STAGE COMBAT X PRO WRESTLING

Accredited by the British Academy of Dramatic Arts

How is conflict most convincingly performed to an audience? Join us at Playfight London to explore the different ways in which Professional Wrestling & Stage Combat use aggression, suffering & vulnerability to tell compelling ‘hero's journey’ stories, through stunts, combat & action. Taught by world-renowned Independent Professional wrestler Thomas Dawkins (A.K.A Cara Noir) and Action Coordinator Kiel O’Shea, this one-week course will take a deep dive into how to perform and escalate the levels of tension between characters during conflict scenes for stage & screen.

Mon 17th - Fri 21st July 2023
10 am - 5 pm @ Playfight London Woolwich
Performance Exam Sunday 23rd July
10am - 4pm

£380 (40 hours teaching including examination fee)

*Accredited by the British Academy of Dramatic Combat


Who is this course for?
This course is open to pro wrestlers looking for stage combat training to enhance their acting choices in their wrestling performances, and anyone with a Standard Level Stage Combat qualification or above who has ever dreamed of stepping foot in the squared circle and testing their mettle in a wrestling match.

What will you learn?

Stage combat and wrestling work towards similar goals of building confidence, progressing skills and expressing creativity through performance. Both require the performer to develop their spatial awareness and how they communicate with a partner to tell a story of conflict, aggression, vulnerability and pain to an audience. On this one-week course, you will learn how to jump, roll, land and take bumps like a wrestler and explore how strikes, kicks, throws and submissions can be applied by actors and wrestlers in a variety of contexts to tell stories of conflict. Join us as we experiment with kinaesthetic feedback, pain signals and partner work to shape the ‘dance’ of wrestling whilst playing with the beats and rhythms of a choreographed fight to enhance and progress the narrative of a script. 

How will the course be taught?
This is an intensive course in which students will spend up to 40 hours learning to safely perform fight choreography in the prescribed fight discipline. The nature of this course is combat in performance, and as such it will also focus on acting skills, with students working on incorporating a combination of fight choreography and wrestling moves to create an examined sequence.

The course will culminate on day 7 in a choreographed partnered exam performance with a script, offering accreditation in Unarmed Combat* with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.

*Participants who have already obtained their standard level qualifications will be assessed for the Advanced Unarmed qualifications. Students with no prior stage combat training will work towards a Standard Level Unarmed qualification.

Pricing & Payment Plans

40 hours of coaching across 6 days: £380

Payment plans are available upon payment of an initial deposit of £130.

For full details and to set up your payment plan please email Tom@playfightlondon.com

  • Thomas Dawkins

    Thomas Dawkins (A.K.A Cara Noir) is a world-renowned independent professional wrestler and co-founder of Playfight. Famed for his creative storytelling, encyclopaedic wrestling knowledge and in-ring insanity, he originally studied martial arts, gaining his first of two black belts in Ren-Shin-Kai Karate in 2004. He then went on to study Jujitsu, Aikido, Muay Thai & Shoot Wrestling before taking part in a series of amateur MMA fights. As a Professional Wrestler, he has 13 years experience and performs internationally in Japan, North America and Europe. As well as working as a perfomer, he has also worked as a fight choreographer for TV and theatre and teaches the Grade Two, Grade Three and pro-level classes at Playfight.

  • Kiel O'Shea

    Kiel O'Shea is a qualified Stage Combat instructor with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat. Alongside teaching, Kiel works as an Action Coordinator and performer for stage, screen and motion capture and specialises in historic martial combat in performance. As an experienced historical interpreter, he combines his fight design skill to create lectures and presentations on historical martial art forms. From armour-clad knights to Georgian fencers, his work combines archival research with choreographic practices, using historical evidence to shed new light on the combatants of the past. Kiel is the Stage Combat instructor at Bath Spa University and regularly teaches at various drama schools including East 15’s BA Stage Combat and Acting course.

  • Claire Heafford

    Claire Heafford is a performance artist, professional wrestler and co-founder of Playfight. She makes work for theatre, dance and cabaret audiences using fight forms borrowed from Professional Wrestling. As a qualified gymnastics coach, she teaches Circus and Live art on the B.A Popular and Contemporary Performance at Rose Bruford College London. As a performance artist, she uses professional wrestling and apache routines as a choreographic practice to explore issues around gender, class and power. At Playfight she teaches Grade One Pro-Wrestling & High Flying and Mexican-style Lucha Libre.