Arts ©Entertainment
Monday, October 10, 1994 Page 9
Realistic stage fighting
takes practice, timing
By Paula Lavlgne•
Senior Reporter
Paul Steger knows how to swing his meat.
Steger raises a giant sausage link and
bludgeons his student, Jonas Cohen. Steger
yells, “Hasta la vista, baby. I’ll be back!”
while Cohen, trapped in a large sack, winces
with each wallop.
Sound like a fight gone out of control?
It’s not.
It’s actually a series of timed, precise
movements that have been repeated several
times during rehearsals for the University
Theatre’s production “Scapino!”
Steger, a theater professor at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, specializes in stage
movements and combat choreography. He’s
starring as Scapino in the University
Theatre’s season opener.
Steger spent this past summer choreo
graphing 46 fights for the Wisconsin
Shakespeare Festival. He is a member of the
Society of American Fight Directors and also
has studied with the Society of British Fight
Directors and the Fight Directors Canada.
Steger, a native of St. Louis, said he stud
ied stage combat because he “got bruised up,
beat up a lot” in performances.
Shakespeare plays often feature sword
fights, Steger said, and people are swinging
steel swords within 3 feet of each other. If
they aren’t careful, they could be seriously
injured.
Steger’s technique lies in making fights
and stunts look real while keeping the ac
tors — and the audience — safe.
During “Scapino!” Steger jumps off the
stage, runs into the audience and walks
across the backs of chairs. His movements
and timing have to be precise.
“You have to have alternative plans,” he
said. “When you’re walking across the backs
of seats and you see an old lady, you don’t
want her to freak out and have a heart at
tack.”
Steger said his first theater professors —
Wayne Loui, Richmond Shepard and the fa
mous mime, Marcel Marceau — got him
interested in stage combat, movement and
miming.
He performed as a street mime in St.
Louis, New York City, New Orleans and
Chicago before taking a stab at theater.
“You don’tperform violence.
You make it look like
violence. That’s what makes it
hard. ”
■
PAUL STEGER
UNL theater professor
In the past 20 years, Steger has survived
chipped teeth, broken fingers, bloody noses
and many bruises while mastering his tal
ent.
Communication, timing and repetition,
he said, are the three elements vital to mak
ing stage movement safe.
Steger said fight partners had to commu
nicate with vocal and body language and had
to time each move in order to obtain the right
effect. Repetition, he said, instills these
skills.
“The body perceives things faster than the
eyes can,” Steger said.
The challenge lies in actors trying to
avoid appearing as if they know what is go
ing to happen, Steger said. He said overzeal
ous actors, who actually wanted to be vio- |
lent, created other problems.
“You don’t perform violence. You make ;
Scott Bruhn/DN
Paul Stager, a University off Nebrasks-Uncotn theater professor, beats
on Jonas Cohen with a giant sausage In the play “Scaplno!" at the
Howell Theatre.
it look like violence,” he said. “That’s what
makes it hard.
“ft’s’ like martial arts. It requires time,
discipline and patience. In Tai Chi, your,
hands are at a specific place and time. The
body must be balanced, unless you plan for
it not to be.”
Physical violence, he said, also relied on
physical condition.
“It’s not just how strong you are; it’s how
you use your strength,” he said. “It’s know
ing where your body is in space, (whether)
you’re^standin^up, lying down or flying
Steger said no matter how combat was
done, it always was dangerous.
The sausage scene in “Scapino!” is a
prime example.
“I’m hitting Cohen with a sausage, and
if I hit him too low, I’ll hit his kidneys. If I
See STEGER on 10
T
TV scandal relived in ‘Quiz Show’
By Qwry B»Hz
Staff Reporter
Robert Red ford scores again from the
director’s chair, this time with “Quiz Show.”
Before Bob Barker asked anyone to come
on down, or before Richard Dawson ever
kissed a contestant, America was fixed on a
quiz show called “Twenty-One.”
However, all was not as perfect as it
seemed. As it turned out, “Twenty-One” was
rigged.
Winners and losers were decided ahead
of time, and the questions and answers were
available to the contestants days before the
show was aired. It wasn’t the smartest per
son who won week after week; it was the
person who got the better ratings.
At the center of the scandal was Charles
Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes). He was ex
tremely telegenic, and he had the education
to back up his apparent knowledge.
f .
The first chink in the show’s armor
showed up when the show’s producer told
Herb Stempel (John Turturro), a “Twenty
One” champion, to take a dive to make room
for Van Doren.
Stempel decided to get his due. Many lis
tened to his accusations, but little was done
until they were picked up by a young Wash
ington, D.C., attorney named Richard
Goodwin (Rob Morrow). He got wind of
what was going on and began turning over
rocks to find the truth.
Meanwhile, Van Doren was put on a ped
estal, was featured on the covers of both Time
and Life magazines and got thousands of fan
letters. Van Doren soon found that the price
of fame and fortune often included a loss of
privacy and, in this case, integrity.
All of the movie’s actors deliver top-notch
performances, both in leading and support
ive roles. Christopher McDonald (Daryl
Hannah’s husband in “Grumpy Old Men”)
^—I
,_, laft, and John Turturro, right, star as ChwIaa Van Doran
Stampal In “Quiz Show," baaad on tha 1950* gama *how
m P®!
Movie: “Quiz Show”
Rating: PG-13
Stars: John Turturro, Rob Morrow,
Ralph Fiennes
Director: Robert Redford
Grade: A
Five Words: Scandal brought to big
screen
is rather amusing as Jack Barry, the card
board, self-absorbed host of “Twenty-One.”
Also good is Hank Azaria (a regular voice
on “The Simpsons”) as Albert Freedman, a
producer who has all the ethics of a bag of
yak hair.
The standouts, though, are Fiennes and
Turturro. Fiennes’ Van Doren has rational
ized that he is helping America’s youth to
want to learn, and that result atones for his
dishonesty. Fiennes shows his character try
ing to convince himself that he is doing the
right thing when he knows that he is not.
Turturro’s Stempel is great, too. He is
obsessed not with doing right but with get
ting what he wants. He doesn’t blame just
the producers; he also wants Van Doren
brought down.
Redford’s direction is clean and crisp; the
result is another incredible film to add to
his already-impressive r£sum6.
In “Quiz Show,” Redford takes moviego
ers back to a turning point of America’s tele
vision fling, a time when they realized —
too late — that not everything they saw on
the tube was real and pure.
‘Specialist’
not special
By Joal Strauch
Senior Reporter
“The Specialist” is a fair adventure
film that has some great stunts and a
lot of explosive action, but the far
fetched plot and mediocre acting make
it nothing special.
Obviously, the filmmakers thought
that having blockbuster stars Sharon
Stone and Sylvester Stallone would ex
cuse them from making the plot smooth
and entertaining.
Stallone plays Ray Quick, an explo
sives specialist who is hired by May
Munro (Stone) to assassinate the three
men who killed her parents.
Unfortunately, these men are part of
a Mafia family that has hired Quick’s
former boss, Ned Trent (James Woods),
as their own personal explosives expert.
A confrontation between Trent and
Quick is inevitable and predictable. The
rest of the movie has a lot of things get
ting blown up but few surprises.
Stallone again demonstrates the act
ing prowess that brought us the many
faceted characters of John Rambo and
Rocky Balboa. He grunts and groans his
way through another superficial role
and makes sure that his butt gets a good
showing.
Stone, the other half of this duo, puts
in an exceptionally bad performance as
Munro, a vengeful woman who has
problems with loyalty. Her performance
is as transparent as the clothes she
wears on screen.
Woods, as the antagonist Trent, gives
See SPECIALIST on 10