Here are a selection of the workshops we offer. If you have specific needs we are always happy to create bespoke workshops for individual clients.
They Fight
Our most popular workshop and our most flexible. They Fight is designed to give students an insight into stage combat both as a practical performance skill and also as a tool for academic drama study.
A fight is an integral part of the story telling process. So much so that the play it features in could not function in the same way without it. A fight moves the narrative along from one place to another and usually acts as a catalyst to future events. It can act as a climax, tying together the themes, events and characters in a dramatic conclusion. It may also provide a setting for major character development. A fight is a play in micro, and by understanding its construction, students can grasp an understanding of the play as a whole.
Students will be taught a range of basic techniques and how to portray stage violence effectively with correct actions and reactions. They will also gain an understanding of the basic principles of stage combat including angles, staging and misdirection.
Using these skills students are then encouraged to stage their own fights around a selection of scenes looking at how, where and, most importantly, why a fight happens and what effects it has on the play as a whole?
Workshops can be tailored around specific study texts with reasonable notice or taken simply as Drama/English enrichment.
Price: £295 Plus Travel (Half Day 1-3 Hours)
£395 Plus Travel (Full Day)
I do bite my thumb sir
Need to excite your students about Shakespeare? Or maybe you just need a fresh approach to an old study text? Squire can help your students explore Shakespeare in a practical way, taking the plays off the page and onto the stage where they belong.
Shakespeare is responsible for some of the greatest plays ever written and by proxy some of the greatest fights. In fact most of Shakespeare’s actors were master fencers who insisted on adding as many fights as possible to every performance as a way of showing off their skills. In fact the first recorded Fight Director in the world was Richard Tarlton, Shakespeare’s lead actor until 1588. As a member of the prestigious London Masters of Defence Weapons Guild, it was Tarlton who first gave us the timeless duels of Romeo and Tybalt, Macbeth and Macduff and of course Hamlet and Laertes.
Stage combat by it’s very nature is physically active and requires practical solutions to creative problems. By studying the fights practically, students are encouraged to perform Shakespearean text and gain a greater understanding the plays and their staging.
The workshop covers basic unarmed stage combat skills which are then utilised in a staging of a Shakespearian text related to the students current area of study. How do we deal with text in a fight? What can a fight tell us about the rest of the play? What is the context of this fight? What are the weapons and fighting styles like? How would these fights of been performed in Shakespeare’s day?
In a full day session the workshop will then progress to weapons and how they are used in modern theatre in comparison to the original Globe Theatre.
Price: £295 Plus Travel (Half Day 1-3 Hours)
£395 Plus Travel (Full Day)
Fight Club
The first rule of Fight club is no one gets hurt. The second rule of fight club is no one gets hurt! “Fight Club” is a workshop designed for school enrichment days and team building events. No focus on drama texts, no sweat drenched workouts just the chance to try your hand at the fun that is stage combat with guidance from a trained professional.
Ever wondered how film makers make their fights just so realistic? Or how stunt people manage to get up time and time again after taking brutal looking falls? Then this is the workshop for you. Stage combat is fun. It is a non competitive, incredibly safe and sociable physical activity. The work encourages people to work together in teams, building trust and leadership skills. As well as communication and creative thinking.
Fight Club has a big emphasis of fun. Introducing students to the fundamentals of stage combat in a short snappy crash course. Games and activities help students understand the basic principals of combat while also getting them working physically with each other.
The students are taught all the most fun and gory techniques such as safe kicks to the groin, eye gouges, strangles and good old fashioned upper cuts. The session concludes with a talk from a trained stunt professional and an open Q&A covering body burns, car crashes, stair falls and the exciting world of stage combat and stunts.
Price: £295 Plus Travel (Half Day 1-3 Hours)
£395 Plus Travel (Full Day)
fighting fit
Fighting Fit” combines elements of Kick Boxing, Ju Jitsu, Yoga and Aerobics to create a workshop dedicated to raising students physical awareness and fitness.
Unlike a sport, stage combat is entirely non-competitive, making it very appealing to those students who find it hard to participate in team or competition based activities. Using a combination of different training discipline’s students are encouraged to increase their coordination, endurance, core strength and cardiovascular fitness in order to perform a sequence of combat choreography.
The workshop consists of a half hour intensive workout based around developing the core skills of coordination, rhythm and control necessary for stage combat. The group is then broken into pairs and together the students learn a combat sequence focusing purely on choreography rather than performance. No one is asked to get up and perform and no one is put on the spot.
This focus on the purely physical elements of stage combat means students can usually grasp more complex choreography in a shorter time and gain confidence in their own body and abilities.
Price: £295 Plus Travel
Maximum Duration 2 hours