About

I am a theatre professional, and in Vancouver that means that I also work in the film industry. I’m a man of action in that my speciality is stage combat and I tackle new projects without hesitation. But get in a conversation, and you’ll find I’m a thinker, too. Here’s a breakdown of what I do:

Stage Combat: PlayFighting

I have a great love of martial arts, as a practitioner and an observer, and the best combination of that with my love of theatre is the illusion of violence on stage. I am a certifed Instructor with Fight Directors Canada, and teach stage combat to actors in Vancouver at Academie Duello. I also run the FDC website. Visit PlayFighthing.ca to read about my favourite topics in staged violence, and get information about classes and productions.

Bartitsu

I also teach Bartitsu, the fighting style of Sherlock Holmes. It’s a mix of Victorian-era antagonistics to enable the gentleman to overcome ruffians using bare-knuckles, a stout walking-stick and clever jiu jitsu.

Awesome Hobbies

Memorize Shakespeare

(No longer supported)

Actors need to be able to say their lines is Shakespeare’s plays fluently and confidently. They also need to learn them early in the rehearsal process so they can make acting choices without stumbling over the words. So I invented ScenePartner, which is pre-recorded sides in mp3 format. You download your character’s lines, and play them to yourself on a digital audio player, repeat after the bell. It drills the lines into your head as sounds, so that you always pronounce them properly (recordings are in neutral North American accent, and with no emotional weight).

Visit Memorize Shakespeare for free tips and Shakespeare auditions.

Future Studies

I am a forward-thinker in the sense that I try to inform myself about the trends in the world today and what they mean for the foreseeable future. Most people plan their lives with the assumption that the world will not fundamentally change over the course of their lifetime. I think that that was true in centuries past, but today we are facing two reasons it will not be true for us.

1. We will have much longer lifespans, and be alive to see more change than previous generations.
2. Technology plays a larger role in our lives than previously, and easily outpaces biological evolution
3. The reason why technology accelerates (and that’s a good thing) is because of cooperation. Social revolution is beginning, against competition and exclusion, and this clash will dominate our lives in one way or another

So, I post news items and opinion pieces that I come across on the net that pertain to our accelerating future.

Games

Finally, when I get some free time, I enjoy games as a diversion, but I’m not a huge gamer. I enjoy Japanese Go, the Civilization games, and non-D&D role playing, among others. To combine my hobbies, I’m writing a post-cyberpunk role-playing game.