions safely, efficiently, and with skill are a huge advantage to a professional company producing these plays. The intensive study in stage combat that a minor requires would allow WIU students to gain access to that significant advantage as they search for work in the competitive theatre world.

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

  • Perform competitively in any movement/stage combat auditions due to their learned ability to pick up new choreography quickly.
  • Perform stage violence with or without weapons in a safe, realistic, theatrical fashion. This experience makes them desirable in the casting process over people with no skill.
  • Serve as a Fight Captain for any theatrical production, which requires people with this previous training, and comes with a small bump in salary.
  • Graduate with Skills Proficiency Certifications from the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) in at least three weapon skills which allows them to be recognized as Actor Combatants by the SAFD. This is the recognized nationwide standard, and WIU students will automatically gain more attention for combat heavy productions.

Required Courses (19 semester hours):

THEA 100 – Theatre Arts; THEA 470 – Stage Combat: Unarmed; THEA 474 – Stage Combat: Armed (repeated 3 times, each time a different weapon).

Check out more about The Central Illinois Stage Combat Workshop (CISCo)