BWW Blog: Samantha Tirrell - Backbeard's Birthday Fight

According to page 136, paragraph four, subsection C of the Pirate Handbook, on a pirate's "older-than-ninth birthday," his trusty crew must grant him a fight! That is exactly what happened this week at the Theatre Institute at Sage in our staging of Backbeard's own birthday fight, an exciting 10-pirate quarrel with the hairiest pirate who ever lived at the center of it all.

Choreographing Backbeard's birthday fight was guest choreographer Michael Whitney, whose previous credits include serving as the dance/fight captain, swing, and assistant director on the national tour of Beauty and the Beast, as well as the assistant director and fight coordinator for the Elf national tour. We are absolutely thrilled to have Michael on the Backbeard team, and it was fun to see him at work with Backbeard's crew in his establishment of their tumultuous tactics, which they'll use in their attempt at conquering their captain for his birthday brawl.

The process by which this enormous fight was staged was particularly enthralling. Michael Whitney came in with a fun and thoughtful framework for the squabble, most of which was easily manifested. However, as with any pre-blocking or pre-choreographing for the theatre, pieces of it were not entirely obtainable, making for a fun period of discovery with the ten cast members bringing it to life, who then had the opportunity to play with some fun fight choreography in the quest to make Backbeard's birthday ruckus as thrilling as possible. After some structural staging without music, the choreography was fine-tuned to make the fight work inherently rhythmic per the request of Backbeard's composer and director Michael Musial, assisting Michael Whitney in his staging of the birthday fight from behind the piano, where he was composing the fight's underscoring as it was conceived and devised with the cast. At the end of the night, we had an impressive pirate rumble between Backbeard and his crew, as well as a fun new piece of music which will be penned and added to Backbeard's score.

What is uplifting and inspiring about our art form is the fundamental truth that a rehearsal period is a period of endless creation, where artists gather to sculpt, frame, and flesh out the work of other artists. More often than not, we do not get the opportunity to work alongside the artists whose work we are sculpting, as they are far removed from their material once it is published, licensed, and ready to be performed by theatre companies. It is exciting to be in a rehearsal room where both parties of this theatrical alliance --the creators and the sculptors--are working alongside one another, creating in tandem, building art from its foundations, and developing their art together. There is an inspiring mutual dependence developing in our rehearsal space. The production and creative teams are working to make sure that the material is innately theatrical while also ensuring that the piece's inherent theatricality serves both the music and text of the piece. The nature of this collaboration paired with the crackling energy surrounding Backbeard has us all leaving rehearsal refreshed, exhilarated, and ready for more.

We continue staging Backbeard this week! Stay tuned for more updates from the rehearsal room and for a fun look into the artistic processes of Backbeard's designers!