Stratford Article on Daniel Levinson

My mentor, Daniel Levinson, has spent the last few months choreographing the stage combat for Julius Caesar at the Stratford Festival. He is also the associate fight director for Macbeth.

The Stratford Festival website recently ran an article about Daniel and his work. It’s a brief look at the ideas that a fight master can bring to a show, and a little about the process of building a fight for a specific production. Here’s a little excerpt from that article:

Stratford Shakespeare Festival – Scene Notes

At its most basic level, the job is to choreograph fight scenes. But to do this effectively you need more than an arsenal of combat skills. You need an actor’s understanding of character, a director’s eye for story and a dancer’s feel for movement.

Go read the whole interview, because Daniel is articulate yet brief in his comments. In every interview I’ve read with him, he has so clearly captured the importance of stage combat and its effective use on stage. There is also great footage of a fight rehearsal embedded on the site. Stratford.ca: “Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out?”

I’ve always admired Daniel for his pragmatic approach to every problem and his attention to what really matters. As you read in the interview, and saw in the video, he does not go on at length, but chooses his words well. He also doesn’t cloud the issue, but is always clear yet friendly and very funny.

He’s everything I aspire to be in a teacher and fight director.

Daniel’s website is RapierWit.com, which details the goings-on at his studio, Rapier Wit, located near the corner of Bathurst and Wellington in Toronto.