Actors on Guard: A Practical Guide for the Use of the Rapier and Dagger for Stage and Screen
by Dale Anthony Girard
Category: Performing Arts

"Actors on Guard" is the most comprehensive and detailed book on the art of theatrical swordplay available today. It provides the reader with the historical, theoretical and practical basis for learning, practicing and presenting theatrical sword fights. Focusing specifically on the Elizabethan rapier and dagger (the most popular weapons used in stage fights), "Actors on Guard" provides actors, directors, teachers, stage managers and technicians the skills and knowledge essential to presenting safe and effective fights, both for stage and screen. "Actors on Guard" takes the reader through the complex process of selecting safe stage weapons, learning the basic handling and maintenance of the rapier and dagger, as well as how to safely move and interact in the potentially dangerous process of theatrical swordplay. This unique book provides the reader with hundreds of practical exercises in the care and handling of stage weapons, and is fully illustrated with over 250 detailed line-drawings and historical plates. Included are sections on footwork, guards, parries, cutting and thrusting techniques, blade taking actions, disarms, kills and wounds with the sword, and all are described in great detail with every safetly precaution spelled out to avoid any accident or injury. "Actors on Guard" also takes its techniques out of the classroom and onto the stage by providing information on melding the acting process with mechanics of a stage fight and procedures for safely rehearsing and running a fight within a production.