ABSTRACT
I t is interesting to notice that in many acting training programs stage combat is taught as a separate subject from acting-as a technique that the actors should, after a semester or two, be able to integrate into their pool of skills and work into their craft. This is like giving an actor one or two semesters of beginning Russian and then assuming they can now mix this knowledge with their craft and do Chekov in the original language. This assumption is unreal. The artist, if they studied well, may be able to struggle through the text, but they will be so overpowered by the language that their craft will be suppressed as they try to master the intricacies of the foreign tongue. Because the process of acting a fight is similar to acting within a foreign language, the final product is often the same, ungrounded and shallow.
