This year, St. Francis High School Theatre headed back in time to the classic swashbuckling story of Treasure Island where the cast got to learn how to fight like a Pirate.
When director Glenn Morehouse Olson and her team chose this stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous book by Ken Ludwig, they knew that they wanted to teach another skill to their cast that they hadn’t done before – stage combat.
Morehouse Olson hired professional fight director Aaron Preusse who has been teaching lessons for 25 years. He had always been interested in theater and the arts, and when he found out about fight choreography in college, he took a chance and never looked back.
“When I started out, I was at school at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and we had a class in stage combat,” said Preusse. “That’s when I was like – this is a thing? We can do this?”
Preusse ended up getting certified in numerous styles of fight choreography and started his own business, The Fake Fighting Company, where he provides different lessons in everything from hand-to-hand combat to sword fights and gun battles. He also rents his certified weapons to theatre and film producers.
Having previously worked with Preusse on shows like Hearts Like Fists by Adam Szymkowicz, Morehouse Olson was more than happy to bring him back for another action-packed adventure.
“It’s really important for me to work with somebody like Aaron because he’s a professional,” said Morehouse Olson, “I think a big mistake some people make is that they think they can do it themselves.”
The number one rule in stage combat is safety. Senior Nathaniel Esboldt, who played Long John Silver, was very appreciative of the care taken with the process of teaching the skills needed to be successful in his role.
“He (Pruesse) still understands that we’re highschoolers and we’re going to want to have fun,” said Esboldt, “but he’s also taking things at an appropriate pace to the point where we all feel very safe.”
Senior Jack Stordahl who played Captain Smollet also learned a lot in the process.
“I’ve really had a good experience,” said Stordahl. “It was really fun to learn how to grab people and throw a fake punch without actually making contact with anybody.”
Having a professional fight choreographer made an impact on all of the cast.
“It’s interesting to see how slow it has to start out to end up with a safe and good final product,” said senior Sophie Edwards who played Squire Trelawney, ”but it’s been really interesting and it honestly makes you feel a bit more like in the professional theater world.
