5 ms·

An actor who was really stabbed on stage

39 points by smacktoward 7y ago

osamagirl69 7y ago
The show had recently moved to a new, slightly smaller, venue and due to schedule constraints did not have a chance to fully rehearse one of the swordfight scenes. During the first showing of the play one of the actors was struck in the face by a (presumably dulled) sword due to improper positioning of the actors (related to the slightly smaller set). This broke the orbital bone of his eye and caused brain damage. The show was immediately ended and he was hospitalized, but he was left with brain damage. After 7 months of PT he was able to walk again, but never fully recovered and was left with limited mobility and had trouble speaking. He still is acting to this day.
- steelframe 7y ago
  Thank you for the summary; you are the hero we all need. I wish HN had a policy to more strongly moderate posts that clearly have absolutely nothing to do with Hacker culture, but I suppose the noise is low enough for the current policy to not really be a problem?
  - nefitty 7y ago
    From my understanding, HN is for intellectually stimulating conversation. If it was 100% talk about database management and regex and software updates, that would not remain very engaging for long.
  - jdc 7y ago
    If you have another look at the guidelines you'll see that any article that arouses the community's curiousity is fair game.
    - steelframe 7y ago
      I know what the guidelines are. I'm questioning the guidelines.
  - ZanyProgrammer 7y ago
    HN does love brain injuries and anything to do with neuroscience generally (no matter how morbid the injury).
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      HN is not a person and no visitor reads or submits every post.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    You're free to hide such stories. This one's title made it very obvious what the subject matter would be.
- jfengel 7y ago
  due to schedule constraints did not have a chance to fully rehearse one of the swordfight scenes Wow, that is such a no-no. Fight choreographers drill into you that fight call is absolutely mandatory every day, even under identical circumstances. Fighting is dangerous even when you follow all of the rules. I once had an actor have to go to the hospital after a one-in-a-million bounce of a dropped weapon, which had been well blunted for the stage but still managed to cut into his arm. At that point it's in the range of ordinary accidents like tripping over your own feet, but the fighters have to be especially wary of it because there are so many more ways for things to go wrong. Numerous other safety measures also failed for this accident to occur. Both the one with the sword and the one stabbed failed to note the distance, and the one was swinging much, much too hard if it broke an eye bone. It sounds as if they were either fighting without supervision or got incredibly lazy about it. It needs to be investigated.
KyleBrandt 7y ago
Somewhat related, Brandon Lee was killed in a firearm accident filming "The Crow". A dummy bullet was stuck in the barrel, and a subsequent blank cartridge was fired, causing the dummy bullet to propelled. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee
- reitzensteinm 7y ago
  Also Jon-Erik Hexum, who played Russian Roulette between takes with a blank cartridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum
closeparen 7y ago
Responsible productions run a fight call, or a walkthrough of all the fight choreography in the show, before each and every performance. For a stage manager to bring up the curtain without having done this is a serious ethical violation. There would be fallout in the community, and likely official sanctions from the union. This is not okay.
- dahart 7y ago
  How common is it to use metal swords, as opposed to foam or cardboard?
  - nothrabannosir 7y ago
    Pervasive. Metal swords give a nice * ting * when they clash, and there is a whole discipline called stage combat precisely around dealing with how to fight safely using these weapons. There are steps you're meant to go through before and during each move. We were taught "CRAP": you Communicate your move, the opponent Retreats, you Advance / Attack into the now empty space, the opponent Parries "into" the attack, but their body is out of the way. The idea being here that if you forget the choreography at any point, you're still safe, because you can't attack anything before the receiver has retreated out of the place you're attacking. However, the trick is to do this as smoothly and fluidly as possible, because that sells. It takes practice and maintenance not to let the emotion and adrenaline of the scene take over, and stick to the process, while ignoring the muscle memory of the choreo. It's often not considered an important skill during an audition by casting directors or directors, relative to credits and actual acting, and therefore not by actors themselves. Result: dangerous fights. But cardboard or foam swords? No way. You want the audience to be on the edge of their seats, and that requires metal.
    - emmelaich 7y ago
      I'm sure you could make a metal sword which has blunt edges and a soft point.
      - 7y ago
youzicha 7y ago
Here's a similar example except the victim didn't survive: https://youzicha.tumblr.com/post/137883089259 https://youzicha.tumblr.com/post/137883089259
atgreen 7y ago
I saw an actor get stabbed for real on stage in a production of Julius Caesar at the Stratford theater (Ontario, Canada). It was a long time ago, and not googleable. IIRC the retractable knife was broken. It happens. He finished his scene, and returned as a corpse (acting!), before leaving for medical care.
jimbob45 7y ago
I’ve wondered if productions throughout history have used live actors in real deathmatches for shows. I know Apocalypse Now had real corpses procured for some of the scenes accidentally until someone made a correction.
- lvturner 7y ago
  Galidtorial combat and it's other side shows perhaps? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-432/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-432/
bradknowles 7y ago
I did SCA heavy weapons fighting many years ago. The rule I was taught was that real weapons plus real techniques equals real injuries and deaths. The SCA dealt with this issue by using real techniques with fake weapons — rattan swords, not metal. Some techniques were banned, too. Even with fake weapons, they were just too dangerous. The result was that a newbie could go out in armor and weapons and they might get bruised, but unlikely to get much worse than that. The Marklanders dealt with this issue by using fake techniques with real weapons — blunted metal, but still metal. But you needed many years of practice before you could go out there and do what amounted to an impromptu “dance” with swords and survive without choreographing everything within an inch of its life. Stage acting with metal weapons needs much choreography by people who know what they’re doing. And constant vigilance. I grew up in a theater family, and I refused to continue to participate in one amateur production where the director and the actors weren’t taking safety seriously. The director never forgave me for leaving, but I am confident that I was right.

