Theatre Professor Gets Creative to Teach Stage Combat Remotely

April 14, 2020, 4:55 p.m. ·

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As universities continue remote learning, some subjects are more difficult to teach online than others. One theatre professor at Nebraska Wesleyan is finding solutions to keep his students learning.


Ryan Kathman is an assistant professor of acting and directing at Nebraska Wesleyan University. This semester his teaching load includes acting, directing, and stage combat.

When NWU ended in-person classes, he had time before campus closed to check out swords to his students. The second half of the class deals with armed combat. He also recorded some instructional videos, including a fight students will replicate for their final project.

Kathman compared teaching students stage combat remotely to teaching ballroom dancing to individual people without partners. Fortunately, students have found ways around that problem. Some are roommates with their classmates. Others have taught family members some stage combat basics so they can be their opponents in staged fights.

In Kathman’s directing class, students would usually be working on directing a scene performed by other students. During remote learning, some students are directing family members instead. Others have chosen to film themselves performing all the characters in a scene.

Kathman said he’s happy with the solutions his students have found.

“While it is not something I would ever want to do again, and I think my students would agree, I have been pleasantly surprised with how we have kind of thought outside the box and tried a few different unique strategies,” Kathman said. “And I still feel like that hopefully they’re managing to get a decent level of quality education.”

Students are recording some final performances and doing others live over video chat.