Actors wage all-out brawl; no injuries reported

Kym Frank recoiled as Patrick Miller's first punch caught her squarely on her jaw. She groaned and Miller righted himself for the second attack, sending Frank to the ground with a wincing blow to the stomach. Miller slowed to wink at his audience, which was spread across the stage in Irvine Auditorium yesterday afternoon. "I love beating up women," he said, scowling in mock rage. Miller demonstrated the sequence again, showing the 20 gathered students how to imitate the punches, grunts and groans without even making contact. Miller, who plays Romeo in the Actors from the London Stage's performance of Romeo and Juliet, led a stage fighting workshop yesterday as part of the group's week-long academic outreach program. The British actor taught the fundamentals of stage fighting -- including techniques for slapping, face and stomach punching and hair-pulling. Miller studied stage fighting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England, where the subject was structured into his training, he said. He added that the story-telling surrounding a stage fight is more important than the fight itself. "It's all about how you set it up -- that's the magic of acting," Miller explained. "On stage and on film, you must tell a story, and the fight must progress the rest of the story." Students paired off in order to practice moves and vent their aggressions. Frank, a College senior and director of Without A Net, Penn's improvisational comedy troupe, was paired with Miller. "I totally trusted him," she said. "He has complete control over everything he does." Miller stressed that students must keep a safe distance when attempting mock punches and slaps. A heated dispute over Coca-Cola versus Pepsi caused a stage fight to break out between College senior Eric Conner and his partner. "Stage fighting takes as much effort or more than real fighting, because of the control over the body that's involved," Conner said. According to Thea Diamond, director of education at the Annenberg Center, five actors from the London stage have performed a Shakespeare play at the University during the past few years. "These actors are the creme de la creme of the British stage," Diamond said. In addition to yesterday's workshop, the five actors have participated in classroom activities, readings, workshops and receptions with students and faculty members. Miller said he enjoyed watching he students have a good time without hurting anyone. "I loved how people just threw themselves into it," he said.