39 points by smacktoward 7y ago

The show had recently moved to a new, slightly smaller, venue and due to schedule constraints did not have a chance to fully rehearse one of the swordfight scenes. During the first showing of the play one of the actors was struck in the face by a (presumably dulled) sword due to improper positioning of the actors (related to the slightly smaller set). This broke the orbital bone of his eye and caused brain damage. The show was immediately ended and he was hospitalized, but he was left with brain damage. After 7 months of PT he was able to walk again, but never fully recovered and was left with limited mobility and had trouble speaking. He still is acting to this day.

steelframe 7y ago
Thank you for the summary; you are the hero we all need. I wish HN had a policy to more strongly moderate posts that clearly have absolutely nothing to do with Hacker culture, but I suppose the noise is low enough for the current policy to not really be a problem?
- nefitty 7y ago
  From my understanding, HN is for intellectually stimulating conversation. If it was 100% talk about database management and regex and software updates, that would not remain very engaging for long.
- jdc 7y ago
  If you have another look at the guidelines you'll see that any article that arouses the community's curiousity is fair game.
  - steelframe 7y ago
    I know what the guidelines are. I'm questioning the guidelines.
- ZanyProgrammer 7y ago
  HN does love brain injuries and anything to do with neuroscience generally (no matter how morbid the injury).
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    HN is not a person and no visitor reads or submits every post.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  You're free to hide such stories. This one's title made it very obvious what the subject matter would be.
jfengel 7y ago
due to schedule constraints did not have a chance to fully rehearse one of the swordfight scenes Wow, that is such a no-no. Fight choreographers drill into you that fight call is absolutely mandatory every day, even under identical circumstances. Fighting is dangerous even when you follow all of the rules. I once had an actor have to go to the hospital after a one-in-a-million bounce of a dropped weapon, which had been well blunted for the stage but still managed to cut into his arm. At that point it's in the range of ordinary accidents like tripping over your own feet, but the fighters have to be especially wary of it because there are so many more ways for things to go wrong. Numerous other safety measures also failed for this accident to occur. Both the one with the sword and the one stabbed failed to note the distance, and the one was swinging much, much too hard if it broke an eye bone. It sounds as if they were either fighting without supervision or got incredibly lazy about it. It needs to be investigated.

KyleBrandt 7y ago

Somewhat related, Brandon Lee was killed in a firearm accident filming "The Crow". A dummy bullet was stuck in the barrel, and a subsequent blank cartridge was fired, causing the dummy bullet to propelled. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee

reitzensteinm 7y ago
Also Jon-Erik Hexum, who played Russian Roulette between takes with a blank cartridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum

closeparen 7y ago

Responsible productions run a fight call, or a walkthrough of all the fight choreography in the show, before each and every performance. For a stage manager to bring up the curtain without having done this is a serious ethical violation. There would be fallout in the community, and likely official sanctions from the union. This is not okay.

dahart 7y ago
How common is it to use metal swords, as opposed to foam or cardboard?
- nothrabannosir 7y ago
  Pervasive. Metal swords give a nice * ting * when they clash, and there is a whole discipline called stage combat precisely around dealing with how to fight safely using these weapons. There are steps you're meant to go through before and during each move. We were taught "CRAP": you Communicate your move, the opponent Retreats, you Advance / Attack into the now empty space, the opponent Parries "into" the attack, but their body is out of the way. The idea being here that if you forget the choreography at any point, you're still safe, because you can't attack anything before the receiver has retreated out of the place you're attacking. However, the trick is to do this as smoothly and fluidly as possible, because that sells. It takes practice and maintenance not to let the emotion and adrenaline of the scene take over, and stick to the process, while ignoring the muscle memory of the choreo. It's often not considered an important skill during an audition by casting directors or directors, relative to credits and actual acting, and therefore not by actors themselves. Result: dangerous fights. But cardboard or foam swords? No way. You want the audience to be on the edge of their seats, and that requires metal.
  - emmelaich 7y ago
    I'm sure you could make a metal sword which has blunt edges and a soft point.
    - 7y ago

youzicha 7y ago

Here's a similar example except the victim didn't survive: https://youzicha.tumblr.com/post/137883089259 https://youzicha.tumblr.com/post/137883089259

atgreen 7y ago

I saw an actor get stabbed for real on stage in a production of Julius Caesar at the Stratford theater (Ontario, Canada). It was a long time ago, and not googleable. IIRC the retractable knife was broken. It happens. He finished his scene, and returned as a corpse (acting!), before leaving for medical care.

jimbob45 7y ago

I’ve wondered if productions throughout history have used live actors in real deathmatches for shows. I know Apocalypse Now had real corpses procured for some of the scenes accidentally until someone made a correction.

lvturner 7y ago
Galidtorial combat and it's other side shows perhaps? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-432/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/1-432/

bradknowles 7y ago

I did SCA heavy weapons fighting many years ago. The rule I was taught was that real weapons plus real techniques equals real injuries and deaths. The SCA dealt with this issue by using real techniques with fake weapons — rattan swords, not metal. Some techniques were banned, too. Even with fake weapons, they were just too dangerous. The result was that a newbie could go out in armor and weapons and they might get bruised, but unlikely to get much worse than that. The Marklanders dealt with this issue by using fake techniques with real weapons — blunted metal, but still metal. But you needed many years of practice before you could go out there and do what amounted to an impromptu “dance” with swords and survive without choreographing everything within an inch of its life. Stage acting with metal weapons needs much choreography by people who know what they’re doing. And constant vigilance. I grew up in a theater family, and I refused to continue to participate in one amateur production where the director and the actors weren’t taking safety seriously. The director never forgave me for leaving, but I am confident that I was right.