"Shoot, if fellers really hit each other, there'd be eyeballs all over the place!"

The Laredo Kid expresses his comical fight philosophy in The Majestic Kid, a University Resident Theater Company play directed by George Brown.

Brown, graduate student and artistic director of the Theater 100 Company, is an expert in stage combat. During an interview in his closet-size office, Brown pulled out a loaded golf bag from the corner of the room, unzipped the sack and withdrew a heavy metal broadsword. "Feel the weight of this!" Brown said. He once wielded the sword on stage for 15 minutes while enacting Shakespeare's Macbeth.

"My favorite weapon is the case of rapiers. Two swords appear as one, and fit into the same sheath. The interlocking of the trick weapons provides a surprise," Brown said, as he girded his waist with the swords.

He said others prefer that he use the sword and shield, because of his powerful build. The shield, called a buckler, is actually a small hubcap. Although the buckler is thrust at the victim six inches from the body, Brown thumps himself to create the contact noise. The victim reacts, selling the illusion.

Stage combat gives the illusion of fighting but also involves great danger, he said. "(It is) highly physical, almost like a sport."

Once during combat fighting, Brown suffered a severe injury when the impact of a rifle butt caused a tumor. However, he said most accidents are athletic-related, such as torn ligaments and pulled muscles.

Stage fight choreography maximizes performance and minimizes injury. Brown trains actors in safety and the techniques of fighting. "If one actor is hurt, the whole show results in disorder," Brown said.

"The focus is not the thrill of combat, but the aesthetics of fighting. It is not for self-enjoyment, it is for the audience," Brown said.

The actor must learn with his muscles as well as his mind. The actions are repeated continuously until they become automatic, Brown said. The fluidity of the movements gives credibility to the actions.

Brown has choreographed battle scenes and swordfights in two student films. He said he finds the movies easier to work with than plays, because the camera does all of the work. A fight illusion can stand alone in a movie, but requires continuous rehearsal to integrate in a play. He said he prefers stage to film; he enjoys the fine art more than the technical staging.

Brown discovered stage combat by accident while in search of a hands-on workshop for a college course at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. He first learned the basics of weapons use and hand-to-hand combat in the Navy, yet he said he did not understand it in the artistic sense that he does now.

Brown is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, a national organization that certifies the teaching of stage combat. The society takes careful aim to ensure that everyone is qualified as licensed. The necessary skills are judged by professional opinion, Brown said.

A peaceful person, Brown said, "I hate violence. I think it's ridiculous. But it is something that drama expresses."

Brown said he feels the University acting program is excellent.

"It is one of the best kept secrets as far as acting and technical training are concerned. Selectivity is the secret. The University selects quality students for the program and gets them out working," he said.

"An illusion can be as simple as a slap," Brown said. The type of illusion needed depends upon the play. Brown looks at the scene and choreographs the combat accordingly. The Majestic Kid features a "thock" fight, a comical violence used in the movies. A punch is thrown outside of the body line, six to eight inches from the body, as the attacker yells "THOCK!" to feign impact.

Craig Wallace, Aaron Weiss in the play, said he believes Brown had the thock fight planned from the beginning. "George always brings a zest to a production. He has great positivity, and always makes the actors hyped. You want to do well, for George."

When asked where he thought Brown would go from here, Robert Clendenin, The Majestic Kid's Judge Finley, said "to heaven. He works at six or seven jobs, teaches three days a week, and is happiest doing a ton of different things."

"I can see George having his own theater in ten years," Wallace said.

Running his own theater is one of Brown's goals. "I'm working on getting a position with a resident theater, and someday I'd like to run my own," he said.

Helen Manfull, director of Theater 100, said "I predict we'll hear about him in American theater. He's hungry to learn. I think we're all going to know about George Brown."