Actors on Guard: Training, Rehearsal and Performance Techniques with the Rapier and Dagger for the Stage and Screen

Actors on Guard, Second Edition is the most comprehensive book covering the current practices in learning, rehearsing and performing safe and dynamic swordfights with the single rapier and the rapier and dagger for both stage and screen.

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 swordfights. The book takes the reader through the complex process of selecting safe stage weapons, learning the basic handling and management of the rapier and dagger, as well as how to safely move and interact in the potentially dangerous process of learning, rehearsing and performing choreographed swordplay. This new edition has been revised with current industry practices, featuring hundreds of step-by-step practical exercises in the care and handling of prop swords, footwork, guards, parries, cutting and thrusting techniques, blade taking actions, disarms, wounds and kills using the rapier and dagger, with revised diagrams and photographs.

An excellent sourcebook for university stage combat classes as well as self-learners, Actors on Guard provides the reader with the historical, theoretical and practical basis for mastering the art of sword fighting for the stage and screen.

The book includes access to a wealth of online resources, with additional information that expands upon specific mechanics, techniques and concepts covered in the text as well as some video demonstrations of solo and partnered techniques and exercises.

Dale Anthony Girard is an award-winning Fight Director, Choreographer and Stunt Coordinator. A Third-Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo/Hopkido and Haidong-Gumdo, he is a Fight Master with the Society for American Fight Directors (SAFD), a SAG-AFTRA stunt coordinator and stunt performer and founding member of the North Carolina Stuntmen’s Association (NCSA). Mr. Girard spent five years on the faculty at the National Theatre Conservatory and has been the resident Fight Director for Yale’s prestigious School of Drama and School of Music’s Opera Program. He is currently the Director of Stage Combat Studies at the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts.