2010 National Workshop Coverage: A report from the TCW

The TCW class gathered in July to spend 3 weeks working hard and studying diligently (with some breaks for food and sleep) together to work on becoming the newest CT’s in the SAFD.  As the 18 of us gathered on the first few nights – good friends meeting or re-greeting - we all bbq’d and spent time getting to know each other and catching up.  The workshop officially started with some brief and eloquent words from Fight Master Emeritus Joseph Martinez.  He spoke to the NSCW group as a whole and then spent a few moments with the TCW candidates, giving us many words of encouragement and wise advice from his years as a master teacher – needless to say, we were all on the edge of our seats.

Our TCW primary instructors were FM David Brimmer, FM Chuck Coyl and CT / FD Jack Young.  We felt fortunate to have such a dream team working with us sharing their expert guidance, notes and passion.  In addition, CT/FD Paul Dennhardt and CT Lacy Altwine also served as primary instructors - both provided fantastic guidance, assistance, coursework, and served as TA’s for the Fight Master tutorials.  It was clear that the three weeks would be very demanding – and we were ready, eager and looking forward to meeting the challenge as a class with rigor and camaraderie.

The workshop started off with lectures and group discussions led from our Head of Pedagogy – Jack Young – who expertly guided us thru the in’s and out’s of syllabus preparation and “best practices” in teaching this art.  He often asked us the question “Why” – why a certain teaching decision or artistic choice was made and encouraged us to continue asking of ourselves and of our students this penetrating question to more fully and deeply connect ourselves and our students to this work.  The workshop also started with David Brimmer leading us thru a great session of Drills and Games – inspiring us all with new ideas and approaches as we continued our intensive preparations for our teaching assignments.

Paul Dennhardt was our Morale Officer, Alexander Teacher, and – with Lacy Altwine – our SPT choreography advisors.  Paul led sessions in Acting in Stage Combat and Warming Up – in which he put us thru our paces with one of the most perfect warm ups I have ever participated in.  Throughout the work, Paul and Lacy gently but persistently prodded us to rise above what we thought was our best work and often reminded us to replace “ambition with curiosity”. Every morning, Paul would send along an email message from someone who’d been at a TTW before us – offering us words of encouragement and advice.  These emails were a very welcome start to each day.

The Interns at the NSCW who worked for the TCW – as always – were remarkable and served us all by stepping in to partner when needed.  Mr. Mahaffey and his corps of dedicated professionals did nothing short of fantastic work.   He ran the entire NSCW flawlessly and with smooth precision.

While half of us started work on the Fight Master led weapons tutorials and SPT choreographic assignments, the other half started their teaching of the Introduction to Stage Combat students.  The ISC group of students were wonderful – they all were dedicated, focused and driven young artists who were a joy to teach.

In between all of these assignments, we had some very valuable sessions on Glossary of Terms clarification with – who else - FM Dale Girard.  So many clarifications and “Aha!” moments were discovered regarding the glossary and the world of SPT choreography.

Throughout the workshop, each TCW candidate also worked intensively on every weapon in multiple tutorials with Fight Masters.  We were challenged to deeply and intensively explore what possibilities and pitfalls are inherent in teaching each discipline. We were fortunate to have Fight Masters David Brimmer, Chuck Coyl, Allen Suddeth, Mike Chin, Geoff Alm, Dale Girard, and Brian Byrnes all offer us multiple tutorials ranging from fascinating discussions about the practice of teaching a particular weapon to assignments tackling a particular choreographic challenge.

It was a truly unique experience to have the gift of intensively exploring these disciplines as teachers with the Fight Masters.  In addition, the schedule was ideally constructed in that we all had individual time to observe Fight Masters teach in the ACW and AACW.  We had the rare opportunity to observe and be inspired from the very best.

As the workshop proceeded, half of us finished up the teaching and the others finished up the SPT work – while all of us often met together as a whole to work on such topics as gun safety, weapons maintenance (all I can say is if you haven’t worked with Mr. Lewis Shaw, run – don’t walk – and do so!), history presentations, breath and vocals, SAFD Policies and Procedures, and engage in discussions with Brimmer, Coyl, Jack, Paul, and Lacy about the business of being a CT, fight director, and teacher academically as well as professionally. 

As the last days dawned, we all realized that the challenging assignments we had been given were being quickly checked off our list and the experience of the TCW was swiftly coming to a close: Teaching the ISC, done; SPT choreography, done; History Presentation, done; Oral exam, done; and finally the written exam . . . done.  Throughout, we had visits of formal and informal discussions with Geoff Kent, Colleen Kelly, Rob Najarian, Martin Noyes, KC Stage, Ray Rodriguez, Lee Soroko, H. Russ Brown, Matt Ellis and FM K Jenny Jones – it was great to see them all – many stories, advice, and laughs were shared.

After a long last night of “farewells till next time” and remembrances of hard work accomplished, challenges conquered, and mettle tested we all began packing up for our long journey’s home.  For all of us who were part of the 2010 TCW, we will continue to remember the many close friendships made and the remarkable students, faculty and staff of the TCW 2010!

Editors note: The Cutting Edge would like to congratulate our new Certified Teachers: