An Interview with Fight Director Tony Simotes

Fight Director Tony Simotes talks to us about the process of the stage combat and physical storytelling in both The Three Musketeers and Henry IV, Part 1.

Orlando Shakes: Can you explain to us a little bit about what stage combat is?

Tony Simotes: The Three Musketeers is a nonstop action packed adventure. Almost every scene has some kind of physical storytelling experience. This is why I personally don’t use the term “stage combat” when I describe my work. What I am doing is creating physical text to clarify the story for the audience. “Combat” as a term I find limits one’s thinking into military and war scenarios when what I do is so much more involved in the actor’s craft.

Publicity photo by Christian Knightly features Benjamin Bonenfant and Tracie Lane.

Orlando Shakes: How do you prepare an actor who may have little stage combat experience?

Tony Simotes: The actors come in all shapes and sizes and their backgrounds are not all rooted in drama school “stage combat” experiences. There are various levels of comfort with the weapons but everyone has taken on the challenge to make this Musketeer World appear normal! We jumped in with fight choreography in the first week because there were so many scenes to address.

Orlando Shakes: How did you approach the choreography from the story standpoint? What is your process for developing the fights? Do you plan it out ahead, or do you wait until you are in the room?

Tony Simotes: I try not to choreograph before I’ve met the cast because abilities tend to shift how things are done. Also, gender changes in casting can mean that we look differently at how to tell a particular character’s story. I always want the actors to feel safe and comfortable in the storytelling. Thus, attention to the actor’s needs are paramount when developing the work. Certain moves, actions, and unthinkable events in the play can carry resonance and unquiet emotion for the actors. All this has to be discussed and agreed upon before we finalize the staging. Physical acting and physical text are powerful parts of our skill and craft. This is my work. Helping the actor achieve their choices safely and in a repeatable manner whether they have a sword, a knife, or a serving tray to wield around the stage.

Much of what I bring to the rehearsal room has everything to do with the physical gesture of the actors and their props. Whether it’s a serving tray, a fisherman’s net, a stool or box, a bottle of liquor or even the most obvious object—the sword—everything is a prop transformed into a weapon for either comic or tragic effect.

Orlando Shakes: How do you approach working with the other members of the creative team?

Publicity photo by Christian Knightly features Walter Kmiec, Benjamin Bonenfant, and Rodney Lizcano.

Tony Simotes: With a play that has so many physical scenes and large scale fights, I worked with Director Jim Helsinger to find ways to engage the audience’s imagination so that nothing would feel repeated or less than exciting in the audience’s eyes. Storytelling is the key. We have one of the best known adventure stories of all time, so thankfully we just have to support our playwright’s vision of this classic novel that she’s reimagined for the stage.

The scenic design is bold and full of surprises. The costumes and wigs will add dimension and historical realism to the tale. Costumes will also help define for the audience royalty and class versus servant class and soldiers. My job is to combine it all with the director’s vision and create the chaos, physical intrigue and tragedy that moves through, around, and over this world as the playwright reveals her adapted story in fight after fight after bar room fight! But remember, the boudoir can be a dangerous place to encounter a mistaken lover. Even a religious setting can prove fatal in this world.

Orlando Shakes: How do you develop the character through their fight styles? Does the actor impact/influence your choices?

Tony Simotes: Stage fighting is really physical acting. The actors have a strong physical text or “physical lines of dialogue”. The characters are defined by social status in both plays. Kings, princes, Musketeers, a knight, royalty, along with servants and thieves, all populate these plays. Each one of them has their own defining physical structure and way to fight. My job is to support their definition of character and create the physical storytelling that supports each play.

Orlando Shakes: What is your background with swordplay and how have you used it to your advantage?

Tony Simotes: I was attending NYU School of the Arts in their MFA Acting program. We were doing the War of the Roses (the three Henry VI plays plus Richard III) as our final third year project. Tina Packer was our director and B. H. Barry was the Fight Director—both new from England. Two of my roles required a lot of fighting. I was Richard, soon to be Richard III, and the Dauphin of France. I was chosen to be the “Fight Captain” and assisted on all things dealing with swords and the battles.

After the NYU production, my first professional experience upon graduation was with New York Shakespeare Festival playing in Henry V starring Meryl Streep and Michael Moriarty directed by the renowned Joseph Papp. More fights and battles! I continued my apprenticeship with B. H. Barry and assisted him for two years in classrooms and professional productions. Then I took my fight test with The Society British Fight Directors and passed with high marks. From there, my first large theater job was doing Fight Direction for Henry IV at the Denver Center in Colorado. From there it was a balancing act of Fight Direction and acting work taking me from coast to coast. Eventually, with B. H. Barry’s blessing, became the Master Teacher of Fight and Movement for Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires. I never left the theater but eventually started working in Television and Film. I also became a full professor and Director of University Theater in Wisconsin at Madison before taking on the Artistic Director’s role for Shakespeare & Company. Now here in Florida, Orlando Shakes has kept me busy in many ways supporting its season.

Orlando Shakes: What kind of weapons are we using? What are the weapons made out of to look real but remain safe?

Tony Simotes: Broadswords tend to be “hacking” weapons on a battlefield in Henry IV, Part 1 versus the Musketeer blades/sabers “slash” and “thrust” of the dueling barroom brawls of our swashbuckling The Three Musketeers.

Publicity photo by Christian Knightly features Benjamin Bonenfant and Walter Kmiec.

Broadswords might seem like an ancient weapon but they are currently ingrained in our modern culture through the Jedi’s light sabers! Broadswords have that same heroic attitude and dimension. Some of the weapons we’re using in our production are very close to what would have been used hundreds of years ago. Fired steel that’s hard tempered and worthy of battle. Ours are NOT sharpened but they are still very dangerous.

Orlando Shakes: Is there anything intriguing that an audience member should know about the swordplay they will experience? What is the mark of good stage combat? What should the audience be feeling or seeing?

Tony Simotes: For the audience it’s important that the fight sequences tell a story. If it’s all flash without heart then the movement is just mechanical and the audience’s imagination and engagement will not be fully realized. We have to care about the characters. Will they find love? Who will survive? How will this chaos end? But if there’s no one to root for or against, then the story will falter and the audience will not feel truly satisfied in the theatrical experience.

The audience hopefully will feel they are immersed in both worlds – The Three Musketeers‘ romance and adventures and the historical intrigues and comedy woven throughout Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1. If our physical text is as accurate as the written text we should have two compelling stories to enchant our audiences with.

Steel will swing and gleam in the lights. Shouts of war and battlefields will mix with the laughter of barroom brawls and slapstick. Through it all, we hope the audience will live these moments with us! So take our journey as Musketeers, soldiers, and ordinary people take sides in the name of honor to tell these classic tales of love, family, and sovereignty.

ABOUT TONY SIMOTES

Tony first worked with Orlando Shakes in 1997 when he directed The Merry Wives of Windsor. Over the years he’s choreographed many plays for Orlando Shakes ranging from I Hate Hamlet to Hamlet. Recent directing credits: The Comedy of Errors for Tennessee Shakespeare Company in Memphis; Born Yesterday; Fence; Constellations; The Cradle Will Rock for Rollins College; Constellations; The God Game; Painting Churches; The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife for Mad Cow Theatre here in Orlando. A founding member and former Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company who’s now happy to call Orlando home with his wife Lucy. Proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SDC.